It was argued in the paper that the dichotomy between conflict prevention and prevention of relapse seems to be the moot point of where emerging actors should intervene. The issues and trends discussed in the document demonstrate a greater leaning by emerging actors to lean towards conflict prevention while paying keen attention on relapse prevention where traditional peace building actors are experiencing challenges relating to resource mobilization and how to coherently coordinate the limited or available resources to prevent the cyclical nature of conflicts in post-conflict states. Africa and the international peace building fraternity at large face numerous constraints and need to take expeditious coordinated action in the pursuit of the 2020 Silencing the Guns agenda of the African Union. Therefore, greater attention should be given to resolving intractable conflicts while improving the local infrastructure of fragile states to hedge the risks of succumbing to conflicts. To this end, there is need for the African Union and its multiple peace enforcement partners to engage in a massive drive towards investing in the manufacturing and processing industries that would add value to Africa’s raw materials; reduce
unemployment and dissuade youth from being lured into rebellions. To achieve this, capacity skills development and productivity enhancement support programmes need to be collaboratively put in place with the African Union (AU) championing the drive to encourage member states to streamline these needs in
their domestic policy development frameworks as a means of boosting Africans’ income purchasing power,
increase national domestic revenue and by extension reduce the AU’s dependence on external funding thanks to states timeously meeting their contributions to the AU operational budget.
