This policy research seminar was held in Cape Town, from 19 to 20 March 2016 and convened about 30 prominent African and Western policymakers, scholars, and civil society activists to assess the major obstacles to peace and security in the Great Lakes region. From these discussions, the meeting considered five key questions: What are the main security challenges in the Great Lakes region, and how can they be resolved? What have been the main security and governance challenges in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Rwanda, and how can domestic, regional, and external actors manage these challenges more effectively? What impact will the refusal of leaders in the Great Lakes region to abide by constitutional mandates have on the political and economic stability, as well as security issues, in the region? How effective have the peace-building roles of the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) been in the Great Lakes region? and; What actions can key domestic, regional, and external actors take to promote sustainable democratic
governance and economic development in the Great Lakes region? Finally, the March 2016 policy meeting developed ten concrete recommendations at the seminar focused on seven broad themes:
Security and Governance in the Great Lakes Region; the cases of the DRC; Burundi; Rwanda; and Uganda; as well as the role of the United Nations; and that of the European Union, in the Great Lakes region.
