Beyond Liberal and Local Peacebuilding- Three Critical Framings to Approach the Complexity of Conflict and Fragility in Africa

Abstract

The search for more relevant and effective approaches to building and sustaining peace, preventing violent conflict and reducing fragility is on, with growing cognisance of the failures and limitations of liberal peacebuilding and the ‘local turn’. This paper explores critiques of these and lessons arising in the context of the ever-increasing complexity of the conflict-fragility-violence landscape. Three conceptual and practical framings are examined: endogenous hybridity; transformation; and resilient social contracts. These framings have emerged in the last decade in the peacebuilding field and wider interdisciplinary scholarship and policy arenas. The paper argues that these three framings reflect both realities and aspirations on the ground in Africa, and are giving rise to practical and relevant pathways that hold promise for achieving and sustaining peace.