"The countries of the IGAD region have suffered terribly from conflict and natural disaster, setting back their development for years and perhaps even decades. The United Nations strongly supports initiatives at conflict prevention, management and resolution, and hopes that the account of IGAD's efforts presented in this book will help other countries and regions looking to find the path of enduring peace and sustainable development."

     —Kofi A. Annan,
Secretary General, United Nations.

"As early warning and conflict prevention move from the podium to the drawing board, this book shows how some outside analysts and supportive officials facilitated the taking of promising steps by an African sub-regional body (IGAD) to link civil society and governments in a conflict monitoring system even in the worst-case context where member states are still waging wars and have hostile relations.

By showing how this group tackled the problem of the lack of political will through a consultative and gradualist strategy, the book provides indispensable guidance for multilateral organizations and NGO's who seek to translate into practical actions the notion that some wars might be stoppable before they even start."

     —Micheal S. Lund,
International conflict analyst and author of Preventing Violent Conflicts (1996)

The increasing diffusion of conflicts across borders and the complex linkages between their causes and actors have created conflict systems that demand innovative institutional frameworks. To date, sub-regional and regional early warning conflict prevention and management initiatives have been marked by a stress on largely formal, top-down intergovernmental structures. In the Horn of Africa, which has come to be defined by the frequency and intensity of its violent conflicts, an alternative conflict management regime that seeks to build on local capacity and is based on inclusive and collaborative decisionmaking has emerged.

This publication outlines the process of developing a conflict early warning and response mechanism (CEWARN) for the Horn of Africa's sub-regional organization, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The development of the conceptual and operational framework for CEWARN took place over a period of two years, combining a process of in-depth research with one of regional consultation involving a variety of stakeholders.

CATEGORIES:

Politics/Africa