International IDEA launched the French translation of its Handbook Reconciliation After Violent Conflict in Dakar, Senegal in May 2005. At the occasion of the launch, IDEA organised a seminar on reconciliation after violent conflict, which was hosted by the Gorée Institute, and looked into topics such as current reconciliation needs and challenges in Senegal (Casmance region), Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire and Guinée Bissau, and the experience of two major regional peacebuilding initiatives – the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) and a regional Transitional Justice network co-initiated by the Ghana-based Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).
The seminar brought together representatives of the Senegalese authorities, local NGOs and academics, international organizations, including UNDP Cote D’Ivoire and l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and local and regional NGOs from Francophone West African countries.
In addition Pierre Schori, the recently appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cote D’Ivoire, participated in a lively discussion of the current situation and prospects for peace and reconciliation in the country. The event was well covered in the Senegalese media - an indication of the topical resonance of the issues in focus both in Senegal and the wider region.
The seminar resulted in a rich and nuanced dialogue on key regional and context-specific challenges to promoting sustainable reconciliation processes. The discussions will feed into future reconciliation-directed work by IDEA in the region. Notably, participants identified major reconciliation-related challenges in the region, including:
- A lack of regional early warning capacity with respect to areas of potential and/or emerging conflict,
- Prevailing lack of consensus regarding ‘the rules of the political game’
- Lack of capacity for addressing reconciliation issues among local civil society organizations
- Differing definition and understandings of key concepts involved. In particular reconciliation is widely interpreted as meaning ‘achieving political compromise’, without due recognition of its deeper, long-term aspects.
- Prevailing conditions of poverty, and in some cases, structural injustice in the region.
- Lack of transparency in electoral processes throughout the region and an absence of genuine adherence to the rule of law.
- Increased and often uncontrolled migration flows.
The participants made recommendations to IDEA, regional organizations and the international community regarding reconciliation needs, as well as specific suggestions for activities.
In addition, IDEA held a meeting prior to the seminar to brief IDEA member states and other representatives of the international community based in Dakar on the recent establishment of an IDEA regional office in Accra, Ghana, the Institute’s developing work programme in West Africa and to assess current reconciliation-related challenges in the region. The meeting, hosted by the Swedish Ambassador to Senegal and attended by Ambassadors and representatives of 10 countries, demonstrated a keen interest in IDEA’s reconciliation work in particular and a desire among member states and others to develop dialogue and contact with the Institute’s regional programme in future.
For further information contact: Mark Salter, Senior Programme Officer, Democracy & Conflict Management (DCM) Programe (m.salter@idea.int) and Kenneth Mpyisi, West Africa Programme Manager (k.mpyisi@idea.int)
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