SECURITY, STABILITY, DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABLE
1
DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
BY
2
AYODELE ADERINWALE AND OLUMIDE AJAYI
1. Introduction:
The last decade has been for Africa a period of accelerated economic growth. Many
pundits are agreed that the full integration of the continent into the global economy is only
a question of time. Many African countries have been able to maintain impressive
economic growth rates like their counterparts in Asia and Latin America. Over the last ten
years, many of them witnessed significant increases in direct and foreign portfolio
investments, terms-of-trade gains, stronger private capital inflows, increased foreign
official aid. Recent statistics and reports reveal that comparatively more African states
are doing well. According to the World Bank Africa Now report, “Growth has been
sustained in Africa over the past decade.” Some 17 countries in Africa, home to 36
percent of the continent’s population, have been growing at an average rate of 5.5
percent per annum in the last 10 years.
While domestic forces have been the major influence on the political and economic
reform in developing countries in the 1980s, the global movement towards greater
freedom from the arbitrary power of the state and external financial pressures have also
played a powerful role. While in Latin America, a major influence was the drying up of
access to international finance after 1982, donor pressure for economic and political
reform was a key factor in sub-Saharan Africa.
Since 1989, there has been some political liberalisation following initial popular protests.
Elections in Africa have become even more frequent in the continent. The World Bank
report also observed that Africa is making more active reforms than even the Middle
East, Latin American or Asia.34 Although Africa’s nascent democracy is confronted with
enormous security challenge, which in some countries has truncated the democratic
1
Paper presented at the AFRICANDO 2010: Focusing on the Stability/Security Nexus to Development, Miami,
Florida, September 28, 2010
2
Executive Director and Deputy Director of Africa Leadership Forum, Ota, Nigeria (E-Mail:
aderinwale@africaleadership.org OR ajayi@africaleadership.org)
3
Africa Leadership Forum, Ota, Nigeria
4
Africa Now, Building A better Future, The World Bank Africa Region Report 2007
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processes, coups and unconstitutional changes of governments are increasingly
becoming a misnomer on the continent.
From the 1990s, development agencies began to set conditions for both political and
economic reform before releasing aids to developing countries. Governance emerged as
a central issue and emphasis had to shift from security assistance to good governance.
The global refocusing of development agenda also had a significant impact for the
African region in many respects. First, it lent credence to and intensified civil society
agitations for inclusive government and helped in spreading the wave of political
liberalization across the region. Unfortunately, some of these experienced reversals
within a short period.
While this provides a basis of optimism, internal wrangling over the control of access to
economic resources and the power struggle amongst the power elite may undermine the
achievements of the past decade and plunge many countries into armed conflict. These
power contestations over the control of economic resources have culminated in reversals
of the political gains in some countries – Niger, where the incumbent President
undermined political processes in order to maintain a strong hold on the state resources.
Madagascar, Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe provide ample examples of regime
perpetuation attempts across the region.
One of the paradoxes of Africa’s recent economic growth and development is the
accompanying high incidence of poverty and youth un-employment. Basu et al had
earlier confirmed this as being part of the challenges facing Africa asserting that “Despite
some upturn in economic growth rates, poverty is still widespread and in many parts of
the continent extremely acute. Investment remains subdued, limiting efforts to diversify
economic structures and boost growth. Furthermore, a number of countries have only
recently emerged from civil wars that have severely set back their development efforts
while, sadly, new armed conflicts have erupted in other parts of the continent. These
conflicts and other adverse factors, notably poor weather conditions and a deterioration
in the terms of trade, have led to some loss in economic momentum in the region over
the past two years. 5Further more evidences from the field showed that youth
unemployment continue to grow at an alarming rate further compounding the security
and poverty incidence. For example the ADI for 2008/09 observed that “the share of
unemployed youth among the total unemployed can be as high as 83% in Uganda, 68%
in Zimbabwe, and 56% in Burkina.6
5
Promoting Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa Learning What Works by Anupam Basu, Evangelos A. Calamitsis,
Dhaneshwar Ghura ©2000 International Monetary Fund August 2000
6
The World Bank (2008): Youth and Employment in Africa: The Potential, the Problem and the Promise,
ADI(2008/09)
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The glaring lack of capacity or will to synthesize existing socio-political and economic
paradigms into the interest of the African people7 predictably filled the sprawling
undulating political terrain of the African continent with an endless spirals of crises, orgies
of violence, genocide, disintegration or either of these. The end of the Cold War, having
removed the proxy cover for leadership and administrative inadequacies in and around
Africa, also confronted the continent and its leadership with a discernible and
demonstrable sense of loss of confidence in the various institutions of governance
generally and fundamentally even in the basic nature and rationality of their existence as
institutions of states8 .
More importantly, the challenges of peace and security became almost intractable.
Indeed the premium on social and political stability was rising rapidly at a time when the
changing international political framework had begun to marginalize the African continent
and its concerns. There was also a growing awareness that the progress that the
continent had recorded in the sphere of economic development left much to be desired
and that poor economic performance underlined the rising wave of domestic conflicts9
Expectedly, thoughts about a new framework and strategies for effective response to the
newer emerging critical challenges must recognize the need for closer linkage between
the requirements of economic development and the objective demands of peace and
security. With a clear understanding that the only modality for confronting headlong the
challenges of the new era must be one that integrates demands in both areas.
2. Review of the Security Experience: 1960-2010:
For a larger part of post independence African Political history, the narrow militaristic
conception of security was the dominant paradigm and thus defined the approaches,
policies and actions that were taken to redress perceived situations and instances of
insecurity within the continent. Even within such a narrow and nihilistic conception of
security, the security imperative remained so central to government thinking and policy
7
How else can we explain that in over fifty years of independence Africa has failed to reduce the incidence of malaria and
diarrhoea infections, which can be controlled, at least in urban areas, by providing clean water and doing away with
unsanitary conditions such as open sewers? Why have most of the Sahelian states failed to implement mass vaccination
against group meningococcal meningitis when a relatively cheap vaccine does exist and can prevent thousands of deaths
when administered before the onset of the harmattan?
8
During the decades of the 80’s alone, it is estimated that conflict and violence claimed over 3 million lives with
160 million Africans living in countries in the throes of civil war. (Sam G. Amoo; The Challenge of ethnicity and
Conflicts in Africa, the need for a new paradigm, UNDP Emergency Response Division).
9
Ibid. Sam G. Amoo Out of 35 genocides and politicides recorded around the world, 11 occurred in Africa
compared with 24 elsewhere in the world. At the beginning of the 1990s, Africans accounted for 43 percent of
the global population of refugees, most of them fleeing from political violence and many of the dying from
famine, exposure and diseases. The majority were women and children.
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that it often imposes a heavy burden on the national treasury, with security and defence
establishments ranking first or second in budgetary allocations in many countries. With
the thawing of the spectre of the Cold War, the nature, causes and origin of most of these
conflicts was put in clearer relief. The sheer injustices, the greed and sheer mindlessness
of the actors and the savage nature of the conflicts were to be seen for what they were.
For several countries, low intensity conflict characterised the decolonization process and
provided segments of the countries with a preferred mode of referent for change of
leadership. Africa was soon to witness a series of coup d’etats, counter coups often
degenerating into civil wars and other wars of attrition. The international community
acquiesced in most instances as the dominant paradigm was the need for the party of
order and alliances within the ideological divide. Dictatorship and autocracy with its
attendant paraphernalia of bad governance became the hallmark of African political
structures and processes.
The proliferation of small arms following numerous conflicts across the continent, armed
rovers and bandits made life hazardous in several cities and towns across the continent.
In several instances, internal security forces such as the law enforcement agencies found
themselves against adversaries who are better armed. It came to be symptomatic of the
crisis of development in most African countries, where a large number of young people
out of school or employment and without hope for the future can easily be tempted into a
life of adventure in armed and criminal bands. It also put starkly the limited capacity of
the state which was often times accentuated and aggravated by the demonstrable inept
often times bungling management of the economy.
That countries rich in natural resources should have so many young people
involved in armed conflicts is a typical illustration of the failure of the African state
in dealing with the basic needs of the people. Neglect of these needs has often
resulted in identity-based and other internal conflicts, whose violence destroys existing
capacity for development accompanied by the destruction of the natural environment, the
physical infrastructure and invaluable social services further reducing the capacity of the
state and the economy to meet the most basic human needs. A major cause of conflict,
poverty, became ironically its inevitable result. The cycle had been commenced,
breaking it became a challenge.
It is therefore not surprising that the number of violent conflicts has increased during the
last twenty years as a result of the deteriorating economic situation. In many countries,
rural dwellers experienced declines in real incomes and shortages of public services and
manufactured consumer goods. In the urban sector, the decline in formal sector
employment and real wages led to a phenomenal rise in open unemployment and the
expansion of the informal sector. The informal sector of the economy rose and led to
ascendancy and increase in the weighting and the strategic relevance of the informality
at the level of the political. That also marked the beginning of the descent of states and
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led to what is today described as the criminalization of the state in some parts of Africa.
Even the very rich, whose very wealth is built on either the injustices of the past or the
privatization of the state and its resources, were either consumed by the crisis or were
able to withstand the crisis at grave personal costs.
To discerning observers, conflicts due to economic grievances by themselves alone
seldom degenerate into durable violent confrontations. It is when such grievances are
tied to political factors, or are reinforced by ethnic and religious factors, that large-
scale popular insurrections are possible. In some countries, the failure of the state to
ensure regular payment of salaries and scholarships has often brought it into violent
confrontations with public sector employees and students. In other depressing situations,
pay-related mutinies by soldiers have been known to deteriorate into large-scale
violence. While access to the state and the resources under its control is generally the
bone of contention in violent conflicts in Africa, there are wider social processes at work,
which determine the social and political significance of identities through which conflicts
manifest themselves. The nature of the economic and social environment and the mode
of political governance clearly determine the causes and dynamics of conflicts in Africa.
Whether they are related to entitlements or to real or perceived oppression based on
identity, conflicts become virulent and largely intractable once to assume the toga of
identity. A crucial, but often ignored source of these types of conflicts in Africa is the
continuous breakdown of elite consensus.
The organization and sometimes functioning of any society is often a reflection of the
subjective preferences of the dominant fraction of the hegemonic faction of the
power elite. Given the variegated nature of the African power elite, deep-seated
differences often occur on modalities for management of society. Inability to assume
dominance or hegemony tends to be ameliorated by a resort to other extra legal and
often non-rational means of resolving differences.
Identities in themselves do not cause conflict. They are simply an organizational arena
for collective action for defending or promoting the interests of a group. In situation of
relative security, a group’s identity is not a matter of particular concern to its members.
Identity becomes an issue when a threat arises, real or imagined, against a group’s
interests, security or its very existence, that loyalty to and solidarity with fellow group
members become paramount. The growing number of identity-based conflicts in Africa
today is undoubtedly a function of the economic and political crisis in the continent. The
most common of these consist of inter-ethnic conflicts, which can be divided into three
broad types, inter-communal conflicts; rebellion by ethnic minorities; ethnic wars or “last
solution” initiatives of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The most dangerous type of internal conflict in Africa today is often times
externally driven. It has to do with resource-based wars in which domestic warlords are
aligned with networks of the International financial criminality bent on plundering the
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country involved of precious metals and other natural resources. The term “conflict
diamonds” is now famous for its connotation of the way in which states, Mafia groups,
banks, transnational companies and arms and drug dealers make profits off crises in
different parts of Africa. This has led some to discussions about the criminalization of the
African states and economies.
Given its inevitable cross-border implications the resources – base war provides the
transition from international to sub-regional conflict. Whereas boundary disputes
were the major cause of interstate conflict during the 1960s and 1970s, the plunder of
resources and the cross-border violence associated with it, are likely to bring about
military confrontation between states today. With the events of September the 11th 2001
providing an added dimension, the activities of non state actors, the disintegration of
neighbours states, increasing refugee problems, the situation seem to get increasingly
complex, global and seemingly unmanageable. In a similar vein, September 11 might
ultimately provoke the seeds from democratic reversals as extremist elements might take
advantage of the intricacies of the liberties of liberal politics to further increase the
sources of stability which in turn provokes harsh and authoritarian policies.
The degradation of the environment, which creates health problems and affects people’s
ability for decent livelihood, is aggravated by the prevalence of poverty in Africa. The
need to eke a living in difficult circumstance often forces people to adopt survival
strategies that may result in environmental degradation through tree cutting, over-
grazing, over cropping, reduced fallow and water pollution. Lacking access to electricity
and facing ever-increasing kerosene prices, many poor people must turn to wood fuel for
cooking and heating requirements.
Africa at independence came into an international economic environment designed
neither with her input nor with her interests at heart. Unfortunately, the continent and its
leadership did not understand the system sufficiently to harness, the limited and
contracting opportunities to their advantage. They fell victim of the East-West divide and
lost sight of the core driving values of the system. The continuous decline in import
earning and the demonstrable lack of vision and capacity to diversify their economic base
made them vulnerable to the vicissitudes of an already inclement international economic
environment.
An overall consequence of this situation include, among others, a drastic depreciation of
human life and living; economic destruction and obsolence of infrastructure,
criminalization of the state and the emergence of shadow economies, worst of all was the
deskilling of society accentuated by massive brain drain and an alarming destabilizing
refugee problem. It however had one major positive effect; it bought out a stronger need
to look beyond national borders for effective response strategies and mechanisms to deal
with the security question.
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The challenge of consolidating the current economic successes recorded by many
African countries in face of accompanying increase in wholly destabilising security
challenge coupled with the rising security concerns in many part of the continent suggest
a critical review of the concepts of security, stability and the quest for sustainable
development in Africa. What is the relationship between security and democracy and
what implication does this have for economic development and governance? Is good
governance a panacea to the challenge of insecurity, and if yes, what political framework
is best suited for the pursuit of good governance and economic growth? What is the best
political framework for the achievement sustainable peace?
3. Understanding the Security Challenge in Africa
The security discourse is more often than not about the object of security, whether it is
the state or the individual. Until recently, security had often been defined in traditional
and purely militaristic terms and the State was perceived as the sole referent and agent
of security. Such notion of security meant in most cases that the whole essence of
security remained that of prevention and protection of the country or community from
external aggression and protection against internal insurrection or rebellion. The state
must be secured, and in most cases, at the expense of the individual.
This is clearly a product of the lived experience and the historical antecedents of the
emergence of the Westphalian nation state. Today, there is however a growing
consensus that security is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that embraces all aspects
of human existence. It is not just the mere absence of conflict. Security must embrace
and be understood to mean the absence of all forms of threats and causes of insecurity,
be it material or structural. Under the concept of human security, the individual is the
object of security, who has to be protected from all forms of insecurity. This is defined to
include but not limited to threats such as danger, hunger, disease, environmental
hazards, homelessness, etc. People are expected to exercise their choices freely without
any form of encumbrances. Invariably, the sole aim of political and socio-economic
attempts should be to guarantee the security of the individual and to provide him or her
access to a range of choices.
In the concentric circles of security, the issue has been where the focus should be,
whether on the State, the regime or on the people. Security of the State and that of the
people is inextricably linked, encapsulated in the regime’s security. The regime controls
the decision-making machinery and the well being of the other dimensions is determined
by the activities of the hegemonic fraction of the dominant faction of its power elite – the
regime.
New policies aimed at improving the security and stability situation in Africa require first
and foremost a deconstruction of the extant security architecture, or at least the
conceptual basis of existing frameworks in the hope that the new approaches would be
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broadened enough to conceptually envisage a robust engagement of the three
dimensions of security. Under this framework, human security occupies the inner circle,
followed by State security and the outer circle will have regime security. The basis for this
concept lies in the fact that a more secured people constitute a sure guaranty for
continued existence of the State and reproduction of a conducive environment for
sustainable development.
Insecurity in terms of access to the basic human needs like nutrition, education, shelter,
etc, can only widen the gap between the rich and the poor. With time, inequitable
distribution of socio-economic resources and opportunities began to polarise many
societies, and in due course politics began to take ethnic and socio-religious colorations,
which later disintegrated into violent clashes, civil wars and genocides.
The prospect for peace is higher when the frontier of human freedom is broadened. All
conflicts have their root in injustices arising from inequitable access to socio-economic
resources and opportunities in the context of heavily biased and defective power relation
structures that neither tolerate dissenting views nor accommodate minority rights. The
consequences of misplaced priority are the myriad of violent conflicts that continue to
devour the people of Africa.
With few exceptions, African countries do not face major external threats. Most of
the security challenges they face are internal, and these are of two kinds: threats to
personal or human security as a condition of decent livelihood and those having to do
with maintenance of public order, security and safety. State capacity to respond to these
challenges however remains demonstrably weak in Africa. While this is due in part to
lack of appropriate infrastructures, technologies or proactive planning, in some cases, it
is a result of total indifference by political authorities.
According to Dufour10, before 1939, four conflicts out of five were between states; since
1945 four conflicts out of five have been internal, generally complicated by foreign
interventions. Moeletsi Mbeki recently observed that “During the past 50 years there has
been only two inter-state wars among African countries. These were the war between
Tanzania and Uganda in the 1970s and the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea in the
1990s. The latter war could in fact be considered to have been the continuation of the
secessionist war of Eritrean rebels from Ethiopia”11. However, since the 1980s the nature
and character of conflicts and parties to conflicts changed and became largely internal,
10
Jean-Louis Dufour, (Col.) How Can We Make War on War? In From Partial Insecurity to Global Security
(Paris; UNESCO Publ. 1996)p.35
11Security and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa - Looking to the Future, presentation to the Commander's
Speaker Programme at the US Africa Command, US Military Headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany on Tuesday
19th January 2010.
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the causes of conflicts have also changed dramatically and thus have rendered the
traditional definition of security obsolete and archaic and generally unhelpful for all
practical purposes.
Generally, conflicts due to economic grievances by themselves alone rarely flare up into
violent confrontations. It is when such grievances are politicized, or are reinforced by
ethno-religious factors, that large-scale popular insurrections are possible. While access
to the state and the resources under its control generally constitutes the source of violent
conflicts in Africa, there are wider social processes at work, which determine the social
and political significance of identities through which conflicts manifest.
Although the 2008 democracy Index categorises many African countries under
authoritarian governance system, the African continent has taken great strides to adopt
the democratic governance system and are currently engaged in activities aimed at
institutionalising the liberal democratic norms and principles. Only 23 countries made the
Democracy Index. Mauritius is the only country that falls under full democracy category,
occupying the 27th position, 4 countries - Cape Verde (34), Namibia (64), Lesotho (71)
and Benin (81) met the Flawed Democracy category, while 18 others were categorised
as hybrid democracies. Angola, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire amongst others could only
make the authoritarianism category. Democracy is a lifelong process and attainment of
full democracy may then depend on one’s understanding of democracy, which could be
Athenian or modern, in which case it may be the American, British, Japanese or Swedish
model.
Africa’s Democracy is infantile and the challenge of insecurity remains very daunting.
The sustenance of the current economic gains requires that political liberalization
is backed with well-focused and pragmatic economic policies and implementation
processes that take full cognisance of the human dimension of security.
In spite of the democratisation efforts and achievements across the continent,
internal security remained the most potent threat to the economic development
and prosperity of Africa. The inability of the continent to convert its potential to
economic growth and development lies in its inability to attract Foreign Direct
Investments (FDIs), generates jobs and creates wealth which off course would have
moved her closer to the attainment of the MGDs.
The link between security, stability and sustainable development has earlier been
conceptualised by the Africa Leadership Forum within the framework of the Conference
on Security, Stability, Development and Co-operation in Africa (CSSDCA).12
12
For more information on the CSSDCA, see
http://www.au2002.gov.za/docs/background/cssdca.htm and http://www.africa-
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4. The Emergence of CSSDCA
The decision of African Heads of State and Government in adopting the landmark 1990
“Declaration on the Political and Socio-Economic Situation in Africa and The
Fundamental Changes taking Place in the World”, the African Charter for Popular
Participation in Development, the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and
Resolution alongside the ground breaking decision on Unconstitutional Changes of
Government among others seemed to have prepared the ground for the adoption of the
Solemn Declaration on Conference on Security Stability Development and Cooperation in
Africa (CSSDCA).
The Declaration with its four calabashes of Security, Stability Development and
Cooperation, was a marked departure from the traditional framework for confronting
headlong the challenges of leadership and development within the continent.
The mandate and the principles of the Security Calabash were designed to support
sustainable human development in Africa and contribute to a more secure, equitable and
prosperous world. Noting the centrality of the security question, the OAU Solemn
Declaration on the Conference on Security Stability, Development and Cooperation in
Africa pointed out in its General Principles inter-alia that the interdependence of Member
States and the link between their security, stability and development make it imperative
to develop a common African collective political consensus derived from a firm conviction
that Africa cannot make any significant progress without finding lasting solutions to the
problems of peace and security. This principle in particular reaffirms the primacy of
peace and security in Africa.
The CSSDCA was designed as Africa’s response mechanism to the challenges of the
post Cold War era. While hopes and expectations were high that the end of the bipolar
conflict would enhance global security, the development rendered the “previously
dependent and weak states severally vulnerable to internal contradictions and
internecine warfare”13. It also altered the nature of conflicts in Africa. The continent
entered an era of State disintegration due to endogenous factors. Contestations for
political and socio-economic interests began to plunge many countries into rapid
disintegration. Liberia took the lead 1989 followed by Somalia in 1989 and Rwanda in
1990 amongst others.
The end of the bipolar chasm eliminated the remaining super powers’ concern for many
regions and their issues, thereby confronting a number of countries with new and
union.org/Structure_of_the_Commission/depCSSDCA.htm; see also
www.africaleadership.org.
13
Olusegun Obasanjo in Deng & Zartman, A Strategic Vision for Africa: The Kampala Movement,
(Washington: Brookings Institution Press; 2002,) p. xiv
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enormous challenges. African States, for example find themselves locked in direct
economic competition with Eastern Europe and East Asia inasmuch as these countries
strive for global economic integration. Since then there has been insignificant capital flow
between the developed countries and Africa, as compared to that of Eastern Europe,
East Asia and Latin America.
In practical terms, it became imperative for Africa to evolve a series of initiatives aimed at
enabling the continent deal with its own problems based on an agenda, managed by
Africans and designed principally to promote and foster an African agenda. One of the most
significant of the initiatives that emerged was the Conference on Security Stability
Development and Co-operation in Africa (CSSDCA).
As a response strategy, in 1990, the Africa Leadership Forum, in collaboration with the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), convened a high-
level experts meeting in Paris on the implications of the events in Eastern Europe and the
likely impact on Africa. The meeting concluded that Africa had to tackle the interrelated
problems of security, stability, development and co-operation through its own means and
to engage the rest of the world within a holistic and composite framework designed,
owned and driven by Africans. The Africa Leadership Forum accepted the challenge to
drive this process. In November 1990, it convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in
collaboration with the Secretariats of the OAU and the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (UNECA), a meeting of prominent African personalities drawn
from government, business, academic, international and non-governmental organizations
to brainstorm on concrete strategies to cope with the world’s new realities. The meeting
recognized the need to develop a framework for Africa along the lines of the CSCE. A
Steering Committee, comprising about half of the conference participants, was set up to
guide further activities in this direction. The committee restructured the principles into four
main goals: security, stability, development and co-operation.
The CSSDCA, process stresses the inter-linkage between peace, stability, development,
integration and co-operation. It creates a synergy between the various activities of the
African continent and seeks to consolidate the various critical issues relating to peace,
security, stability, development and co-operation. The underlying thinking of the CSSDCA
process was recognition of the fact that the problems of security and stability in many
African countries had impaired their capacity to achieve the necessary level of intra and
inter-African cooperation that is required to attain the integration of the continent, which is
also critical to the continent’s socio-economic development and transformation.
5. The Core Values of the CSSDCA
The process underpinning the development of the CSSDCA is unique and dynamic. It
involved series of consultations, deliberations and agreements which resulted in the
expansion of its frontiers. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Calabashes
11 | P a g e
of the CSSDCA is based on resolutions, declarations and decisions taken by the
continental organization since its establishment in 1963. It is an all-inclusive framework
for a peer review structure within the African Union. The document sets out the core
values, the commitments required to effect them, the key indicators for measurement and
performance and a framework for implementation and monitoring performance.
The African countries agreed to respect and abide by the following “indivisible core
values, all of primary importance …”
1. Respect of sovereign equality: Every African State is bound to respect the
rights inherent in the territorial integrity and political independence of all other
African States, without prejudice to the provisions of art. 4 of the African Union
Constitutive Act, sections (h) and (j) and other relevant international
instruments.
2. Global security: Security is viewed as a multi-dimensional phenomenon that
goes beyond military considerations and embraces all aspects of human
existence, including economic, political and social dimensions of individual,
family, community and national life.
3. Interdependence of the State and the individual. Peace and security are
central to the realization of development of both the State and individuals. The
security of the African people, their land and property must be safeguarded to
ensure stability, development and cooperation of African countries.
4. Indivisibility of external security. The security of each African country is
inseparably linked to that of other African countries and the African continent
as a whole.
5. Halting the ordeal of refugees and displaced persons. The plight of African
refugees and internally displaced persons constitutes a scar on the conscience
of African governments and people.
6. Fair exploitation of natural resources. Africa’s strategic and natural
resources are the property of the people of Africa and the leadership should
exploit them for the common good of the people of the continent, having due
regard for the need to restore, preserve and protect the environment.
7. Acknowledgment of the threat posed by dissemination of weaponry.
Uncontrolled spread of small arms and light weapons, as well as the problem
of landmines constitute a threat to peace and security in the African continent.
8. Good governance: Good governance (including accountability, transparency,
the rule of law, elimination of corruption and unhindered exercise of individual
rights as enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) is a pre-requisite for sustainable
peace and security in Africa, as well as a necessary condition for economic
development, cooperation and integration.
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9. Interdependence of all the elements of the CSSDCA: A fundamental link
exists between stability, human security, development and co-operation in a
manner that each reinforces the other.
10. Necessity for democratic structures: Sustainable stability in Africa demands
the establishment and strengthening of democratic structures and good
governance based on common tenets.
11. Rejection of unconstitutional changes of government: Changes of that
kind occurring in any African country represent as a threat to order and
stability in the African continent as a whole.
12. Rule of law and social justice. Respect and promotion of human rights, the
rule of law and equitable social order as the foundation for national and
continental stability.
13. Eradication of corruption, which undermines Africa’s quest for socio-
economic development and the achievement of sustainable stability in the
continent.
14. Rejection of domestic political extremism: No political organization should
be created on the basis of religious, sectarian, ethnic, regional or racial
considerations. Political life should be devoid of any extremism.
15. Free and fair elections: The conduct of electoral processes in a transparent
and credible manner and a concomitant obligation by the parties and
candidates to abide by the outcome of such processes are necessary to
enhance national and continental stability.
16. Linkage between development and human freedoms: Development is
about expanding human freedoms. The effort of member States at achieving
development is aimed at the maximum expansion of the freedoms that people
enjoy.
17. Human freedoms: The freedoms that Africans seek and deserve include,
inter alia, freedom from hunger, disease and ignorance, as well as access to
the basic necessities for enhancing the quality of life. These freedoms can
best be achieved through expansion of the economic space including the rapid
creation of wealth.
18. Economic development and activities: Economic development is a
combined result of individual action. Africans must be free to work and use
their creative energies to improve their well- being in their own countries. The
State’s involvement in the activities of individual economic actors should be
supportive of individual initiatives.
19. Acknowledgement of the importance of the economic role of the State:
The State is expected not only to provide a regulatory framework, but also to
actively co-operate with the private sector and the civil society, including
business associations and organizations as partners of development to
promote economic growth, social and economic justice.
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20. Elimination of poverty. All priorities in economic policy-making shall be
geared towards eliminating poverty from the continent and generating rapid
and sustainable development in the shortest possible time.
21. Integration of Africa into the world economy: Co-operation and integration
between African States is key to the continent’s socio-economic transformation
and effective integration into the world economy.
22. Harmonization and strengthening of the Regional Economic Communities
(RECs): Such objective is especially needed in key areas as an essential
component of the integration process, through the transfer of certain
responsibilities, as well as effective reporting and communication structure
involving the RECs in continental initiatives.
23. Involvement of all stakeholders: A strong political commitment including the
involvement of all stakeholders, the private sector, civil society, women and
youth represents as a fundamental principle for the achievement of regional
economic integration and development.
24. Development of science and technology: The development of all economic
sectors and the raising of living standards require serious investment in
science and technology.
6. Emerging Issues
These core values of CSSDCA therefore underscore the need for Africa to have and
embrace common core values as basis for sustainable development. The organic link
between security, stability, democracy and development ought to be anchored and driven
by these set of core values enunciated within the CSSDCA.
While the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) more or less supplanted the
CSSDCA and was given prominence over of it, the fact remains that security and stability
remain the pillar upon which Africa can build its prosperity and relevance in the global
market of development. The APRM is designed as a comprehensive mechanism based
on the utilisation of common diagnostic tools and measurement criteria for assessing
performance and cross-referencing inputs for assessments from all stakeholders in
African States and society. Though it provides the basis for continuous engagement of
the political leaders on issue of governance, its implementation for almost eight years has
not reduced the assertion made in this paper that internal security remains the most
daunting challenge confronting development in Africa. Some of the emerging issues from
this paper includes:
i. That there is an intrinsic link between security, stability and development. It thus
means that pursuit of development in the absence of security is wild goose chase.
Africa will remain under developed until the security is conceptualised and
engaged in an holistic manner
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ii. It thus followed that secured people constitute a sure guaranty for continued
existence of the State and reproduction of a conducive environment for
sustainable development.
iii. The greatest threat to development in Africa is internal security. The nature of
conflicts in Africa in the last twenty five years demonstrated the fact that Africa is
her own enemy.
iv. Africa needs to acknowledge that its internal security mechanism is dysfunctional
and therefore demands a reconstruction process. The reconstruction should be
holistic with focus on strategies that will recreate the human condition and social
environment based on well defined elite consensus driven by common core
values that promotes long term sustainable development
v. Inspite of the effort at introducing the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM),
the process remain essentially a theoretical framework for constructive
development as countries already review has not shown major significant
improvement in their internal security and stability;
vi. In the light of the foregoing, a revisit and the utilisation of CSSDCA concept as
programmatic and policy reform process may provide the needed impetus and
vista of opportunities for Africa to reinvent and position herself for a long term
sustainable development that will increase trade and investment flow to the
continent
vii. What will therefore determines African progress in the next couple of years is her
understanding of security, its implication for stability, development and good
governance.
Concluding Remarks
Africa can change her fortunes in the next decade, if only the leaders would put their acts
together. The capacity of the region to sustain the economic gains of the last decade
would however depend greatly on the readiness of African countries to create structures
and processes required for the entrenchment and institutionalization of good governance
as demonstrated within the framework of CSSDCA.
Latent conflicts already manifesting in various forms across the continent might begin to
take violent turns, given the rising levels of poverty and unemployment. The challenge
confronting Africa in the early post Cold War era was the need to launch the continent on
the path of sustainable development in the face of dwindling development aids. The need
today is to consolidate democracy and sustain the economic growth. Already, political
contestations over the control of state resources are plunging some countries into orgy of
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violence. Political experiments in Kenya and Zimbabwe necessitated by eruption of large
scale violence seem inundated with a lot of complications.
There is indeed a need for the African Union to design a framework of collective action
for dealing with the challenge of security on the continent and African leaders must be
ready to make whatever concessions that this may require. The focus of such framework
should be on the protection of human security across the continent. It must seek to make
the pursuit of good governance norms and principles a collective goal for every country
and structures and processes for enforcing compliance must be emplaced. While this will
serve to consolidate democracy, it will also help to tackle the problem of insecurity and
further accelerate economic growth on sustainable basis.
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