Governance Peace and Security

Actions Taken

This cluster is organized around five sub-clusters, namely: humanitarian response and post-conflict recovery (facilitated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)); rights-based approach to development (facilitated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)); peace and security (facilitated by the United Nations Development Programme); political governance (facilitated by UNDP) and economic and corporate governance (facilitated by ECA). UNDP is the overall convenor of the cluster.

The objective of the sub-cluster on humanitarian response and post-conflict recovery is to develop integrated projects to respond to humanitarian crises and to promote post-conflict recovery for those countries with economies in transition and those that have emerged from conflict situations. The projects will be based on the findings of an inter-agency assessment team, which will undertake missions to such countries to determine the requirements, and, under the leadership of the respective Governments, to formulate projects to meet the gaps identified by the assessment team. In the area of humanitarian response, much effort has been devoted to promoting conditions conducive to the maintenance of peace and security by identifying ways to support and strengthen the capacity of regional and subregional mechanisms for early warning and conflict prevention; and ensuring an effective preparedness response capacity at all levels, through efficient contingency planning, to respond to and mitigate the impact of humanitarian crises.

In the post-conflict countries of Africa, the holistic “four Rs” approach (repatriation, reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction) developed by UNHCR and its partners is being piloted to promote sustainable solutions for displaced populations and to ensure the protection of their rights. The approach is one which supports their systematic inclusion in the planning and programming of transition and recovery processes. The African Union Commission’s Department of Peace and Security has confirmed its intention to take the lead in designing a comprehensive strategy and integrated framework for dealing with post-conflict situations in Africa, in cooperation with entities of the United Nations system.

The sub-clusters on political, economic and corporate governance are collaborating on a range of activities aimed at promoting democracy and good governance in the context of NEPAD. In collaboration with the NEPAD secretariat, UNDP, ECA and United Nations agencies have agreed to organize the next (sixth) African Governance Forum on the theme “NEPAD/Implementing the African Peer Review Mechanism”. As part of the preparation for that event, a high-level stakeholders’ workshop was organized from 28 to 30 July 2003 in Cape Town, South Africa. The workshop targeted high-level representatives of Government, civil society, private sector and the media. Its objectives were to familiarize participants with the Mechanism in general, understand requirements at the country level, clarify the role of technical assessments and the relationship among the various processes and agree on the next steps to be taken. Participants from 15 out of the 16 countries that had acceded to the Mechanism attended. They agreed on strengthening and expanding advocacy for the Mechanism at the national level and promote broader stakeholder involvement; reach consensus on guidelines for country Mechanism processes and initiate preparatory steps, and reach agreement on a time frame for national processes, including the completion of the programme of action. The workshop recommended that participating countries should (a) establish national structures, including national African Peer Review Mechanism focal points; and (b) link the national structures with the African Peer Review Mechanism secretariat for interactive implementation and coordination.

As a follow-up to the high-level stakeholders’ workshop, UNDP and OHCHR, in collaboration with the Africa Leadership Forum — an African non-governmental organization active in this area — organized a regional conference on the African Peer Review Mechanism in December 2003 in Kampala. The Conference brought together parliamentarians from participating countries. Its objectives were to provide a forum for facilitating African parliamentarians’ understanding of the Mechanism in developing an adequate response mechanism for its implementation in their countries, as well as to identify legislative and administrative requirements at the national and subregional levels and create a broad-based network of African parliamentarians that will work together in advancing the Mechanism at the country and regional levels.

In November 2003, UNDP supported the secretariat of the Mechanism in the organization of a high-level technical workshop to further develop detailed criteria and indicators in the four areas of focus: corporate governance; democracy and political governance; social economic development and economic governance. The meeting brought together some 60 participants from partner and research institutions and leading individual African experts and produced a set of core indicators for each of the four areas of focus; a draft standard memorandum of understanding with participating countries; a draft standard memorandum of understanding with partner institutions and a strategic plan for providing support to countries and strengthening their capacities where needed.

ECA is planning to organize the fourth Africa Development Forum, on the theme of “Governance”, in 2004. As part of the preparation for that forum, three subregional workshops covering the whole region of Africa were organized in December 2003 in Lusaka, Accra and Cairo. The workshops made specific subregional recommendations to the fourth Forum. Twenty-three national governance reports have been completed and are being used as inputs to the preparation of the Africa Governance Report.