The role of education in promoting lasting peace in Africa

This year, the annual International Day of Education was celebrated under the theme “learning for lasting peace”.

In Africa, how can we use education to promote peace?

More than 45 armed conflicts are now taking place throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The majority involve a multitude of armed non-state actors supported by foreigners and neighbours.

Africa has the second-highest number of armed conflicts per region, with more than 35 non-international armed conflicts. Most of these conflicts take place in West Africa and the Sahel region, East Africa and Central Africa. Many armed groups — fighting against government forces or against each other — are involved in these conflicts.

In Southern Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique experience the destructive impact of violent extremism. Western powers and neighbouring countries intervene in these conflicts.

The number of Africans — young and old, and families — who are forcibly displaced, largely due to conflict, now totals over 40-million people.

Sadly, many children have fallen behind or are missing out on education altogether because of disruptions due to conflict and other crises (such as the Covid-19 pandemic). Extended time out of school has a drastic impact on children’s health, safety and future life choices. Victims of violence, including women and children, suffer mental anguish and maladjustment to society.

What can be done?

It is tempting to think that peace is a goal that is achievable. Yet African leaders and an elaborate African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) have failed to make the continent safe and secure for its people.

When we discuss peace, what do we mean? Let’s start with clarifying “lasting peace”. Lasting peace is a state of uninterrupted calmness.

Positive peace is a more lasting peace that is built on sustainable investments in economic development and institutions. It can also be used to measure a society's resilience, or its ability to absorb shocks without falling back into conflict.

Durable peace occurs when former combatants reconcile their differences and rebuild security, governmental and economic institutions.

Building positive peace is a long-term process that aims to end structural violence by creating conditions necessary for peaceful societies. It requires a sustained commitment to social cohesion and development to fully address root causes of conflict.

The developing world, known as the global South, and Africa in particular, are in desperate need of lasting peace.

The search for lasting peace in Africa can be significantly strengthened by leaders in the public and private sectors working with civil societies at various levels in designing and implementing programmes that focus on “peace education”.

Peace education can be described as the process of acquiring values, knowledge, attitudes, skill and behaviours to live in harmony with oneself, others and the natural environment. It typically focuses on the social-behavioural symptoms of conflict. Programmes equip individuals to resolve interpersonal disputes through negotiation and (peer) mediation.

Global, continental and national instruments are available to anchor such programmes. They include:

• The UN's New Agenda for Peace is a vision for how the international community can more effectively prevent conflict and sustain peace when the world is experiencing unprecedented and overlapping crises. The agenda calls for the need to rebuild trust, solidarity and accountability, strengthening of existing mechanisms and capacities for inclusive dialogue, insider mediation and national peace architectures, new voices to explore new solutions, support for grassroots peacebuilders, and using learning and expertise to anticipate and prevent conflict.
  
  
• The UN also created 17 world development goals call the sustainable development goals (SDGs). They were created in 2016 with the aim of “peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. SGD 4 is about quality education, and goal 16 is about promoting peaceful and inclusive societies.
  
  
• Closer to home, Agenda 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming the continent into the global powerhouse of the future. It encapsulates the AU’s vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens, representing a dynamic force in the international arena. It is complemented by comprehensive peace and security, and governance architectures.
  
  
• In SA, the post-1994 democratic government adopted a foreign policy posture that seeks to advance Africa’s interests. It focuses on building unity, inclusive economic development and shared prosperity for the continent and its people. SA plays an active role in the structures and processes of the AU to advance peace and security and prevent conflict in Africa.

The cause of lasting peace will be greatly enhanced if our public and private sector leaders, working with implementers in civil society, embrace the philosophy of peace education, leverage global and African policy frameworks to the benefit of peacebuilders, and ensure its inclusion in school curricula as well as those of institutions of higher learning.

Education is the ultimate enabler of lasting peace, and it is the duty of society at large to take the steps to produce the next generation of citizens with the ability to understand and positively manage conflict.

In SA, non-governmental organisations such as the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Conflict (Accord) promotes peace education, including training of women mediators.

The patron of the Umlambo Foundation, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, is involved in peacemaking in conflict zones in Africa.

Unisa's Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs offers short learning programmes in the areas of governance, leadership and peace and security, with masters and PhD degree programmes to follow.

Expertise can be pooled to offer Africa the peace education it needs.

Indeed, what Africa needs now is a cohort of grassroots peacebuilders to promote lasting peace. Time is of the essence, and the focus of the International Day of Education is the ideal opportunity to reflect on the requirements for lasting peace.

This article was sponsored by Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs.