The report was presented by Dr. Yonas Adaye Adeto, Director of IPSS and Michelle Ndiaye, Director of the IPSS Africa Peace and Security Programme (APSP), and moderated by Ms. Ana Elisa De Santana Afonso, Director of the UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office to AUC and UNECA and Representative to Ethiopia.
The 1st Edition of the Pan African Forum for the Culture of Peace ‘Biennial of Luanda’ was held from 18-22 September in Luanda, Angola. Jointly organized by the African Union Commission, UNESCO and the Government of Luanda, the forum was created to promote a Pan-African movement for a culture of peace and non-violence. It also aimed to contribute to the implementation of the aspirations of AU Agenda 2063, UN Agenda 2030, and Sustainable Development Goals 16 and 17.
On 19 September, IPSS in collaboration with UNESCO, organized a side event on the margins of the forum to present the 2019 State of Peace and Security in Africa (SPSA) Report. The report, the flagship thematic document of the annual Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa, was initially launched at the 8th Tana Forum held in May 2019 in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The Tana Forum offers participants a platform for synoptic analysis of the pressing peace and security issues on the continent by complementing formal meetings of African heads of state and government and assembling them in an informal, collaborative environment.
The report was presented by Dr. Yonas Adaye Adeto, Director of IPSS and Michelle Ndiaye, Director of the IPSS Africa Peace and Security Programme (APSP), and moderated by Ms. Ana Elisa De Santana Afonso, Director of the UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office to AUC and UNECA and Representative to Ethiopia.
The 2019 SPSA report states that, in any particular year, and on any particular issue, events and developments across Africa tend to evoke multiple and contrasting impulses. Due to its own making or by default, the continent routinely experiences brief spells of progress and then longer, often intractable cycles of challenges that could be misconstrued as its dominant narrative. Either way, the complexity of peace and security issues the continent contends with on a regular basis end up defining not just how it is viewed by its citizens and outsiders, but also its status in world affairs.
The report is not intended to document all the peace and security challenges the continent faced in any particular year but draw attention to those considered to be the most salient and cross-cutting, particularly in terms of disruption and harm they caused African citizens and the states. The ultimate goal of the SPSA report is to re-energize and strengthen African agency and commitment to the conceptualization and implementation of proactive and innovative measures in response to the challenges imposed by peace and security considerations on the continent (SPSA Report, 2019).
High-level participants at the Biennial of Luanda included the Presidents of Angola, Mali and Namibia; the Chairperson of the African Union Commission; AU Commissioners of Social Affairs and Rural Economy and Agricultures; and the Director General of UNESCO in addition to representatives from governments, civil society, the arts, sciences and international organizations.
Click here to download the 2019 SPSA Report