Speech

PRACTICAL PEACE: Effective Approaches to Local Cross-Border Conflicts in the Horn of Africa Conference

Address by Cheryl Anderson, USAID/EA Mission Director

Mombasa, Kenya  | Wednesday, October 03, 2007

 

The Kenya National Steering Committee Coordinator, Mr. Hassan Mohammed, Government officials; DC’s, RDC’s and other Administrators, Cross-Border Peace Partners; Representatives from registered organizations; Friends from DAI; Ladies and Gentlemen. I am delighted to be here to witness the closing events of what I hear has been a very, very successful three days of discussion and learning.

I especially want to acknowledge the efforts of Willet Weeks, Dekha Ibrahim, Sam Kona and Joice Litunya, who carried out such careful preparations and smooth logistics for this event, but also for their visionary and tireless commitment these past four years toward the objectives of USAID’s PEACE conflict management program and for their dedication to creating successful partnerships with USAID bi-lateral missions and with all of you.

I do hope you take some time out of your busy schedule to visit some of the landmarks on the Kenya coast and have a chance to meet some of the Kenyans who live here.

Your hard work over the last four years of the USAID Peace in East and Central Africa Project, implemented in partnership with Development Alternatives (DAI, Inc.) has helped not only to deepen our understanding of the fault lines driving violent conflicts in communities, but has actually promoted the emergence of a more peaceful, stable environment, that will last for the children of this generation to enjoy. I’m not naïve though, and realize even the best conflict management systems have to grapple with the context of climate change as well as long-term unmet development needs and a history of marginalization of many communities.

USAID’s partnership with governments of the region has gone a long way to helping with rapid humanitarian responses and early recovery from drought and flooding- for example, the Regional Enhanced Livelihoods in Pastoralist Areas (RELPA)-the Famine Fund project, I’m confident Dr. Knausenberger, Paul McDermott and Josphat Wachira have described to you. We can only go so fast and so far to meet the long term challenges, but I’m convinced we are advancing peace in the region through helping apply “best practices”and providing analysis and information that helps in appreciating cooperation structures such as those you have been instrumental in developing and to avoid exacerbating cross-border tensions and other problems.

The decision in 2004 to start developing model Conflict Prevention, Mitigation and Response (CPMR) approaches in the cross-border zones of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region was made after consideration of the grave costs associated with pastoralist conflict and the potential for them to become really full blown inter-state conflicts. USAID’s decision to support IGAD’s Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) was also predicated on these considerations. And it was this background that USAID and DAI began to identify from among a vast number of communities vulnerable to crises of drought and flooding and cross-border conflicts, those with the commitment to try new approaches and the determination to take risks and be creative in the search for more peaceful methods to manage relationships.

The cross-border conflict zones that you have focused on and your achievements through the project, we believe, have established a strong technical model of engagement. These achievements have prompted USAID to continue our regional support to target zones identified earlier, and also prepare to expand to additional zones as envisaged in the CEWARN Strategy. Last month, I approved a new multi-year program, Peace in Eastern and Central Africa (PEACE) 2, which will continue improving the CPMR technical approaches to conflict and make them available to IGAD and its member states and to develop partners to replicate and expand to other cross-border areas in the Horn.

I wish to point out to you that the modalities of establishing early warning systems in the Horn of Africa are in place, thanks to IGAD and its partners and only need to be strengthened. Your efforts last year in Mombasa at the ICT4 Peace Workshop assessed gaps in IGAD/CEWARN and identified appropriate new investments in radio and ICT equipment, which, if available to CEWARN for cross-border peace committees, would help realize conflict early warning and enable preventive responses. I’m happy to learn Ambassador Khalil and his team are meeting next month to procure and install equipment and train peace committees. I want to challenge the CEWERU’s to make use of these new linkages with local peace committees and ensure these inputs really enhance efforts to realize early warning and prevention; exactly what CEWARN was designed to do. Please let me hear from you, good or bad.

So I am particularly glad to be here, to witness your contributions to the development of best CPMR practices over the years, and to congratulate you for helping to create the emerging conflict management systems in the Horn of Africa’s border zones.

THANK YOU.