Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ghana
Languages : en
Pages : 24
Book Description
Liberia and Ghana--policy Challenges in West Africa
Author: The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa
Author: Alexandre MarcPublisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464804656
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
Since independence, the West African sub-region has been an arena for a number of large-scale conflicts and civil wars, as well as simmering and low-intensity uprisings. Contrary to perceptions, West Africa in its post-independence history has experienced fewer conflict events and fatalities from conflict than the other sub-regions on the continent. The turn of the millennium has witnessed the recession of large-scale and conventional conflict, and it has ushered in new and emerging threats. The specters of religious extremism, maritime piracy, and narcotics trafficking threaten to undermine some of the progress achieved in recent years. The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa critically examines the key drivers of conflict and violence, and the way in which they impact the countries of the sub-region. In addition to emerging threats, these drivers include the challenges of youth inclusion, migration, sub-regional imbalances, and extractives, as well as challenges related to the fragility of political institutions and managing the competition for power, reform of the security sector, and weakness of institutions related to land management. The book explores how the sub-region, under the auspices of the regional organization ECOWAS, has become a pioneer on the continent in terms of addressing regional challenges. The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa also identifies key lessons in the dynamics of resilience in the face of political violence and civil war drawn from CÃ ́te d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, that can be useful for countries around the world in similar situations. It incorporates knowledge and findings from leading experts and provides insights from academics and development practitioners. Finally, the book identifies possible policy and programmatic responses and directions for policy dialogue at the national and international levels.
Nation-states and the challenges of regional integration in West Africa
Author: Kwame A. NinsinPublisher: KARTHALA Editions
ISBN: 2811101667
Category : Africa, West
Languages : en
Pages : 170
Book Description
Since the Treaty establishing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was signed in 1975, several protocole have been adopted providing the legal and institutional framework for implementing the integration of the West African sub-region. Ail social and political stakeholders agree that regional integration is a major challenge for development in West Africa. Yet the regional integration process has been affected by many delays, even failures. Member states have pursued a seemingly contradictory dual objective: build a Nation-state within colonial Borders and achieve regional integration to fight against under-development. Can national planning priorities be reconciled with the demands and objectives of regional integration processes in West Africa ? Since 2005, under the auspices of the Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme initiative, the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO has organized a series of national seminars on West African regional integration in the ECOWAS region. Four seminars have so far been organized in Senegal, Mali, Benin and Ghana. This anthology publishes papers presented at Ghana's national seminar on "Nation-states and the Challenge of Regional Integration in West Africa: the Case of Ghana", held in Accra from 8 to 9 November 2005. The contributors suggest that Ghana's reluctance to relinquish its sovereignty stemmed from a lack of commitment in the first 20 years of ECOWAS' existence and preoccupation with its own security and survival against internai and externat threats. The state has currently demonstrated renewed commit-ment by establishing a Ministry of Regional Cooperation and the New Agenda for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to coordinate and manage the sub-regional integration programme. In spite of positive developments, results have been disappointing. The new ministry remains isolated and is constrained by limited resources in finance and manpower. Its approach to integration issues has been elitist and technocratic, concentrating on format trade and ignoring the importance of the informai trade that has been the traditional means of popular participation in the integration of West African economies. Borderland communities with economic and social ties continue to engage in exchanges across political boundaries in defiance of national and state security concerns. Empowerment of Ghanaians involved in small-scale, informa] cross-border trade (in majority, women) "would not only increase the levels of social and economic integration, but would make the benefits of integration available to large sections of the population".
West Africa's Security Challenges
Author: Adekeye AdebajoPublisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781588262844
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 474
Book Description
Provides a context for understanding West Africa's security dilemmas, highlighting the link between failures of economic development, governance, and democratization on the one hand and military insecurity and violent conflicts on the other.
Nigeria's Soft Power in Anglophone West Africa
Author: Fidel AboweiPublisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000927342
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235
Book Description
This book investigates Nigeria’s soft power capabilities in West Africa, demonstrating the extent to which the power of attraction may serve the country’s foreign policy interests. With the increasing popularity of internationally acclaimed cultural outputs, including afrobeat, Nollywood, and charismatic Pentecostalism, and a foreign policy disposition that is altruistic and sparsely transactional, there is increasing interest in how these soft power attributes influence perceptions of Nigeria in Africa. Drawing on extensive original research in Ghana and Liberia, this book highlights the attractive and unattractive elements of Nigeria’s soft power potential. In so far as it makes the case for Nigeria’s soft power in West Africa, it also discusses the challenges encumbering the effective deployment of the full range of Nigeria’s soft power capabilities in the operationalization of its African policy. This book is a timely contribution to prevailing scholarly discussions about the nature and utility of soft power in Africa. It will be of interest to both Africanists and researchers of international relations, foreign policy, and political science more broadly.
Liberia and Ghana--policy Challenges in West Africa
Author: Liberia in the Twenty-first Century
Author: George Klay Kieh, Jr.Publisher:
ISBN: 9781536150346
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
Since the founding of the Liberian state in 1847, the country has faced several frontier issues, such as ethnic pluralism and inclusion, the elusive quest for democracy, decentralization, and socio-economic development. Cumulatively, the failure by the various state managers to address these and other major challenges occasioned an enduring civil conflict that imploded into mass insurrection on April 14, 1979, a military coup détat on April 12, 1980, and two civil wars from 1989-1997, and 1999-2003, respectively. Significantly, these major conflict events had profound ramifications, including the deaths of thousands of people, massive internal displacement, refugee crises, the destruction of the already underdeveloped physical infrastructure and the productive sectors of the economy, and the collapse of governance. Against this background, this book explores some of these frontier issuesthe travails of the peripheral state, ethnic pluralism and inclusion, the quest for democracy, decentralization and governance, the monocrop economy and its resulting implications for the crises of underdevelopment, public health, security sector reform, and post-conflict reconstructionthat have and continue to face Liberia in the twenty-first century. This book then makes policy-relevant recommendations for addressing these challenges, as the country strives to address its seemingly unending cycle of missed opportunities and false starts.
The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and MedicinePublisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309450063
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 137
Book Description
The most recent Ebola epidemic that began in late 2013 alerted the entire world to the gaps in infectious disease emergency preparedness and response. The regional outbreak that progressed to a significant public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in a matter of months killed 11,310 and infected more than 28,616. While this outbreak bears some unique distinctions to past outbreaks, many characteristics remain the same and contributed to tragic loss of human life and unnecessary expenditure of capital: insufficient knowledge of the disease, its reservoirs, and its transmission; delayed prevention efforts and treatment; poor control of the disease in hospital settings; and inadequate community and international responses. Recognizing the opportunity to learn from the countless lessons of this epidemic, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in March 2015 to discuss the challenges to successful outbreak responses at the scientific, clinical, and global health levels. Workshop participants explored the epidemic from multiple perspectives, identified important questions about Ebola that remained unanswered, and sought to apply this understanding to the broad challenges posed by Ebola and other emerging pathogens, to prevent the international community from being taken by surprise once again in the face of these threats. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
Consolidating Peace
Author: Publisher:
ISBN: 9781905805174
Category : Peace-building
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Almost ten years on from the official end of wars in Sierra Leone (2002) and Liberia (2003), attention is shifting from post-war peacebuilding to longer-term development. What headway has been made? What challenges lie ahead? And what lessons that can be learnt? This issue of Accord draws on experiences and perspectives from across societies in both countries to explore comparative lessons and examine progress, and argues that peacebuilding policy and practice needs to concentrate more on people: on repairing and building relationships among communities, and between communities and the state; and on developing more participatory politics and society that includes marginalised groups. It suggests that customary practices and mechanisms can help deliver essential services across a range sectors, and that local civil society can facilitate national and international policy engagement with them.
Challenges of Security Sector Governance in West Africa
Author: Alan BrydenPublisher: Lit Verlag
ISBN: 9783825886813
Category : Africa, West
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
There is currently no comprehensive study of the status of security sector governance in West Africa. Many efforts to understand governance of the security sector in Africa have been directed either at individual countries or at providing a general analysis of the state and security in Africa. This book is intended to contribute to confidence and peace-building through developing a better understanding of the challenges of security sector governance and generating practical policy recommendations based on work conducted by West African experts. It analyses the nature of security sector governance in each of the 16 West African states, provides an assessment of the effectiveness of governance mechanisms, in particular relating to democratic oversight of the security sector, and takes into account the regional and international dimensions to the issue.
