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Amanda Lucey and Liezelle Kumalo

Liberia and South Sudan represent important case studies for what sustaining peace means in practice. They provide an opportunity to interrogate how the United Nations (UN) can ensure greater inclusivity in activities carried out across the sustaining peace spectrum, including mediation, security sector reform and institution building. With the current UN focus on sustaining peace, this report provides practical recommendations for more inclusive processes.

Key findings

• Liberia’s mediation process made provision for power sharing among warring factions, political parties and civil society. Appointees in the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) could not contest the following elections.

• South Sudan’s mediation process was predominantly focused on the two main parties involved in the conflict and failed to address the incentives of these actors.

• Liberia’s Armed Forces were completely disbanded as part of the DDR process and communities were engaged in the design. SSR focused on reintegration.

• South Sudan’s DDR and SSR processes failed to address politics or inclusivity and reintegration was ineffective.

• Liberia has made efforts to establish inclusive national frameworks that involve a wide range of actors. It still faces challenges of constitutional reform and state-building.

• South Sudan’s frameworks have been driven by the government and efforts at decentralisation and constitutional reform have failed.

• Despite initial disagreement ECOWAS provided a unified response to Liberia’s conflict. It has moved beyond individual member state interests to develop protocols and frameworks that allow for efficient responses to protocol and framework contraventions.

• IGAD’s response to South Sudan’s conflict has been hindered by underlying differences among member states and has been unable to enforce provisions of the peace agreement.

Recommendations

• Promote inclusivity in all activities across the sustaining peace spectrum, from mediation to state-building, by ensuring that under-represented groups are part of the process.

• Do not rush peace agreements at the expense of inclusivity, address incentives for spoilers and promote inclusivity away from the negotiating table through awareness raising and town hall meetings.

• Involve communities in SSR/DDR from inception to implementation, and ensure a developmental approach is taken.

• Provide technical and financial support for African sub-regional organisations to institutionalise frameworks on inclusive governance that allow clear and unified responses beyond member state interests and provide resources to ensure compliance.

• Ensure that peacebuilding programming develops a framework to engage with civil society in the local context, use indicators that promote inclusivity, developed in consultation with local communities, and involve communities in regular monitoring and evaluation of processes.

• Create multi-partner strategies, plans and funding structures based on national priorities and led by national stakeholders, including civil society, with clearly defined goals and timelines.

• Support responses by regional/sub-regional organisations that promote democratic best practices by allowing them to lead, and ensure coordination with these responses.

• Ensure that technical sustaining peace programming is linked to outcomes that promote inclusivity, based on detailed and regularly updated conflict analysis with a wide range of stakeholders.