Exploring Communication in International Conflict Management in Africa: Public Information in the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the Democractic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

This thesis unpacks the importance of public information as a powerful conflict management tool in the hands of peacekeepers. Public information plays a crucial role in how these peace operations carry out these functions and activities. The UN acknowledges it as a political and operational necessity. Even though PI contributes to the attainment of peacekeeping mandates, it does not seem to attract the required attention. Both military and civilian peacekeepers, however, seem to have a different understanding of what PI entails and how it should be viewed and practised. The broad purpose of this study was to interrogate the role of PI in international peace operations, by exploring the information practices at the UN Stabilisation Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) and whether this could contribute towards the management of the conflict in the DR Congo. The thesis is a qualitative study of public information in MONUSCO. As a case study, multiple qualitative methods were used to gather data, with in-depth interviewing being the primary data collection tool. The Maatic Model of Communication and Public Information Model underpinned the study. Understanding the concept of public information is mixed. While appreciating its multiple functionalities to support a variety of interests, if it must play that crucial role in international conflict management, then it has to be recognised as conflict communication. The overarching objective of public information, as conflict communication, is not just to provide information to the public on what the peacekeepers are doing, but ultimately to restore calm and bring the conflict parties together in harmony and peace. The lack of clarity on the concept and practice of public information has therefore tended to paint it as a practice that is not delivering to the expectations of peacekeeping managers. In MONUSCO, this necessitated it to either be replaced with a somewhat less self-glorifying function or subsumed under other more aggressive forms of public communication. But as the thesis argues, public information should be the preferred form of public communication in peace operations. It has not only been misunderstood, in practice it has rivals which seek to undermine its relevance and usability. The study reveals that in MONUSCO, the Strategic Communication and Public Information Division (SC-PID) was being undercut by its inadequate organisational structure, its inability to effectively coordinate the public information activities of the various substantive components of the mission and the overbearing influence of information operations which the Military Component, in particular, seemed to place more premium on in carrying out their peacekeeping activities. Furthermore, there seemed not to be a unified understanding of PI amongst senior leaders at MONUSCO. PI practitioners themselves had similar varied views. Additionally, the study reveals that there was a capacity-building gap that could affect the professional capacity of PI practitioners across MONUSCO. The thesis therefore takes the position that instead of divorcing public information of its strategic function to win hearts and minds and to entrust this critical responsibility to a separate entity, it is better to re-conceptualise public information in peace operations, incorporate this function as an essential part of public information and reorient public information practitioners towards taking it as their core function. There is need to relook at the concept and practice of Public Information in UN peace operations and reposition it as the most appropriate form of public communication that will contribute anything to conflict management. The public information model currently in practice in these field peace operations, as painted in literature and borne out by the findings of the study of MONUSCO, seems to focus on selling the peacekeeping mission rather than contributing directly to thawing hostile relations between the conflict actors and restoring peace to the conflict area. The most appropriate and relevant model of public information in peace operations ought therefore to consist of a forum for dialogue; a tool for enhancing confidence in the peace process and managing the expectations of the mission, the population and the media; a bridge to close the information gap; an arena that brings the parties together but not as a battleground; and a strategic function that is central to implementing the mission’s mandate. So, in MONUSCO, rather than discrediting public information as irrelevant and consigning it to the back burner, SC-PID should be remodelled into a Public Information and Strategic Communication Division (PICD) under an integrated organisational structure which incorporates all the major components and prioritises public information over strategic communication. The PICD should then be placed under the highest authority while creating a Joint Public Information Coordinating Centre (JPICC) to facilitate effective coordination of public information activities across the mission and intensify collaboration by all the actors. This should be reinforced with comprehensive and all-encompassing public information, not communication, strategy elaborate enough to capture the needs of all its components, their responsibility to communicate effectively and to ensure that all public information activities are consistent with it.