Sustainable Regional Peacebuilding in Africa: Conceptual Explorations and Practical Experiences

Abstract

In the field of peacebuilding, sustainability has become a ubiquitous term, used widely by both scholars and peacebuilding practitioners. But what is sustainable peacebuilding and, by contrast, what would unsustainable peacebuilding look like? This working paper engages in both a conceptual exploration of different approaches and understandings of sustainable peacebuilding and in an examination – although cursory – of different experiences in realising sustainable peacebuilding in Africa through regional frameworks. We understand sustainable peacebuilding broadly as comprising at least four different dimensions: temporal, structural, ecological, and processual. The paper shows that African regional organisations increasingly reference “sustainable peacebuilding,” yet its meaning and application remain ambiguous across missions and practices, with temporal aspects more readily adopted than structural, ecological, or process-oriented dimensions. Achieving genuinely sustainable peace will require deeper engagement with local communities, clearer political strategies, integration of environmental considerations, and more inclusive conceptual foundations shaped by African epistemologies rather than predominantly Western frameworks.