Africa: Building sustainable peace requires democratic governance

Given the high levels of conflict in Africa, issues surrounding peace-building are among the most crucial challenges facing new multilateral institutions on the continent, including the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In the conventional view, peace-building has largely been accomplished once the formal peace agreements have been signed. However, building sustainable peace is in fact a long-term and multidimensional process which ultimately requires accountable and democratic governance, argues Chris Landsberg in Synopsis, a publication of the Centre for Policy Studies.