APA-Rabat (Morocco) – “Post-conflict reconstruction in Africa” is the theme of the latest edition of this annual conference on peace and security in Africa.
By our special correspondent Abdou Kh. Cissé
“I am a PCNS volunteer, what can I do for you? This is how a student from the Mohamed VI Polytechnique University (UM6P) introduces himself in front of a huge glass building and in a mild climate. Like him, dozens of future laureates of this ‘African Harvard’ have been mobilised by the Policy Centre for the New South (PCNS), Morocco’s most influential think-tank, to guide the guests of the seventh edition of the Annual Conference on Peace and Security in Africa (APSACO), which is being held on this campus on the outskirts of Rabat from 10 to 11 July. “It is a change of venue that is part of an overall concept that brings together teaching and basic research, which is the hallmark of the university,” explains Rachid El Houdaigui, who is in charge of organising APSACO, whose theme this year is “Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Africa.”
“We chose this theme for a number of reasons, because the African context tells us three things. The first is that we have failed to provide Africa with a genuine African collective security based on the complex realities of Africa,” said Mr. El Houdaigui, adding that “Africa has a number of mechanisms, including the Political Framework for Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development adopted in 2006.” “But it has not been implemented,” he regretted.
For this reason, the African Union (AU) has set up a special centre in Cairo, Egypt, to create the necessary conditions for better implementation of African post-conflict and reconstruction strategies.
“In this spirit, PCNS, which participated in the drafting of these strategies in 2022, wanted to contribute to collective African reflection on the issues of political, economic and security reconstruction, given the unsatisfactory results and outcomes,” added the academic, announcing “major innovations” in the organisation of the seventh edition in terms of the content and philosophy of the debates, with the aim of producing at the end a series of formalised recommendations specific to the conference in a report.
In addition to experts familiar with the event, such as the former head of the Senegalese armed forces, General Birame Diop, currently military adviser to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, this year’s APSACO will be enriched by the participation of the former president of the transitional government of the Central African Republic, Cathérine Samba-Panza.
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