Photo of a woman working at a brick kiln while carrying her child at an IDP Camp near El-Fashier, Sudan, taken by APN Alumnus Fatma Osman Ibnouf (IRG 2016) during her APN-supported fieldwork on the linkage between care-work arrangements during wartime and peacebuilding.

Views from the Field: A woman working at a brick kiln while carrying her child at an IDP Camp near El-Fashier, Sudan. Taken by APN Alumnus Fatma Osman Ibnouf (IRG 2016) during her APN-supported fieldwork on the linkage between care-work arrangements during wartime and peacebuilding.

Life as an APN Grantee & Alumnus

Professor Diana Gibson, APN Collaborative Working Group Lead Investigator (2016-2018)

"The CWG experience has also helped me to think through the whole process of what it means to mentor younger colleagues. I can clearly see the impact of my mentoring activities… This kind of intellectual growth is what is really necessary in many African countries where people don’t always have such opportunities. Many young academics usually have to go abroad to be able to access such opportunities. To be able to be in African countries and still have them is wonderful; it’s really a worthwhile thing. I am now a convert to mentoring younger colleagues." — Professor Diana Gibson, APN Collaborative Working Group Lead Investigator (2016–2018)

Read our interview with Professor Gibson

Dr. Fekadu Tufa at the ISA 2017 Annaul Convention

"This is a project that has become a reality because of the APN grant. It is an area where I had been working but had never done such productive fieldwork before the APN grant… The APN is not only about money, it’s not only about the funds we get to conduct fieldwork; it is much more than that. The APN trainings that we received—the proposal writing training, the theoretical and methodological training, the fieldwork training, and the research and writing-up training—are so much more than the financial aspect." — Dr. Fekadu Adugna Tufa, APN Individual Research Grant Recipient (2016)

Read our interview with Dr. Tufa

Asebe Regassa Debelo at the SSRC's office with an APN banner

"The APN grant really helped me to broaden my area of engagement in research because my prior research activities were not purely focused on conflict and peacebuilding. I was doing some research in related topics, but my APN-supported research helped me to go further into the details of conflict research and peacebuilding practice… My engagement with the APN didn’t end with the end of the funding of my project; it has continued since then and that has actively helped me hone my research skills, develop my scholarship, and broaden my networks." — Dr. Asebe Regassa Debelo, APN Individual Research Grant Recipient (2015)

Read our interview with Dr. Debelo

Recent APN Publications

Working Papers

"Women and the African Peace and Security Architecture"
By Hussaina J. Abdullah

"Fleeing Boko Haram: The Trauma of Captivity and Challenge of Freedom"
By Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome

"'Leave No One to Tell the Tales': The Role of Pain and Recollection in Post-Conflict Reconciliation in Africa"
By Bukola Adeyemi Oyeniyi

Policy Briefing Notes

"Revisiting the Dismissal of the UNMISS Force Commander in South Sudan"
By Kizito Sabala (CWG 2014–2016) and Charles Ukeje (CWG Lead Investigator 2014–2016)

"Local Actors, Conflict Management, and Peacebuilding in Central Nigeria: Insights and Policy Implications"
By Jimam T. Lar (IRG 2016)

"State Responses to the Relapse into Insurgent Violence in Nigeria's Oil Region"
By Charles Ukeje (CWG Lead Investigator 2014–2016)

Kujenga Amani

"Book Review: The Limits of Democracy and the Postcolonial Nation State: Mali’s Democratic Experiment Falters, while Jihad and Terrorism Grow in the Sahara"
By Ibrahim Bangura (IRG 2016)

"Military Humanitarianism and Africa’s Troubling 'Forces for Good'"
By Danny Hoffman

"Gender Mainstreaming in Local Strategies for Conflict Transformation"
By Fatma Osman Ibnouf (IRG 2016)

"Insecurity, Conflict, and Militancy in the Maghreb and Sahel Regions"
By Jocelyn Perry

"Life as an APN Alumnus: An Interview with Kizito Sabala"
By The Editors, with Kizito Sabala (CWG 2014–2016)

"Meet the APN’s New Advisory Board Chair: Professor Ismail Rashid"
By The Editors

APN Events & Policy Engagement

Conference on Militancy and Conflict in the Sahel and Maghreb

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in collaboration with the APN, hosted a conference on "Militancy and Conflict in the Sahel and Maghreb" in Washington, DC, on April 12, 2017. The day-long event focused on the rise of violent extremists, insurgents, and non-state actors within the security complex of the Sahel and Maghreb regions and how best to address these issues locally, regionally, and internationally.

Jimam Lar, Joel Nwokeoma, Amy Niang, Bruce Whitehouse, and Cyril Obi onstage at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Peacebuilding in Africa: Sustaining Inclusive Civil Society Engagement

Wilton Park, in collaboration with the APN and the African Leadership Centre (ALC), organized and hosted a conference on "African Peacebuilding: Sustaining Inclusive Civil Society Engagement" in the United Kingdom from March 19–22, 2017. The three-day conference was the third of four in a series of collaborative events, with the previous conferences in the series assessing the progression of African approaches to peacebuilding in response to the changing dynamics of conflict actors on the continent. The primary purpose of this conference was to raise awareness about the obstacles and evaluate advancements for inclusive peace building focusing on the role of (empowered) African civil society organizations in mediating state and society relations and to develop further findings of, and allow policy makers, practitioners, and civil society actors to respond to, issues raised during the previous two Wilton Park meetings in the series.

A seminar table of attendees at the Wilton Park conference at Wiston House

International Studies Association’s 58th Annual Convention

The APN participated in the 58th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA) in Baltimore, MD on February 23–24, 2017. This year's Annual Convention theme was "Understanding Change in World Politics." Several APN Alumni, Advisory Board members, and program director Cyril Obi moderated panels and presented papers throughout the conference.

APN Attendees at the ISA's 2017 Annual Convention

Updates from APN Alumni

Many warm wishes and congratulations to all of our APN Alumni and grantees celebrating new positions, conference presentations, and publications.

Positions

Dr. Abosede Omowumi Babatunde (IRG 2016) received a Writing Fellowship from the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society for her project on "Environmental Change, Traditional Institutions, and Security in Nigeria’s Oil-Rich Niger Delta."
Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji (IRG 2016) has been appointed and confirmed as a Resident Electoral Commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria.
Rosette Sifa Vuninga (CWG 2016–2018) has been selected to the Harry Frank Guggenheim Young African Scholars Program.
Prof. Dereje Feyissa Dori (IRG 2016) has been appointed senior research advisor for the Horn of Africa Regional Programme, Life & Peace Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Prof. Philani Moyo (IRG 2016) has been appointed director of the Fort Hare Institute for Social and Economic Research (FHISER).
Prof. Pamela Machakanja (CWG Lead Investigator 2016-2018) has been appointed dean of the College of Business, Peace, Leadership and Governance at Africa University, Mutare, Zimbabwe.

Presentations

Dr. Peace Medie (BMC 2016, IRG 2015) presented on her forthcoming book manuscript, Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa, at the Social Science Research Council on June 7.
Dr. Fatma Osman Ibnouf (IRG 2016) presented on "The Missing Link: Women as Care-Provider and Countering Violent Extremism" at the "Women's Voices in the Mediterranean and Africa: Movements, Feminisms, and Resistance to Extremisms" conference, hosted by the ISIS Center for Women and Development and Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Fez, Morocco, on May 6.
Dr. Abosede Omowumi Babatunde (IRG 2016) presented her paper on the "Efficacy of Traditional Conflict Resolution Mechanisms in the Volatile Oil-Rich Nigeria's Niger Delta" at the FrancoPaix Symposium hosted by the Centre FrancoPaix and the West Africa Peace and Security Network in Montreal, Canada, on May 5.
Dr. Eria Serwajja (IRG 2016) presented his paper on "Fractured Intimacy: Gender-Based Conflicts in the Oil-Rich Albertine Region, Western Uganda" at the Young African Researchers in Agriculture (YARA) Annual Conference at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, on February 6.

Publications

Dr. Jimam Lar (IRG 2016) authored a chapter on "Historicising Vigilante Policing in Plateau State, Nigeria" in Police in Africa: The Street Level View, edited by Jan Beek, Mirco Gopfert, Olly Owen, and Jonny Steinberg (Oxford University Press, forthcoming, July 2017).
Dr. Peace Medie (BMC 2016, IRG 2015) authored an article on "Rape Reporting in Post-Conflict Côte d'Ivoire: Accessing Justice and Ending Impunity" in African Affairs (March 13, 2017); a chapter on "Fighting Gender-Based Violence: The Women's Movement and the Enforcement of Rape Law in Liberia" in The African Affairs Reader, edited by Nic Cheeseman, Lindsay Whitfield, and Carl Death (Oxford University Press, forthcoming, June 2017); and a policy brief on "How to Ensure Women's Access to Justice as the UN Draws Down its Mission in Liberia" for the Global Economic Governance Programme (February 2017).
Dr. Ibrahim Bangura (IRG 2016) authored a paper on "The Gradual Emergence of Second Generation Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone" for the Centre for Security Governance (no. 15).
Dr. Abosede Omowumi Babatunde (IRG 2016) authored an article on "Orí and Elédàá in Poverty Conceptualization in Traditional Yorùbá Religion: Challenging Developmental and Aid Organizations' Understandings of Poverty" in the Journal of African Cultural Studies (29, no. 3).
Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji (IRG 2016) authored an article on "Preventive Action and Conflict Mitigation in Nigeria's 2015 Elections" in Democratization (24, no. 4).
Dr. Godfrey Maringira (IRG 2014) authored an article on "Politicization and Resistance in the Zimbabwean National Army" in African Affairs (116, no. 462); and an article on "Soldiers as Victims: Behind Military Barracks in the Post-Colonial African Army" in African Security Review (26, no. 1).
Dr. Gladman Thondhlana (IRG 2014) coauthored an article on "Fuelwood Preferences, Use and Availability in the #Khomani San Resettlement Farms, Southern Kalahari, South Africa" with Michelle Nott in Forests, Tress and Livelihoods (26, no. 3).
Dr. Amy Niang (IRG 2013) authored a chapter on "Personalized Mediations and Interventions in the Ivoirian Conflict" in International Security and Peacebuilding: Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, edited by Abu Bakarr Bah (Indiana University Press, 2017).

Updates of your own to share? We'd love to hear about them; email us at apn@ssrc.org to let us know!