On 1 October 2014 the ISS Pretoria office hosted a Seminar entitled: Why the future of peacebuilding matters to Africa. The Seminar discussed the future of peacebuilding and how it will impact African countries. Peacebuilding is increasingly recognised by the international community as a necessary response to conflict situations. It seeks to prevent violent conflict or a relapse into conflict in states in transition. However, despite the recognition that peacebuilding is important in post-conflict countries, strategies are still often designed on the basis of assumptions that lack empirical evidence. This leads to wider challenges in the process of achieving sustainable peace, resulting in a wasteful mismatch of resources and ineffective responses in situations where peacebuilding is urgently required. Approaches to dealing with conflict and fragility vary widely from one country to the next, with different degrees of success. The challenge is particularly important for Africa, where many peacebuilding processes have failed. Speakers:

• Gustavo de Carvalho, Senior Researcher, Conflict Management and Peacebuilding division; and
• Caty Clement, Senior programme advisor and senior fellow, Leadership, Crisis and Conflict Management Programme, Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

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