Three African experts have been appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to a seven-member panel charged with reviewing the world body?s peacebuilding architecture in the face of major challenges.
Dr ?Funmi Olonisakin from Nigeria, Edith Grace Ssempala from Uganda and Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah from Mauritania are on the panel, which was recommended by the presidents of the General Assembly and Security Council in December.
The experts will undertake studies in Burundi, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Timor-Leste, reviewing the policy and institutional aspect of the UN?s peacebuilding architecture in these countries that were once beset by conflict.
The panel is expected to submit a report to the General Assembly and the Security Council by mid this year. The UN said the report would then be considered ?through an intergovernmental process managed by co-facilitators appointed by the two principal organs. The intergovernmental process should be concluded with a concurrent decision by both organs before the end of 2015?.
Dr Olonisakin, the Director of the Security, Leadership and Society Programme at King?s College London, is the founding Director of the African Leadership Centre (ALC) in Nairobi, which aims to build the next generation of African leaders in the fields of peace, security and development.
She has experience of working within the UN system, having been a former member of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
Currently guest lecturing at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, she told the GNA: ?This review of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture is timely. It not only demonstrates the United Nations’ awareness of the rapidly changing context in which it is responding to the needs of countries emerging from conflict, it creates an opportunity to reflect on how best the architecture can realise the vision that underpins its establishment.”
Dr Godwin Murunga, the current Director of the ALC, said that in the past four years while in charge of the ALC, Dr Olonisakin ?steered the work of the Centre in the direction of studying peacebuilding in Africa?.
The Kenyan academic added: ?Indeed, there are several ongoing research and policy programmes that address this issue. By nominating her to the Group of Experts, the UN Secretary General has affirmed not just the excellent work that Dr Olonisakin has conducted in this area but also the potential she holds to contribute extensively to the future work of the peacebuilding architecture.
?This provides us at the African Leadership Centre with a perfect opportunity to upscale the work we do in this area but also to place it firmly at the heart of the global and continental policy making world.?
Dr Olonisakin has positioned her work to serve as a bridge between academia and the world of policy and practice. Her academic research and writing has contributed to strategic thinking in post-conflict contexts and in the work of regional organisations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU).
She says she has a keen interest in contributing to efforts to tackle the structural roots of armed conflict. As such, she has devoted particular attention to the governance of security actors as well as the narratives that entrench the marginalisation of women and youth in security and development processes in Africa.
Mrs Ssempala is a former Director of International Affairs in the Office of the World Bank’s Vice-President for External Affairs, and a former Ugandan Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the AU, among many other ambassadorial postings.
She is also credited with a successful campaign for the US government?s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the US President’s Emergency Relief Fund for HIV/AIDS.
Mr Ould-Abdallah is the President of the Centre for Strategies and Security for the Sahel Sahara (Centre 4s). He served as Foreign Minister of Mauritania and Ambassador to the US and the Benelux States.
During his time at the UN he served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Burundi, West Africa and Somalia, and as Chairman of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission. From 1996 to 2002 he managed the Global Coalition for Africa in Washington, D.C., in close cooperation with the World Bank.
Mr. Ould-Abdallah is a founding and advisory member of Transparency International and a board member of Search for Common Ground and the Brandeis International Centre for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.
The other members of the group are Anis Bajwa (Pakistan), Saraswathi Menon (India), Charles Petrie (France) and Gert Rosenthal (Guatemala).
