The work of the African Union Liaison Office in building peace on the ground: A case study of Madagascar

ABSTRACT

Field offices are an increasingly important reality in the architecture of African peacemaking. Yet despite their importance in practice, in academic debates on peacebuilding and mediation, little attention has so far been paid to their work. This paper analyses the role of the African Union Liaison Office in the international efforts to re-establish constitutional order after the 2009 political crisis in Madagascar. The paper scrutinises the mandate, set-up and institutional capacities of the liaison office and reconstructs how and to what extent it has contributed to peacemaking and conflict prevention in Madagascar. It thereby particularly highlights the often ad hoc way the liaison office reacted to unprecedented and rapidly changing events on the ground and stresses the important role played by individual staff members in translating the liaison office’s mandate into practice.

KEYWORDS:

• African Union (AU)
• APSA
• Madagascar
• peacebuilding
• liaison offices

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the workshop ‘African peacemaking seen from below’ in Ouagadougou, financed under the Program Point Sud and the 7^th European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) in Basel, Switzerland. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Antonia Witt for having advised me to write this article in the first place and for reading and commenting earlier versions of it and Ulf Engels for his support. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Notes on contributor

Mr Nzolani Francois Butedi is a Senior Electoral and Post Conflict Reconstruction and Development Officer at the African Union Liaison Office of Madagascar and Comoros. Before joining the African Union, he served respectively as Regional expert on Governance, Peace and Security for the Southern African Development Community – Council of Non-Governmental Organizations in Botswana and Programme Manager: Democracy and Governance for SADC-Lawyers’ Association in South Africa. He holds an LLM degree in Human Rights and Constitutional Practices from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and an LLB degree from the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Notes

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2 AU (African Union), Constitutive Act of the African Union. Lomé: AU, 2002, Art. 3; AU PSC (AU Peace and Security Council), Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council. Addis Ababa: AU, 2004.

3 AU, AU Handbook 2016. Addis Ababa: AU, pp. 81-83.

4 AU, African Peace and Security Architecture APSA Roadmap 2016–2020. Addis Ababa: AU, 2015, p. 57.

5 Ibid.

6 See for instance Randrianja S & S Ellis, Madagascar: A Short History. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press; Razafindrakoto M, F Roubaud & JM Wachsberger, ‘Élites, pouvoir et régulation à Madagascar: Une lecture de l'histoire à l'aune de l'économie politique’, Afrique contemporaine, 2014, 251, pp. 25–50.

7 Jütersonke, O & M Kartas, Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA) Madagascar. Geneva: Geneva Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, 2010, p. 34.

8 SADC-CNGOs (Southern Africa Development Community – Council of Non Governmental Organizations), Madagascar from Protracted Crisis to Sustainable Peace: Taking Stock and Rethinking Future Policy Options. Policy Paper. Gaborone: SADC-CNGOs, 2011, p. 7.

9 Imbiki A, La Réconciliation nationale à Madagascar: Une perspective complexe et difficile. L’Harmattan, 5-7, rue de l'Ecole-Polytechnique, 75005 Paris, 2014, p. 61.

10 Souaré I, ‘The African Union as a norm entrepreneur on military coups d’etat in Africa (1952–2012): An empirical assessment’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 52.1, 2014, pp. 69–94; Witt A, Negotiating Political Order(s): The Politics of Unconstitutional Changes of Government. CAS Working Paper. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2012.

11 Ordonnance no. 2009/001 of 17 March 2009 (The President Marc Ravalomanana issued the Ordonnance dissolving the Government and giving full power to a Military Directorate.

12 Cawthra G, The Role of SADC in Managing Political Crisis and Conflict: The Case of Madagascar and Zimbabwe. Maputo: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, p. 17; Witt, A, ‘Convergence on whose terms? Reacting to coups d’etat in Guinea and Madagascar’, African Security, 6.3–4, pp. 257–75.

13 AU PSC, Decision of the 181st Meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, PSC/PR/COMM (CLXXXI). Addis Ababa: African Union, 2009.

14 Ibid.

15 Cawthra G, The Role of SADC in Managing Political Crisis and Conflict: The Case of Madagascar and Zimbabwe. Maputo: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, p. 17; Witt, A, ‘Convergence on whose terms? Reacting to coups d’etat in Guinea and Madagascar’, African Security, 6.3–4, pp. 257–75.

16 SADC (South African Development Community), Roadmap for Ending the Crisis in Madagascar. Antananarivo: SADC, 2011.

17 AU PSC, Communiqué of the 415th meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, PSC/PR/COMM (CDXV). Addis Ababa: AU, 2014.

18 SADC, Roadmap for Ending the Crisis in Madagascar. Antananarivo: SADC, 2011.

19 Ibid., Article 33.

20 Ibid.

21 AU PSC, Decision of the 283rd Meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. Addis Ababa: African Union, 2011.

22 AMISOM is the African Union Mission to Somalia. See AU Handbook 2016. Addis Ababa: AU, pp. 81–3.

23 AU PSC, Decision of the 545th Meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, PSC/PR/COMM.1 (DXLV). Addis Ababa: AU, 2015.

24 Front Page Africa, ‘AU urged to reconsider transferring liaison office to Côte d’Ivoire’, http://www.frontpageafricaonline.com/index.php/news/751-au-urged-to-reconsider-transferring-liaison-office-to-cote-d-ivoire (accessed 14 June 2017).

25 AU, African Peace and Security Architecture APSA Roadmap 2016–2020. Addis Ababa: AU, 2015, p. 57.

26 Ibid.

27 AU PSC, Decision of the 283rd Meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. Addis Ababa: African Union, 2011.

28 AU PSC, Communiqué of the 545th Meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, PSC/PR/COMM.1 (DXLV). Addis Ababa: AU, 2015.

29 AU Peace and Security Department, Message télécopié PSD/282/A/33630.15 of 7 October 2015: Nouveau Mandat du Bureau de Liaison.

30 They did, however, receive administrative and financial support from the SADC Secretariat.

31 Members of ISG-M are: South Africa, Algeria, China, United States of America, France, Japan, Madagascar, Mauritius, United Kingdom, Russia, Switzerland, African Development Bank World Bank, United Nations, African Union and European Union.

32 National Independent Electoral Commission for the Transition, Minutes of the steering committee meeting, PACEM. 27 January to 18 February 2014, p. 3, –http://www.mg.undp.org/content/madagascar/fr/home/operations/projects/democratic_governance/projet-d_appui--au-cycle-electoral-2012-2014--a--madagascar--.html (accessed 11 December 2017).

33 SADC, Roadmap for Ending the Crisis in Madagascar. Antananarivo: SADC, 2011.

34 Le Conseil Œcuménique des Eglises Chrétiennes à Madagascar, Résolutions Communes a l’issu du Conseil national pour la Reconciliation. CCI-Ivato, Antananarivo, FFKM, 2 May 2015.

35 Folke Bernadotte Academy, Seminar Report: Preventing Violent Conflict Through Dialogue and Leadership. Stockholm: Folke Bernadotte Academy, 2005, p.10.

36 Loi no. 2016-037 du 2 février 2017 relative à la Réconciliation nationale.

37 International Contact Group-Madagascar, 9ème réunion consultative du GIC-M, 28 March 2014. Antananarivo: GIC-M, 2014.

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40 AU, Report of the Workshop on the Ten Years of the African Union Post-conflict Reconstruction and Development Policy Implementation. Addis Ababa: AU, p. 4.

41 AU, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, Member of the Panel of the Wise, Concludes his Mission to Madagascar. Press Statement, Addis Ababa, 11 January 2016, http://www.peaceau.org/en/article/mr-lakhdar-brahimi-member-of-the-panel-of-the-wise-concludes-his-mission-to-madagascar#sthash.U2XTQQP9.dpuf.

42 Decrée no. 2017-165 fixant la composition, le fonctionnement et les attributions du Comité de Sélection national des membres du Conseil du Fimpihavanana Malagasy.

43 Lanz D & R Gasser, A Crowded Field: Competition in International Peace Mediation. Pretoria: Centre for Mediation in Africa, 2013.

44 Internal financial document not for public use.

45 AU, Report of the Workshop on the Ten Years of the African Union Post-conflict Reconstruction and Development Policy Implementation. Addis Ababa: AU, p. 5.

46 AU, Constitutive Act of the African Union. Lomé: AU, 2002; AU, African Charter for Democracy, Elections, and Governance. Addis Ababa: AU, 2007.