ANCIP

This sub-project of the ANCIP-network explores the meaning and development of Regional Infrastructures for Peace (RI4P) in West Africa. This means that we aim at creating an in-depth and coherent understanding of the development of peacebuilding networks in the West African context. It is central to this project to identify the key actors in peacebuilding and gather knowledge on the nature of their interactions. In particular we are interested in better understanding what role the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) plays in these peacebuilding processes. ECOWAS is clearly standing out through its involvement in peacebuilding, this project opens up aims at exploring which practices stand behind this engagement. Thereby, it is relevant to this research to understand how the regional actor ECOWAS is collaborating with its member states, local agents but also the African Union (AU) at the continental level to create synergies for peacebuilding. In studying these relationships, the role that civil society actors, such as civil society organizations but also traditional and religious leaders, play in peacebuilding is meant to be drawn out more clearly. This research project then looks into challenges that can arise during the process of formulating or implementing peacebuilding initiatives due to clashing peacebuilding narratives  and expectations of the involved agents. For the realization of the research, fieldwork journeys to Nigeria, Ghana, the Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia are scheduled to meet with actors important to African peacebuilding.