COVID-19 Conflict & Resilience Monitor – 15 September 2021

Violent extremism is often a symptom of state fragility and weak social cohesion. It tends to take root in marginalised areas where the state is not adequately attending to community needs and grievances, which are then easily mobilised. Young people with little hope for their future are particularly vulnerable. While governments tend to pursue ‘hard security’ responses in such contexts, there is a growing awareness that this will not solve the issues. The causes of violent extremism are complex and multifaceted – stemming from a mix of historical, political, economic and social, and psychological push and pull factors, including grievances around economic and political exclusion on the one hand, and ideology and material benefits that transform grievances into violent extremist action, on the other.

Remittances, which are monies sent home by migrants to their families, are known to provide a financial boost to millions of households. The positive impact that they have is seen in the fact that their flows into Africa surpassed Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and Developmental Aid in 2019 for the first time, reaching a total value of $48 billion. These are only recorded flows; the true size of remittance flows, however, including those through informal channels, is often predicted to be even larger.

In Africa, a key issue with which the continent has faced for decades has been that of persistent insecurity, instability and high levels of transnational organised crime, thus hindering the continent’s economic development. To that end, the African Union Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) was implemented in 2002. The APSA and other African institutions do not exist in isolation.  There are a number of examples of networked multilateralism in Africa, where regional and global institutions work together to pursue peace and stability on the continent, including in the area of peace support operations.