ACCORD has adapted to the new COVID-19 reality, refocusing and restructuring a significant proportion of its staff and its effort on identifying & monitoring, tracking &, analysing, and preparing & responding to COVID-19 related social-unrest and violent conflict in Africa.
Through our networks across Africa, and supported by available online data, ACCORD identifies COVID-19 related incidents and trends that may provide early warning of rising tensions that could develop into social unrest and violent conflict. Once the incidents are captured in the dataset, ACCORD analyses the trends and publishes a weekly COVID-19 Africa Conflict and Resilience Monitor, in order to share the information and analysis with all stakeholders.
ACCORD then works with its in-country networks and other local, regional, continental and international partners and stakeholders, to encourage and support interventions aimed at mitigating, and where possible preventing, COVID-19 related social unrest and violent conflict.
With this final edition of the Monitor for 2024, we celebrate 60 editions of the Conflict and Resilience Monitor. ACCORD initiated the Monitor in April 2020 with the intent to monitor the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on conflict and resilience in Africa. Since then, it has developed into a regular forum for debate and taking stock of the state of peace and security in Africa, including especially the various ways in which African institutions (multilateral, state and civil society) are developing and adapting capacities to prevent and manage conflict and sustain peace.
In this edition we begin with an article by Dr Adam Mayer, who shares some insights into his recently published book titled Military Marxism: Africa’s Contribution to Revolutionary Theory, 1957–2023, which “explores African Marxist theory and the intellectual merits of Afro-Marxist schools of thought to show how they have developed and impacted sub-Saharan Africa from the Cold War to the present”. Our second article sees Abraham Miniko present the pros and cons of technology use in Africa and makes a case for its potential to contribute towards peace and security on the continent. Michlene Mongae writes about the devastating impacts of the Sudan conflict on the access to food security for women and children. Lastly, we end this issue with a piece from Nkanyiso Simelane, Researcher at ACCORD, who shares reflections on the elections that have taken place in southern Africa this year, identifying trends and prospects for the region.
With this final edition of 2024 we also bid farewell to Assistant Editor, Nkanyiso Simelane, that ably supported the production of the Monitor over the past year, and we wish him well with the next step in his career.
Mapping the history of Marxist theory in sub-Saharan Africa
The potential of technology as a tool for peace and security in Africa.
Food insecurity in the context of the Sudan conflict.
If you are able to share information from your experiences on the ground with the crisis in Africa, we'd really like to hear from you. Please get in touch!
