Kontakt

Camille Marquette and Titus Wamae

Camille Marquette works for International Alert as Peacebuilding Advisor on Natural Resources Management and Climate Change. He currently supports research and programming on climate security and conflicts around access to natural resources such as land, water and forests.

Contact: CMarquette@international-alert.org

Titus Wamae works for Wetlands International as a Regional Policy and Advocacy Officer for Eastern Africa supporting programmes in South-Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Mr. Wamae is an Environmental Lawyer with more than 15 years work experience in policy and legislative advocacy, community development, civil society capacity building and organisational development. He is a certified Environmental Impact Assessment/Audit Expert.

Future Needs Peacebuilding Blog

FriEnt is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the launch of a new blog series. The Future needs-Peacebuilding Blog examines the future challenges and opportunities of peacebuilding for local, national and international actors. Authors from academia, policy level and the practical field share new perspectives and impulses on seven topic areas relevant to the
future of peacebuilding.

Interested to contribute?

Great! If you would like to write a blog post, get in touch with us.

Contact us here

Grist to the mill for peacebuilding?

Water, Peace and Security in Mali and Kenya
03. März 2022
WPS activity in Djenne | Ely Cissouma

Water plays an important role for peace and stability of the African continent. In addition to the conservation of wetlands, interventions around the preservation of water can support peacebuilding. Based on examples drawn from the engagement of the Water Peace and Security partnership in Mali and Kenya, these practical experiences show how water is key to stability and security, how water-related conflicts are regulated, and what could be a way forward to make these structures more effective.

Water is at the heart of ecosystems on which human livelihood depends for agriculture, livestock and fisheries. As such, water is key to stability and development. However, climate change, population growth, weak governance and mismanagement are posing numerous challenges to this resource.

This is particularly observed in the Kenyan and Malian wetland ecosystems - Lake Turkana and the Inner Niger Delta. Communities of Turkana County are affected by water scarcity and experience decreased rainfall, increased dry spells - negatively affecting their livestock. In Mali, the flood plains of the Inner Niger Delta are influenced by changing rainfall patterns and the operation of dams and irrigation systems which impacts water availability and the communities dependent on it. This is threatening social stability, hence affecting the security in the region.

Tensions and conflicts around water and wetlands

Lake Turkana and the Inner Niger Delta are distant from national politics. Local communities feel marginalized from decision-making processes. In Mali, limited state presence and defiance towards authorities impede its capacity to enforce rules – a tendency that is aggravated by ongoing conflict since 2013. The Inner Niger Delta serves as a refuge for armed groups who use deeply seated grievances over resources allocation to extend their influence. In North-eastern Kenya, weak environmental governance structures, scarce resources and changing climatic patterns have put additional pressures on already vulnerable communities and exacerbate endemic water-related disputes within and between communities. Furthermore, the discovery of oil, infrastructural developments, increased economic activities and urbanisation have exacerbated often already existing grievances and conflicts over land rights.

Legal frameworks and local initiatives for integrated resource management

To face these pressures on Lake Turkana and the Inner Niger Delta, integrated resource management and effective conflict resolution mechanisms are critical. Both Kenya and Mali have some structures in place. The Constitution of Kenya encourages the application of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms in resolving environmental conflicts and disputes such as water-related conflicts. In Mali, the law foresees a Pastoralist Charter to regulate herders’ activity and the establishment of local resources management committees.

Although clearly articulated on paper, these policies and laws remain under-implemented, insufficiently staffed and credited. Another weakness is that they tend to be siloed, driven by either the hydrological or peace and security sector. Nevertheless, some promising initiatives and structures are emerging, albeit still rather localised and dependent on donor funding. In Mali, local water committees and land management commissions – who include interest groups such as cooperatives and associations - have shown they could be efficient mechanisms. In Kenya, groups such as the Water Resources Users Associations (WRUAs) play a critical role in resolving water-related conflicts.

A necessary leap of cross-sectoral collaboration for proper implementation

Through our engagement with the Water, Peace and Security partnership, we advocate to scale those success stories – and accompany local actors from community to national level to transcend their sectoral approaches to cooperate and address those complex challenges. It starts with establishing a shared understanding of power dynamics, resources availability and allocation between different stakeholders and sectors. The partnership supports this through participatory conflict and water systems analysis, bringing together technical experts and community representatives.

Through this process and the increased understanding and knowledge, it encourages institutional actors – working in technical agencies or ministries, local or regional authorities – to seek synergies beyond the scope of their mandate and take informed action, evaluating the impact of specific policy decisions on water management.

Pursuing such a process as described creates local ownership and encourages champions from diverse backgrounds within the formal structures and the target communities to stand up and address water-related conflict risks in a holistic way.

Read more about the Water, Peace and Security (WPS) partnership here.

Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Frieden und Entwicklung (FriEnt) ist ein Zusammenschluss von staatlichen Organisationen, kirchlichen Hilfswerken, zivilgesellschaftlichen Netzwerken und politischen Stiftungen.

Kontakt

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Frieden

und Entwicklung (FriEnt) c/ o GIZ

Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 36

53113 Bonn

Tel +49 228 4460-1916

E-Mail: info@frient.de

Cookies und der Schutz Ihrer Daten
FriEnt verwendet Cookies, um die Funktionalität der Website zu verbessern, um Ihnen ein besseres Website-Erlebnis zu bieten und um Funktionen für soziale Medien bereitzustellen. Durch die Nutzung dieser Website erklären Sie sich mit der Verwendung von Cookies einverstanden.

Ausführliche Informationen über die Verwendung von Cookies auf dieser Website finden Sie in unserer Datenschutzerklärung. Sie können Ihre Cookie-Einstellungen unten anpassen.