DETERMINANTES DE LA GESTIÓN AMBIENTAL PORTUARIA

This section integrates the other three sections and seeks to provide the conceptual link and orientation of this study. In other words, it seeks to consolidate the link between conflict management, development and peace building. An important task of this study is to situate the conflict-management discourse within an integrated approach to the peace, and development paradigms. It is thus also important to evaluate the different theoretical debates concerning development in peace building, as well as the human-needs approach in peace research

.

Burton, Azar and other scholars associated with the school of thought of conflict resolution developed a conceptualisation of peace that would fulfil the theory of human needs (Burton 1997:120)25, and thus lead to addressing the deep-rooted dynamics of conflict. This involved the universal drive to satisfy basic needs, including security, identity, recognition and participation. Azar’s notion of protracted social conflict recognised the prolonged struggle of communal groups for their basic human needs, which tend to be obscured by the State-centric nature of the international system.

He identified the repression of human needs as the root of protracted conflicts, and pointed to the role of structural factors, such as underdevelopment (Azar 1979:123– 143; Azar & Moong 1986:390–396). This is the entry point of the connection between development and peace building in Somalia. Thus, Azar equates development with

25

A synthesis on the human needs approach in conflict resolution can be accessed in Burton (1997:120).

peace, further expanding the concept of peace, and dealing with conflicts of a third kind, as stipulated above.

This study, therefore, treats human-centred development, as conceptualised above, as a major component of the overall Somali post-conflict governance regime. As Ogbaharya (2008:395) asserts, post-conflict governance is an increasingly important aspect of development assistance in sub-Saharan Africa, where the weakening and disintegration of the State undermine sustainable human development. A major challenge in post-conflict reconstruction and peace building in sub-Saharan Africa concerns the incorporation of other actors, from track-one, track-two to grassroots or track-three actors, into the post-conflict governance apparatus. This entails incorporating sub-national, non-State structures and informal institutions into the apparatus.

In this sense, this research will investigate the roles of these actors within the peace- building or post-conflict development apparatus. The way in which a neutral, recognised and legitimised mediator, such as Kenya, brings all these actors and related roles to realise peace in a protracted social conflict, such as that in Somalia, is a major objective of the study.

In order to tackle this, more theoretical and empirical research is needed into the nuanced roles and contributions of the post-conflict State actors (both informal and formal), and third-party roles in particular, in reconstituting governance and rehabilitating communities through transitional order mechanisms. This research undertaking, therefore, has sought to investigate the situation within a Post- Washington Consensus (PWC) framework, which is an emerging development approach that seeks to re-introduce the role of the State in development and in post-

conflict reconstruction and stabilization situations and polities.

The researcher will thus embark on an exploration of an interdisciplinary framework, a nexus of convergent paradigms that examines the dynamics of conflict management, peace building and the development approaches. The way in which all these approaches are synthesised in the mediation process and the enabling roles of third parties, such as Kenya, will be investigated. This integrative outlook is well-addressed

in Ball and Halevy (1996) who provide a framework for post-conflict contexts in which they identify two phases: cessation of conflict, including negotiation, mediation and cessation of hostilities, and peace building, covering transition and consolidation.

This second phase has traditionally been split between humanitarian agencies that respond to the immediate emergency needs of the civilian population in a post- conflict environment and development agencies that focus on the longer-term development goals, such as building political institutions, economic and social revitalised units focusing on this transitional stage and increased communication and planning among humanitarian and development organisations working in such environments (Ball & Halevy 1996; Cutter 2005:779).

The way to bridge this co-ordination disconnect was a major component of this dissertation, and was approached by investigating what role mediating and third-party States can play in both the conflict management and the post-conflict stabilization or reconstruction stage. This is tackled by providing a co-ordinated approach for transitional ordering and peace building through the leadership roles of co-ordinating the mentioned actors’ roles in peace and development.

This study also seeks to examine the gaps captured in the Report of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change (UN 2004). The report, christened “A more secure world: Our shared responsibility”, identifies peace building and post-conflict development architectures, as practised as an institutional deficit in the UN system. It claims that the large number of States recovering from conflict places an obligation on this intergovernmental body to tend to the unique needs of these countries (UN 2004).

However, a disengagement policy has been embraced by the world body with regard to conflict management, peace building and development initiatives, which have subsequently been delegated to regional organisations, such as IGAD, which have observably not taken the challenge due to political complications, legal inconsistencies and mandates and capacity vacuums that cannot fully address the challenges encountered in Somalia. This poses the question: What roles then do

legitimate third-party countries, such as Kenya play in mediation, and peace building and development co-ordination strategies?

2.8 Conclusion

This chapter has highlighted the shifting sands related to the discourse development of conflict as a social phenomenon, the evolution of intervention avenues and the growth and dynamism of peace building or post-conflict reconstruction mechanisms. It is apparent that conflict management is still experiencing major shifts in terms of normative growth, and by having a multi-dimensional and disciplinary context. The next chapter will, therefore, critically discuss the essence of a theoretical framework adoption to the study, and one that consolidates these shifts or realities.