18/09/2026
Amani Africa's Solomon Dersso delivered a presentation on how to take the outcome of the Lunada summit forward on conflict prevention. Drawing on the body of work built over time and upcoming policy brief, the presentation outlined why the core gap in conflict prevention is political, what makes up this gap & its sources and what needs to be done & how as captured in the infographic from a recent work. Dr. Solomon A.Dersso
introduced what he called the soft pre-conditions & catalysers of effective conflict prevention - i) trust & rapport, ii) sustained engagment & intimate knowledge of & working on sensitivities of actors, iii) mastery & effective use of the art of diplomatic pursuation & the possibility of creating common ground and mobilising collective consensus, iv) enlisting politicl buy in & securing active support leveraging the power of initiative, the policy and normative committments & AU's legitimacy conferring authority, the pursuit and organisation of prevention as a) an exercise of collective responsibility through back channels, quite diplomacy, discreet engagement rather than as a race for flying ones flag or getting credit or publicity & b) as a solidarity enterprise rather than as an act of policing, disciplining or internationalising risks/threats of conflicts. In sum, translating the outcome of the Luanda summit for effective conflict prevention demands mastery of the combination of political courage, diplomatic wisdom, technical competence & normative coherence as well as the hard work of mobilization of the support of those critical for ensuring effective preventive action.📸
PAPS
