Forum recommends strategies for resolving conflicts

The innovative approaches to conflict management that women's groups have developed need to be appreciated, participants in the Third Forum on Governance in Africa, held in Bamako, Mali, from 28 to 30 June, recommended. It is essential for women to be involved in national affairs at a very early stage and at all levels, they said, adding that this could be done through measures targeting their economic and political empowerment, but also through their participation in governmental decision-making. The competencies of governments, civil society and regional and subregional organisations in the area of conflict analysis and management need to be consolidated, they recommended. In a message to the Forum, organised by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that "in the past three decades, more than 30 civil wars have been fought in Africa". The Forum recognised the need to maintain a balance between justice and reconciliation so as to avoid the risk of falling into a vicious cycle of violence and instability. Governments should intensify their efforts to control illicit arms trafficking, it noted, adding that a moratorium the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has placed on the trade in and manufacture of light arms should be extended gradually to the rest of the continent.