Our July edition of the Monitor pays tribute to the founding Editor of ACCORD’s African Journal on Conflict Resolution (AJCR), Prof. Jannie Malan, who passed away this month. The Founder and Executive Director, Dr Gounden, reflects on the immense contribution made by Prof. Malan at ACCORD and in the field of peace studies.
Dr Linda Darkwa’s articles offers insights on strategies to advance gender equality, and makes a case for why the militarisation of peace operations can be viewed as an opportunity to advance gender equality.
Dr Fiifi Edu-Afful, writes about the withdrawal of United Nations’ (UN) peacekeeping missions, particularly in Africa, which have raised pertinent questions about what follows once the UN has exited. He makes a case for a need to end the side-lining of African regional organisations/mechanisms in regional stability after departure of UN operations.
The last article in this edition is written by Boikanyo Nkwatle and deals with one of the important aspects in South Africa’s election cycle, which is the demarcation of ward boundaries ahead of the local government elections in 2026. In addition to reflecting about the state of local government politics in South Africa, the article also provides an overview of processes and outcomes of some of the ward delineations that are currently underway in the country.