Description
This article problematises the Nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs)-led local peacebuilding in Africa. It illuminates flaws underpinning structural functional of peacebuilding NGOs in Africa. I employ an autobiographical approach to interrogate NGOs’ professionalised peacebuilding initiatives carried out through project-based models. This sets the article apart from similar works mostly approaching this topic through case studies and comparative analyses. The article develops a typology of NGO-based peacebuilders – ambitious, career and sceptical – to illuminate how their positionalities and conducts influence ideas and practices of peacebuilding in Africa. The article (re)appraises ‘NGO-isation’ and professionalisation of peacebuilding simultaneously exposing the flaws of project-based approaches to peace and revealing contributions of African-based peacebuilding professionals to literature that romanticises the local turn. The article underscores the pressing need to rethink the phenomenon of ‘NGO-ised’ and professionalised peacebuilding in Africa and its implications on romanticising the local turn in peace theory and practice.
