Retooling the Grassroots at the Frontlines: Strengthening Community-Based Organisations for Peace and Security across Fragile African Contexts – Examples from Eastern, Western and Southern Africa

Publication Details

Publication Date

10/09/2026

Volume / Issue

Vol 1, Issue 4 (2026)

Article No.

019

Journal

British Journal of Contemporary Research

DOI

https://doi.org/10.67693/BJCR-E8VGJB5A

Received

15 Aug 2026

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3

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0

Abstract

Community-based organisations (CBOs) constitute Africa's most credible yet chronically under-resourced frontline peace infrastructure. This paper examines how CBOs can be systematically retooled to address new and emerging conflict forms, including jihadist insurgency, pastoral resource violence, urban insecurity, and state collapse, across five fragile African contexts: Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and South Africa. Employing a qualitative comparative case study design guided by hybrid peacebuilding theory and the concept of localised peace infrastructure, the study draws on peer-reviewed scholarship, institutional policy reports, and community-level narratives to assess CBO capacity, identify retooling needs, and generate actionable recommendations. Cross-case analysis reveals five recurring enablers of effective peacebuilding – community-rooted legitimacy, adaptive capacity, gender inclusion, hybrid partnership architectures, and indigenous leadership – alongside three critical operational gaps: absent psychosocial support for practitioners, fragmented early warning systems, and chronically short-term funding cycles. The paper advances the local turn literature by providing the first systematic cross-typology comparison of CBO effectiveness within the African context, developing the "capacity paradox" as a theoretically generative framework, and centring African epistemic voices as constitutive of peacebuilding theory. Recommendations target African governments, donors and continental VOPEs, calling for structural transformation of the systems surrounding CBOs rather than incremental programmatic adjustment.

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This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Free to read, share, and adapt with attribution.