The right to life and security is the most basic of human rights. Without increased investment in conflict prevention, Africa will not make the rapid acceleration in development that its people seek. Investing in development is itself an investment in peace and security, but there is much more that should be done directly to strengthen conflict prevention:

• Building the capacity of African states and society to prevent and manage conflict by tackling its root causes, including steps to make aid more effective at building the foundations for durable peace, to improve the management of natural resource revenues, and to tackle the trade in small arms and ‘conflict resources’;
• Strengthening African regional organisations’ and the UN’s ability to prevent and resolve conflict through, for example, more effective early warning, mediation and peacekeeping. We propose to do this by providing flexible funding for African Union and regional organisations’ core capacity and operations; and by supporting the creation of a UN Peacebuilding Commission;
• Improving the co-ordination and financing of post-conflict peacebuilding and development, so that states emerging from violent conflict do not slide back into it.