Constructive Dispute and Conflict Resolution: A Technique for Resolving Serious Conflicts in Africa

Abstract

Arbitration and other ADR procedures for resolving disputes of all sorts are becoming commonplace in Africa. But along with this development is a discernible phenomenon: that the dichotomies that exist between the well-established procedures such as arbitration and mediation, and between techniques such as negotiation and conciliation, are often too formalised to enable African conflicts to be properly or fully investigated, or to deal effectively with the plethora of complex disputes and destructive conflicts spreading all over Africa; and the effect of this constraint is that parties and stakeholders in such problems are compelled to look for alternative ways and means of finding solutions outside the conventional procedures. If it is accepted that these procedures are neither cast in stone nor self sufficient for solving all disputes then there is scope for designing new models that may be more suitable for African conflicts. In this article the author discusses the nature of disputes and conflicts, their escalation on the African continent and the concept and operation of what the author terms ‘constructive dispute and conflict resolution’, as a recognisable technique for achieving durable solutions in African conflicts.