Namummaa: The Indigenous Oromo Relational Philosophy of Conflict Resolution in Ethiopia

Conflict resolution and peace building mechanisms remain problematic for most societies in Africa including those in Ethiopia, as most of them are trying to imitate western modalities rather than using their own indigenous institutions. Indigenous conflict resolution and management are proven as less complex and time saving, and participating parties in conflict solve their own problems and handle their affairs in a relative ways more acceptable to them. However, the role this important institutions play in solving the disputes is becoming weak with time. In-depth understanding of the conflicts, indigenous conflicts resolution and management mechanisms, and designing holistic strategies and approaches for addressing the conflicts are very crucial. Therefore, this study reviewed indigenous rangeland conflict management and resolution mechanisms in pastoral areas of Ethiopia. Moreover, it attempts to identify the nature, types, causes, and consequences of conflicts. Conflict has devastating consequences on the lives and livelihoods of pastoral society and the economy of the country as whole. Gain over the control of scarce and strategic resources, particularly water and pasture which is further exacerbated by different factors are among the major causes. Alternative conflict resolution mechanisms need to be strengthened and indigenous customary institutions that regulate access and use of resources need to be empowered. The Elder’s council should gain legal recognition, and mechanisms are also needed to allow customary institutions to function in harmony with current modern government structures. Key words: Conflict, conflict management and resolution, Ethiopia, pastoral areas, resource.

The general aim of this study was to assess the role of the Catholic Church in conflict resolution and peace-building in the Maasai community in Lolgorian Parish, Catholic Diocese of Ngong in Kenya. The Maasai community in Lolgorian Parish face recurring conflicts driven by land disputes, resource competition, political and socio-economic challenges, which have hindered economic growth and investment. These conflicts disrupt education, healthcare, social cohesion, exacerbating poverty and social inequalities in the region. Despite interventions by local leaders and the government, the conflicts have persisted, undermining sustainable development efforts. The Catholic Church plays a significant role in peace-building, but its effectiveness in addressing the root causes of conflict and fostering sustainable peace remains a challenge. The study integrated Karl Marx’s, Paul Lederach’s, and Montville’s peace building models. The researcher reviewed related literature on the study themes and summarised the study variables into a conceptual framework. A mixed-method approach involving quantitative and qualitative research designs was used. The study applied the Yamane formula to calculate a sample size, with primary data being collected through questionnaires from 114 community respondents. Purposive sampling was used to select four key informants. The results are presented in tables and charts. The researcher believes that this study may enhance conflict resolution and peace-building mechanisms in Lolgorian Parish. By providing a deeper understanding of the underlying causes of conflict, the study’s insights could inform the development of more targeted and effective strategies for mediation, community dialogue, and sustainable peace initiatives. In order to enhance the effectiveness of its pastoral activities, the study recommends that the Catholic Church should strengthen collaborations with local leaders and expand its social initiatives. These could be in healthcare and community development to meet the peoples’ needs. The study also suggests that leveraging innovative strategies, such as sporting activities and social media campaigns, could improve the Catholic Church’s engagement with the Maasai community. Furthermore, non-governmental organisations, religious groups, and the Government of Kenya, need to support these efforts by providing resources, technical assistance, and policy backing to improve the Catholic Church’s impact on peace-building, social services, and conflict resolution.

The Konso community has been practicing indigenous conflict resolution systems and mechanisms to maintain the values of peace, justice, tolerance, cohesion, and respect since time immemorial. This paper centers on the significant components of the socio-cultural milieus of the Konso community that are in any way linked to conflict and the indigenous conflict resolution mechanism. It examines the process of conflict resolution, its value, and its principles. It highlights the importance of the conflict resolution mechanism, some of its weaknesses, and the need to subsume the usage of surrogate conflict resolution by all contestants. It finds that the Arrara mechanism of the Konso people is the most effective cultural method of dispute resolution, though it is not inclusive in terms of gender. The study thus suggests the reinforcement, support, and promotion of indigenous conflict resolution institutions and mechanisms based on the principles, norms, and values of conflict resolution and peace building.

This study focuses on peace building mechanism as an Alternative to Dispute Resolution. It sought to establish how the people of Calabar, in southern Nigeria have used it as an effective indigenous peace building mechanism to prevent, mitigate, manage, and resolve conflicts, and to draw the attention of the governments as to streamline its use as an indigenous mechanism to make the country stable and peaceful. The study was conducted in Calabar Municipal Council of Cross River State, Nigeria. The methodology used in this research was collection of information from primary sources through interviews and questionnaire administration as well as from secondary sources through library research and internet. The data used for the project were the responses of teachers, council staff and traditional rulers randomly selected from the research area. The Mean and Simple Percentage Method formulae were used to analyze the data and interpret the results. The results revealed that the people of Calabar have developed widely used and effective indigenous mechanisms for the prevention and resolution of conflicts. The study concluded that there are latent political and socio-cultural conflicts threatening the peace of Cross River State; and recommended that these indigenous preventive mechanisms should be recognized and backed by law to complement the efforts at resolving disputes in Nigeria. I. Introduction Peace has remained the most valued and indeed the greatest human need in history. Aristotle calls it the essence of human existence; and the world has never relented in the quest for peace and the termination of conflict. The 1648 treaty of peace in Westphalia which ushered in the modern nation state structure of political entities can be legitimately termed the real first attempt at securing planetary peace by mankind. The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), the League of Nations (1918-1939) and now the United Nations (1945); are international efforts to achieve the goal of a collective security for humanity. Agwu (2007: xx) noted that the search for world peace is a persistent and interminable task; which unfortunately, has been consistently and tragically marred at the very critical junctures of their efforts. Conflict is as old as creation and it the greatest enemy of peace but a uniquely unavoidable part of man. It impinges on reality and attempts to infest all human actions. Sometimes, it is experienced within the individual or between individuals, and sometimes among groups, states and even transcends to other creatures. The fact that this phenomenon exists in all creation makes it difficult to understand. When conflict is resolved, there is bound to be peace. Conflict and peace have been subjects of investigations in political science, sociology, economics, psychology and other human sciences. The major concern has been how to give meaning to this phenomenon, diagnose its structures, locate its causes and attempt to find solutions and achieve peace. In spite of all the efforts, conflict appears to defy solutions by drawing individuals at dagger points, group as well as institutions at war and national at loggerheads. It has been of central concern not only to these categories but also to the national community and development agencies. While it has been a herculean task to terminate conflicts, the international system successfully prevented a third world war. The absence or lack of conflict management or peace building mechanisms in the early years of the Federation resulted in the 1967 Nigerian civil war. Though unable to terminate conflict, the Nigerian Federation rose to the challenge and successfully established effective peace building mechanisms that have prevented any other civil war in the country and held the federating units together for 43 years now. Despite the countrys recent relief from the Niger Delta insurgency, Nigeria is today faced with the challenge of Boko Haram. The causes of these crises in the Nigerian Federation have been fundamentally ethnic religion and politically based. Cross River State, like other states in Nigeria, has some conflict issues and the state recently joined the Federal Government of Nigeria in establishing the Multi-door Courthouse as an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism.

The study examines the nature of disputes, which are prevalent in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming and suggests possible conflict management and resolution mechanisms. An online web-based survey, hosted on the popular Survey Monkey platform, was conducted through the Somalia WASH Cluster to 40 ‘active’ member organisations. A response rate of 73% was achieved. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 12. The type of conflicts identified are as follows: visible versus non-visible benefits, emergency versus development focus, the young and the old, insiders versus outsiders, local versus donor priorities and men versus women. The article goes on to suggest possible conflict resolution mechanisms, which include: planning together with communities, continuum programming, setting up early warning systems, harmonisation of institutions managing WASH resources and the development of localised Memorandums of Understanding. It is recommended that the complexities of conflict and fragility require different approaches. The approaches would apply to both relief and developmental WASH programming.

Conflict Resolution Mechanisms for International Finance A Modern Innovative Approach to Sustainable Business Practices at Reduced Financial Cost

This study examines the effectiveness of inter-ethnic conflict resolution mechanisms in Ethiopia, focusing on Ataye town in the North Shewa Administrative Zone of the Amhara National Regional State. It assesses the contributions of ‘traditional’ conflict resolution mechanisms and other more formal and alternative dispute resolution strategies employed by the Government of Ethiopia, including federal institutions such as the House of Federation, the Ministries of Peace, and Justice, as well as the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Council. The DRM Council plays a crucial role in integrating disaster risk reduction with conflict prevention efforts, promoting community resilience, and facilitating dialogue among conflicting parties. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study utilized both primary and secondary data sources. A total of 380 participants, including 127 women, took part in key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and survey questionnaires. Secondary data sources, particularly relevant policy, administrative, and local security reports, were also reviewed. Qualitative data were thematically coded and analyzed, while quantitative data were processed using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS version 20. The findings indicate that ‘traditional’ conflict resolution mechanisms, particularly the Gadaa and Shimglina institutions, were found relatively effective in mitigating and resolving conflicts between the Oromo and Amhara communities in Ataye. However, trust in the conflict resolution capacity of federal government institutions, particularly the House of Federation, is minimal, with nearly 59 percent of respondents doubting its effectiveness. Similarly, a significant number of participants believe that the conflict resolution capacity of the Ministry of Peace at the grassroots level is weak, with limited outreach and communication capacity to engage different community segments in conflict resolution efforts. The study further revealed that the local criminal justice system faces accountability and public trust deficits, indicating a pressing need for future reforms. It emphasizes the necessity for stronger institutional collaboration and synergy among ‘traditional’ conflict resolution organizations and formal government institutions, notably the Ministry of Peace and the DRM Council, at regional and district levels.

Land expropriation has always been a hot spot of social conflicts. The land expropriation policy of Merging Villages and Living Together (MVLT) in rural areas has intensified conflicts due to insufficient financial compensation and “demolishing old houses before building new ones”. The current research most simply assesses the degree of conflict and the influencing factors but rarely includes farmers, governments at all levels, the strength of policy tools, and policy perceptions in a unified quantitative research framework, which is not conducive to conflict resolution and policy improvement. This paper adopts the institutional credibility theory, incorporates the policy instruments of higher-level governments, administrative instruments of lower-level governments, and farmers’ credibility of policies into a unified accounting framework, constructs a conflict stress index, evaluates the role of each subject’s characteristics, policy perceptions, and policy instruments in the process of conflict generation and resolution, and analyzes the methods of conflict resolution from the perspective of different stakeholder conflicts. The theoretical analysis framework and the quantitative analysis of the indicators are verified by using a case study of MVLT policy in Shandong Province, China. The results show that the credibility of the policy of “village integration” is influenced by individual characteristics and varies significantly. The administrative means and different combinations of lower-level government are significantly related to an increase in farmers’ credibility, which can significantly improve the success rate of policy implementation. The effect of administrative means of higher-level government on the credibility of farmers is limited. The highest value of the conflict index was observed when the administrative instruments reached the maximum value without a marginal increase in farmers’ credibility. Based on the quantitative evaluation of conflict generation and resolution mechanisms, recommendations for policy implementation and improvement were made.

The article, through the prism of the post-colonial situation with international and intra-state inter-ethnic disputes and conflicts on the African continent, examines the process of formation and development of the African security system through the creation of a quasi-judicial body — the OAU’s Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution. On the basis of the analysis of the declarations and decisions of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, as well as the Council of Ministers, a retrospective analysis has been made of the events and prerequisites in which the conceptual vision of the Founding Fathers for the creation of a new quasi-judicial institution and its goals was formed. A detailed analysis of the provisions of the Declaration of the Assembly on the establishment within the framework of the OAU of the MCPMR is carried out, in particular regarding its structure, jurisdiction, tools for influencing a dispute or conflict depending on the stage (aggravation, escalation or de-escalation), the powers of the Secretary General, financing of the Mechanism and its activities, interaction with the United Nations, etc.). The article analyzes trends, based on a comparative analysis of the Mechanism with the quasi-judicial institution that preceded it — the Commission of Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration. The trends observed during the creation of the Mechanism testify to the understanding and consideration by the Founding Fathers of those mistakes that were laid during the creation of the Commission and made the latter «stillborn». Such characteristic features, which, as already noted, differed from the CMCA and were typical for this period of the formation of the African international judicial system, of course within the framework of the OAU, include the following: strengthening the role of the Secretary General by expanding his powers; the emphasis was placed precisely on the prevention of disputes and conflicts and taking all possible measures to prevent aggravation or escalation of both disputes and conflicts; strengthening and expanding cooperation with the UN in order to ensure peace; development of cooperation with subregional international organizations. Finally, a significant part of the article is devoted to the problematic aspects of the MKPRM, which, we believe, caused the ineffectiveness of the Mechanism. In our opinion, the following reasons can be attributed to such reasons: the toolkit was based on «soft law», the officials were not appointed, and the bodies were formed from appointed or elected employees, but consisted of officials and relevant central bodies of the OAU itself, which made this institution a completely political institution that based its activities on geopolitical interests rather than on the sources of international law, the representatives of the Mechanism acted on the basis of their two primary mandates — as heads of states, governments or other duly authorized persons or as officials directly in the OAU. Thus, the Mechanism lost its meaning, because no one actually carried out activities on its behalf. In continuation of this, another problem arises — the lack of sufficient time for heads of state and government, the Secretary General of the OAU, etc., to properly exercise the powers of the representative of the Mechanism. We should not forget about the underfunding of the Mechanism, which often manifested itself extremely negatively during conflicts at the stage of escalation, when it was necessary to send a peacekeeping contingent or other peacekeeping missions. Key words: Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Organization of African Unity, international court

Nowadays, Online Social Networks (OSNs) is popular all over the world. Millions of people join such networks to share their personal and public information and also to make new friends and relations. But there arises several security and privacy issues related to these network since users may have contact with persons who are known to them as well as unknown to them. There are many mechanisms to provide privacy on shared data but enforcing privacy concerns over data associated with multiple users is of great concern as there are chances for privacy risk and data sharing loss. In this paper, privacy setting for a shared data is discussed where multiple users, other than owner, who shares the same data can provide their own privacy policies on shared data.. Privacy conflicts are resolved using a conflict resolution mechanism which will calculate the privacy risk and sharing loss associated with each controller. Thus in this paper a systematic solution that facilitate collaborative management of shared data in OSNs and a conflict detection and resolution mechanism to cope with privacy conflicts in data sharing is addressed.

Blockchain technology, particularly Hyperledger Fabric (HLF), has emerged as a promising solution to enhance security and privacy in various domains, including Internet of Things (IoT) networks. Conflicting transactions in a HLF-based IoT network occur when multiple transactions attempt to modify the same asset or data concurrently. Conflicting transactions can lead to data inconsistencies, because the network may be unable to determine the correct order or the most preferred valid transaction. Existing conflict resolution mechanisms in HLF-based IoT networks often introduce considerable transaction latency, detect and resolve conflicting transactions in the late stages of the transaction lifecycle (ordering and validation), or require significant changes to the underlying HLF blockchain platform. To overcome these limitations, we propose an Early Conflict Resolution (ECR) mechanism that detects and resolves conflicts during the endorsement stage. The ECR mechanism uses a local cache (Sync.Map) and a dependency graph to efficiently detect conflicts by analyzing the Read-Sets (RS) and Write-Sets (WS) of transactions. ECR resolves conflicts in the detected conflicting transactions through transaction reordering or sequential processing. It also executes non-conflicting transactions in parallel to speed their processing. Our results show that the ECR mechanism improves transaction latency and the success rate for varying conflict rates, block sizes, and IoT devices compared to existing mechanisms.

Traditional mechanisms for conflicts resolutions in Tanzania have been playing a major role to bring harmony and peace among members of the society. These mechanisms are created within a social-political structure of every community. They have been shaped by the realities that are happening in every community, making them unique to each community. Among Gorowa of Babati in Northern Tanzania conflict and conflict resolution mechanisms have never been static. They have been changing gradually over time as influenced by the nature and dynamics of the socio-political and economic activities. However, despite the fact that, traditional mechanisms contributes much to peace and security in promoting development, no through study have been done to underscore the nature of conflicts and their mechanisms for resolution among Gorowa community. Therefore, this paper tried to fill this gap by analyzing the nature of land conflict and the mechanisms for their resolutions. The study applied qualitative approach in exploring the causes, nature of land conflict and the mechanisms of resolving them. Qualitative approach was mostly used to gather views and opinions of respondents about the nature of land conflict and their mechanism of resolving. Also, quantitative approach was used to supplement the information whereby numerical and statistical data were gathered. The instruments used to collect data were interview, focus group discussions and observation. The study population included experts for conflicts resolution and other members of the community with sample size of 140 respondents. The analysis of the data was done through Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSSx) computer programmes. The main findings of the study showed that, over 75% of the respondent agreed that, land shortage for pasture and cultivation, water scarcity, livestock and family relationships were the main causes of conflicts in Gorowa community. About 60% of respondents had the views that, traditional mechanisms hold significant role in resolving dispute while 55% percent of the respondent preferred modern mechanisms for conflicts resolution. The study concluded that, land conflicts among Gorowa community can be minimized by providing education and adoption of modern technologies in livestock keeping and crop cultivation. The study recommended that, because the nature and causes of conflicts are not fixed, the traditional

Negotiating conflict resolution mechanisms for transboundary water treaties: A transaction cost approach

Pastoralism has endured as a livelihood globally, but conflicts over natural resources have escalated due to various factors. This study assessed the choice of natural resource conflict resolution mechanisms among pastoralists in Degahbour Woreda, Somali Regional State, Ethiopia. A multistage sampling approach was used to select participants, and data was collected through household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were presented descriptively. The binary logit model was employed to examine the factors influencing the choice of conflict resolution methods. The results revealed that a larger proportion of respondents (57.1%) preferred the local traditional resolution system over the governmental system (42.9%). Age, land size, livestock ownership, access to water, and household size positively influenced the choice of informal conflict resolution mechanisms, while educational level had a negative effect. Gender and occupation did not significantly influence the selection of resolution mechanisms. The findings suggest that customary institutions are deeply embedded in local contexts and perceived as more approachable and relevant for resolving resource-related disputes. Improving conflict resolution requires enhancing the effectiveness of traditional institutions and integrating them into formal systems, as well as promoting education and awareness of official mechanisms among younger and less educated groups.

This chapter explores local justice and conflict resolution mechanisms using the example of South Sudan. By describing and critically discussing different arenas of local justice and conflict resolution mechanisms, it contributes to reflections on the meaning of the term ‘local’ in South Sudan. The chapter illustrates that chiefs play a significant role in local justice as well as in conflict resolution in South Sudan. In addition, the chapter exemplifies that ‘local level’, ‘grassroots’ conflict resolution mechanisms are multi-layered and frequently involve regional and national government institutions as well as external actors such as UN agencies, international donors and international NGOs that support peace initiatives and peace conferences.KeywordsTraditional authoritiesLocal justiceChiefsSouth Sudan‘Local’Conflict resolution mechanismsPeace conferenceWunlitDinka‘People-to-people peace process’