Malawi’s Peace Policy: The bedrock of a coherent national peace architecture?

Abstract

In November 2017, the government of Malawi launched the country’s first National Peace Policy (NPP) to systematically promote sustainable peace  and unity. Malawi already had infrastructures for peace (I4P) that had been developed separately by the state, non-state actors and other  stakeholders for various purposes. However, there was no integrated and coherent national peacebuilding framework which was focused on  proactive conflict prevention and the promotion of sustainable peace and unity. The outbreak of deadly violence between police and civilians in July  2011 was a major manifestation of shortcomings and failures of the uncoordinated and mainly reactive top-down and bottom-up peace  infrastructures established by the state and non-state actors, respectively. In response to the violence, the United Nations’ (UN) preventive  diplomacy and facilitation of national dialogue in Malawi helped de-escalate tensions and mitigate conflict risk. This culminated in the development  and approval of the NPP. The NPP is a bedrock strategy of a coherent and credible National Peace Architecture (NPA) to serve as the national pillar  for peacebuilding. The NPP is being implemented by complementary state and non-state actors working closely with the United Nations  Development Programme (UNDP) in compliance with regional, continental and international instruments relating to the NPA. The case of Malawi  presents an opportunity for building integrated local, national, regional, continental and international peace architectures.