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Maintaining a Safety Net and Peace for Former Child Soldiers in Africa: Evaluation of Peace Education Programs

Maintaining a Safety Net and Peace for Former Child Soldiers in Africa: Evaluation of Peace Education Programs

Florence Nyemba (University of Cincinnati, USA) and Rufaro Chitiyo (Tennessee Technological University, USA)
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-7464-8.ch068
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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of peace education programs in Africa. Peace education programs are used widely to create peaceful environments for at-risk children. Their intended goals are to end violence through modeling human consciousness to resolve conflicts peacefully and to provide children with a stable socioeconomic future. Using a systematic review of literature, the authors examine how humanitarian agencies with support from the World Bank utilize peace education programs to create safety nets for former child soldiers in Africa. The challenges and opportunities of such programs are examined. The authors then propose for the adoption of a community-based participatory practice to facilitate the sustainability of peace education programs. The chapter will benefit at-risk children in war-torn African regions and all stakeholders involved in the creation of safe environments for children.
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Background

In this chapter, constructivism is used as a realistic theoretical lens which helps us comprehend the issue of child soldiers because during the war they engage in something that could be considered “collective violence” (Conteh-Morgan, 2005, p. 73). Adopting this perspective confirms that child soldiers are groomed by the prevailing socio-political context. The phenomenon of child soldiers in Africa and the world over is “as a result of social structures constructed by human beings” (Cherwon, 2014, p. 14). Something within their society makes the idea appealing, reasonable, and valuable. So, when it comes to peace education programs targeting child soldiers, social structures are vital for the success of such programs. Why? Because even though there is no doubt that the most powerful groups in society contribute the most to the process of social construction, we can use constructivism to understand the interaction between people and the societies they live in (Conteh-Morgan, 2005).

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