Hosted by the Gender and the Security Sector Lab, the University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies, and the Reppy Peace and Conflict Studies Program, The Transition Home: Key Challenges for African UN Peacekeepers Upon Return is a unique collaborative effort, bringing together qualitative and quantitative evidence from surveys and interviews in Liberia, Senegal, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Zambia.

In recent years, global shifts in peacekeeping contributions have led to African countries being some of the largest contributors of peacekeeping.  Yet, many of the countries lack resources and have limited funding for their state security forces.  On one hand, deployment to peacekeeping missions helps provide the country’s security forces with training, new experience, and funds.  On the other hand, there is less information about the challenges that these peacekeepers face upon return. 

This event is based on a policy brief that explores four potential challenges for African peacekeepers after they return from operations: relationship, psycho-social, economic, and career challenges.  The report finds that the main challenges for returned peacekeepers upon their return appear to be relationship and financial. Women were more likely to experience financial challenges and social stigma whereas men had more physical and mental health problems.  Psychosocial, mental health, and physical problems were more prevalent in the military than the police. The report ends with a series of policy recommendations. The policy brief will be available here after the event. 

Register to attend this virtual event.

About the Panelists

• Dr. Sabrina Karim is an Associate Professor in the department of Government. Her research focuses on conflict and peace processes, particularly state building in the aftermath of civil war.  Specifically, she studies international involvement in security assistance to post-conflict states, gender reforms in peacekeeping and domestic security sectors, and the relationship between gender and violence. She directs the Gender and the Security Sector Lab.
   
• Dr Maggie Dwyer is a Senior Lecturer in African Studies and International Development in the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. She is Co-Director of the Centre for Security Research within the University of Edinburgh and is also a Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
   
• T. Debey Sayndee is Professor / Director, Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation (KAICT), University of Liberia. He has worked for many years on the complex nexuses of conflicts in West Africa, particularly Liberia and Sierra Leone. He has also served as a consultant for the UN, the University of Wyoming, and Women’s Campaign International on peace, security, and development issues. He is a Public Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer, Radio Broadcaster, and Mediator. He has contributed to several publications, most recently, Incomplete DDRR: A Prescription for Prolonged Fragility in Liberia; Post-War SSR in Liberia; and co-published: African Truth Commissions; and Social Mobilization and the Ebola Virus Disease in Liberia.
   
• Addison Barton is a third-year PhD student and two-time Reppy Fellow whose research focuses on practices of humanitarian restraint in armed conflict.

Host
Cornell University’s Gender and the Security Sector Lab
University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies
Reppy Peace and Conflict Studies Program