Building Peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Beyond the United Nations Toolkit

For the last two decades, the United Nations (UN) has been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Yet, despite the deployment of the world’s largest UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, devastating conflicts that have killed and displaced millions have continued—calling into question the efficacy of UN peacekeeping efforts and other peacebuilding measures.

In this paired paper and policy brief, Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding Scholar, Rigobert Minani Bihuzo, analyzes the deployment of MONUSCO in the DRC. He addresses the challenges, successes, and failures of the UN peacekeeping mission, and assesses wider peacebuilding efforts in the DRC. He provides policy recommendations for how the UN, the DRC government, international partners, and stakeholders can update their “tool kits” to be more inclusive and build sustainable peace in the DRC.

The Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding (SVNP) is a continent-wide network of African policy, research and academic organizations that works with the Wilson Center’s Africa Program to bring African knowledge and perspectives to U.S., African, and international policy on peacebuilding in Africa. Established in 2011 and supported by the generous financial support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the project provides avenues for African researchers and practitioners to engage with, inform, and exchange analyses and perspectives with U.S., African, and international policymakers in order to develop the most appropriate, cohesive, and inclusive policy frameworks and approaches to achieving sustainable peace in Africa.