The role of social policy and leadership in post-conflict peacebuilding: the case study of Rwanda and Liberia

Abstract

This thesis examined the future of durable peace in Africa using Liberia and Rwanda as case studies. It did so by examining how leadership emerges and shapes social policy for building inclusivity and addressing the root causes of violent conflicts. Also, the study examined the extent to which the approaches to peacebuilding in both countries are shaping the future of peace using the concepts of Transformative Social Policy and Leadership as process (TSP-L). This study is an explanatory comparative case study. Both countries are chosen due to their similar but ‘seemingly’ differences in approach and outcome in their peacebuilding efforts. As a comparative qualitative case study, it combines critical discourse analysis, Stuart Mills’ logic of difference and process tracing to systematically understand how the leadership in both countries frame social policy instruments to build inclusive societies as part of their respective efforts at post-conflict reconstruction. Hence, in conducting this study, I deployed qualitative data collection tools of: In-depth interviewing, documentary analysis and observation. Conceptually, this study relies on the theoretical strands and ideational relevance of Transformative Social Policy and Leadership (TSP-L) to analyse the data presented in the study and arguments advanced herein. It engages this conceptual framework to understand how the leadership of both countries are building postconflict inclusive peace and development respectively. The usefulness of the TSP-L approach is to examine the challenges that post-conflict peacebuilding poses to leaders in their quest to transform the triggers of conflict, which are historically rooted and complex relational practices. Specifically, this thesis examines how the adoption and implementation of social policy instruments such as Imidugudu, and mutual health insurance scheme Mutuelle de Santé in Rwanda; Social Cash Transfer and Free Compulsory Education programmes in Liberia respectively, instigate social cohesion and durable development as part of the ongoing peacebuilding processes. The study makes three key findings: First, the design and deployment of social assistance policy interventions for post-conflict reconstruction in Liberia and Rwanda portray a pro-poor approach to nested issues of post-conflict nation-building. However, in the case of Liberia, this simplification of the development condition is informed by the unidimensional diagnosis of post-conflict reconstruction that frames the crisis of identity, marginalisation, (in)security and development as technocratic and managerial issues fixable by state-centric institutions. Secondly, this study concludes that historical and contemporary factors that occasioned the violent conflict in both countries persist despite the numerous social assistance interventions in the quest for nation-building. Finally, the study concludes that there is a dearth of difference in the (in)ability of the leadership in both countries to translate these social assistance policy interventions into durable nation-building and development ethos that transforms the root causes of violent conflict