The third edition of the Kofi Annan Peace and Security (KAPS) Forum, a gathering of high-level delegates and diplomates across Africa to deliberate on peace and security, is slated for February 27 – 28, 2024, at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Teshie-Accra.
This year’s KAPS Forum which is on the theme, “Migration and Societal Resilience in a Multipolar World Order: Addressing Conflicts and Building Peace in Africa,” will bring together over 200 distinguished delegates, including former African Heads of State, government officials, high-level diplomats and representatives from the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Migration remains a global issue with significant societal and geopolitical implications. While international and regional bodies like the UN, AU, and ECOWAS acknowledge the importance of migration and have established protocols, implementation challenges persist. These include inadequate understanding of protocols, insufficient border security, corruption, and inconsistencies in regional immigration procedures.
KAPS 2024 thus aims to tackle these challenges head-on. The forum will feature broad thematic discussions on migration, sustainable development, conflicts, and societal resilience in multipolar world order, key drivers of migration in Africa, and their impact on conflicts and peacebuilding.
Commandant of the KAIPTC, Major General Richard Addo Gyane, in his address at the launch event, highlighted that the KAIPTC is implementing a new five-year Strategic Plan (2024-2028) with a vision to remain the leading and preferred international centre for training, education, research and policy advocacy that focuses on peaceful and secure Africa.
“Driven by the need to address the complex link between migration and security, the KAPS Forum convenes over 200 high-level delegates and specialists from various fields including political leadership, governance, diplomacy, security, and academia,” he said
This highly anticipated event brings together prominent figures, including the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the African Union (AU) High Representative for Silencing the Guns, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, as keynote speakers to tackle the burning issue of migration and its impact on societal resilience in Africa.
As political tremors shake continents, the world order transitions from a unipolar landscape to a multipolar one. This shift, coupled with recent crises in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, is pushing migration trends to new heights.
Africa is faced with armed conflict which has created instability in countries like Ethiopia, Mali, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, forcing people to flee their homes.
Also, issues such as climate change are increasingly causing droughts, floods, and extreme weather conditions which are increasingly displacing communities, particularly in the Sahel region and East Africa. This conference would provide the platform to address most of these migration, climate change and peace & security issues among others.
The KAPS Forum 2024 is funded by the Governments of Norway and Germany, implemented through the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ)
German Ambassador to Ghana, Sivine Jansen, mentioned that with the German government being the world’s second-largest financier of migration-related programmes, it sees KAPS as an important platform to further deepen deliberations and find lasting solutions to the numerous challenges in the area.
She also urged people who wish to travel abroad, especially to Germany to apply directly without engaging agents and other middlemen to avoid inflated prices which makes it seem too expensive to afford regular migration.
