The UN in Mozambique and Angola: Lessons learned

The outcomes of recent peace‐building efforts in Africa ‐ often a relapse into war, not sustainable peace ‐ have led to much debate about the internal and external dimensions and factors that determine either success or failure in a peace‐building mission. The internal aspects often revolve around the ability to reach a consensus on how to share both political and economic power. However, increasingly the viability of most peace‐building efforts in Africa and elsewhere depend on external involvement. Thus the United Nations is regularly called upon to help to draft and implement peace accords. In both Angola and Mozambique the UN was expected to help to create the conditions for sustainable peace. Lack of a consensus at the internal level coupled with an unrealistic UN mandate and the allocation of meagre resources combined to abort the process of peace‐building in Angola. In contrast, the successful outcome of the UN mission in Mozambique reflected a much greater international and regional engagement.