NGOs and romanticisation of the local turn: a (re)appraisal of professional peacebuilding by NGOs in Africa

This article critically examines local peacebuilding programmes and approaches designed and implemented by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the African context. It highlights the structural and functional shortcomings inherent in peacebuilding NGOs on the continent while interrogating the implications of the romanticised ‘local turn’ paradigm in peace theory and praxis. Employing an autobiographical approach, I draw on personal experiences and both formal and informal interactions with colleagues in the sector–during and beyond my tenure as a peacebuilding practitioner–to critically assess the professionalised and project-based peacebuilding initiatives undertaken by NGOs. This methodological approach distinguishes the article from existing studies, which predominantly rely on case studies and comparative analyses. The article develops a typology of professional NGO-based peacebuilders–categorising them as ambitious, career-oriented, or sceptical–and utilises this framework to scrutinise the professionalisation and ‘NGO-isation’ of peacebuilding in Africa. In doing so, it exposes fundamental weaknesses in project-based peacebuilding programmes while also demonstrating how African peacebuilding professionals contribute to the romanticisation of the local turn in peace scholarship. Ultimately, the article underscores the urgent need to critically reassess the intertwined processes of professionalisation and ‘NGO-isation’ within peacebuilding efforts in Africa and beyond.