President Julius Maada Bio has outlined five priorities for securing lasting peace in Africa, calling for stronger democratic institutions, preventive diplomacy, regional cooperation, people-centred security and sustainable financing for African-led peace operations.
President Bio made the call while delivering a keynote lecture titled “Building Lasting Peace in Africa: The Catalytic Role of ECOWAS” at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland, as part of its Director’s Global Leadership Series.
He stressed that lasting peace requires more than ending hostilities, noting that it also depends on addressing the underlying conditions that lead to conflict.
“The absence of war is the beginning of peace. It is not its guarantee,” he said.
Drawing on his experience as a former soldier, Sierra Leone’s post-war recovery and his tenure as immediate past Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority, President Bio highlighted Sierra Leone’s transition from receiving international peacekeeping support to contributing to peacekeeping efforts abroad.
He said regional and international solidarity could create the conditions for peace, but stressed that national ownership, justice and effective institutions were essential to sustaining it.
The President identified preventive diplomacy and early intervention as critical to preventing conflicts. He proposed a Regional Prevention Compact under which agreed early-warning indicators would automatically trigger mediation before crises escalated.
On democratic governance, President Bio called for stronger institutions and accountability, arguing that peaceful political transitions and public confidence in state institutions were fundamental to preventing instability.
Citing Sierra Leone’s peaceful transfers of power in 2007 and 2018, he urged policymakers to measure the success of peacebuilding not only by the wars ended but also by the conflicts prevented.
Addressing regional cooperation, President Bio advocated cooperative sovereignty, urging West African countries to confront shared security threats collectively rather than individually.
He reaffirmed the importance of dialogue with Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, while acknowledging the need for ECOWAS to learn from its shortcomings and deliver tangible results for citizens.
The President also called for people-centred security and greater investment in opportunities for young people, warning that peace would remain difficult to sustain where insecurity, injustice and economic exclusion persisted.
He further emphasized the need for sustainable financing for African-led peace operations and reiterated Sierra Leone’s support for reform of the United Nations Security Council to ensure Africa has a fairer voice in global peace and security decisions.
“The greatest achievements in peacebuilding are the wars that never began, the elections that passed peacefully, the young people who found work instead of weapons,” President Bio said.
He concluded that lasting peace should not be measured solely by the absence of armed conflict but also by whether people, particularly young people, enjoy the security, opportunities and confidence needed to build a better future.