Exit Strategies of the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States Peacekeeping Operations in Sierra Leone and Liberia

Exit strategy in peacekeeping m1ss10ns, a process of either disengaging or terminating involvement in peacekeeping operations, is increasingly becoming a challenge to the intern tional community. Past experiences in Somalia, Bosnia, Lebanon, and in recent times, Iraq, have shown that such an exercise is usually associated with structural problems. Previous studies· on exit strategies in peacekeeping operations have been deeply ethnocentric and dominated by literature from the global north. To illustrate some African examples to the problem, this study examined the exit strategies adopted by the United Nations (UN) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone and Liberia by focusing on the institutional/policy frameworks, approaches, and their effects on the two post-war societies. The study adopted a combination of descriptive, qualitative and case study research design. The purposive sampling technique was used to select past and cmrent force commanders, government officials, and staff of the UN and ECOWAS based on mission experience and knowledge on exit strategies. A total of 30 unstructured in-depth interviews and six focus group discussions were conducted with military and civilian experts on exit · strategy. Secondary data consisted of official documents from the UN, ECOWAS, bilateral institutions and the government of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Data were analysed using descriptive and constant comparative methods. Prior to the commencement of peacekeeping operations in these two countries, both the UN and ECOWAS did not have any institutional or policy framework guiding peacekeeping exit, mainly because such operations were unde1taken on ad-hoe basis and also because the planning process placed much emphasis on the attainment of sustainable peace as against the withdrawal of peacek epers. Yet, mounting peacekeeping costs, vaguely-worded mandates, blurred rules of engagement and the reluctance of troop-contributing countries to commit to endless mission forced both organisations to establish working frameworks. While the ECOWAS approach was set out in the Concepts of Operation of the ECOWAS Standby force, that of the UN was pursued through the Integrated Mission Planning Process. Although the ECOWAS preferred to exit through re-hatting in both operations, the UN maintained a systematic level of transition from benchmarking, phased withdrawal and successor operations. The major drawbacks of these approaches include the fact that the organisations appeared not to include local authorities in the implementation of their various exit strategies. As such, the withdrawal of·peacekeepers created a vacuun1 in several fronts, ranging from security to livelihoods, economic to competing doctrinal influences, housing to reconstrnction work The exit strategies adopted by the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States in Sien-a Leone and Liberia have made significant contributions to how future peacekeeping operations should be terminated especially in Africa. The manifestation of the challenges that confronted both organisations has demonstrated the need to address the adjoining and structural causes of exit strategies in peacekeeping operations. Both organisations must partner local authorities in the implementation of their policy fran1eworks to serve as a buffer to contain the effects associated with exit strategy.