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ICG in ActionNigeriaDuring the past year ICG has continued to track developments in Nigeria. While the organisation does not have any field staff on the ground, a number of ICG Board members have a long-standing interest in the country and much experience. ICG has consulted with a wide range of organisations and individuals-including government officials, academic experts, Nigerian civic leaders and dissidents, western and local journalists, economists and a number of western multinational companies, most notably Royal Dutch Shell. In April, ICG submitted a written statement, setting out its position on Nigeria, to the Commonwealth Secretary General. In July, the organisation was among only three international NGOs to be invited to make an oral presentation to a meeting of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers.
Southern BalkansIn 1997, ICG initiated a new project in the southern Balkans-an area beset by a number of potentially explosive problems which will require careful handling and resolution over the coming months and years if the prospect of renewed regional conflict is to be avoided. The project, which seeks to build on the work of ICG's field team in Sarajevo, extends ICG's Balkans coverage to include Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. The initial focus of the project is on the issue of Albanian nationalism in the region. Preliminary assessment reports have already been produced and disseminated. Further reports will follow during 1998.
Central AfricaAn ICG field assessment team visited Zaire and the Great Lakes Region of central Africa in January and February 1997. Shortly afterwards, ICG released a report outlining the extent of the crisis affecting the region and identifying a number of factors contributing to regional instability. Since then, ICG has continued to monitor developments while pressing ahead with preparations to establish a long-term ICG field presence in the region to provide a source of ongoing analysis and policy recommendations. Project staff arrived in the field to set up the project in November 1997 and it is hoped to begin regular reporting by February 1998. Among the broad headings under which project staff will conduct their investigations are: ethnic reconciliation and associated structural reform; human rights, justice and the rule of law; appropriate models of democratisation; strengthening civil society; strengthening the independent media; strategies for economic regeneration; and conflict prevention and peace-building
Forthcoming projectsThe ICG Board has considered a number of new countries where the organisation might engage during 1998. As a start, it has been agreed to carry out research early in 1998 into the utility, likely objectives and most appropriate methodology of new ICG projects in Algeria and Cambodia.
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