Spotlight: supporting AU efforts to manage crises and build peace

Together, ISS and the African Union are developing AU policy and capacity to prevent conflicts.

‘The Institute for Security Studies (ISS), through its Training for Peace (TfP) programme, has played a critical role in revamping the implementation of the post conflict reconstruction and development (PCRD) policy framework, and making the AU Mediation Support Unit operational.’

This is according to Alhaji Sarjoh Bah, Head of the African Union’s (AU’s) crisis management and post conflict reconstruction and development division.

‘While the AU PCRD policy has existed for more than 10 years, there has been limited coordination and coherence in the AU’s efforts,’ says Bah. ‘The ISS, together with other TfP partners, has provided tremendous substantive, technical and financial support that has allowed the AU to develop a clear roadmap for effective implementation of the PCRD policy and Mediation Support Unit.’

ISS has provided tremendous substantive, technical and financial support to the AU

Strengthening the capacity of the AU Commission (AUC) to prevent conflicts and sustain peace is an important goal for the ISS. Over the past three years, the ISS has worked closely with the crisis management and post conflict reconstruction and development division of the AUC, and helped develop the division’s guiding documents on AU policy and procedure. 

In the past year, ISS experts and AU officials have together developed a better understanding of the AU’s roles and responsibilities in African conflict environments, especially regarding mediation support and PCRD.

The ISS is responsive to the priorities identified by the AUC and has offered technical and other support to the crisis management and post conflict reconstruction and development division. The ISS recently helped the division draft its five-year Results Based Framework. This process enhanced capacity in the division and in the AU PCRD interdepartmental task force that focuses on PCRD matters. The framework will help the AU implement PCRD policies, strategies and procedures, and thereby contribute to the AU’s Agenda 2063 and Silencing the Guns by 2020 initiatives.

For more information contact:

Annette Leijenaar, +27 12 3469500, [email protected]

Picture: ©Jacqueline Cochrane/ISS

Related content