More than a chip off the block: Strengthening IGAD-AU peacebuilding linkages

How can IGAD partner with the AU and enhance implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture?

In principle, regional economic communities are an integral part of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), as demonstrated by the APSA Roadmap 2016–2020, and a vital element in larger global peacebuilding structures and processes. In practice, however, collaboration is not that easy, often due to capacity constraints. This policy brief argues that to become more effective, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) must consider its comparative advantages in relation to the African Union across the conflict spectrum, and focus its engagements more effectively. It looks at practical ways to do so by examining concrete best practices and lessons from IGAD’s peace and security engagements.

About the authors

Amanda Lucey is a senior researcher in the Peace Operations and Peacebuilding Division of the ISS. With nine years of experience in the field, her areas of focus include peacebuilding, South-South cooperation and South African foreign policy. Amanda worked with MONUSCO as a political affairs officer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and previously worked with the UNDP in South Sudan as a rule of law officer. She holds an MPhil in Justice and Transformation from the University of Cape Town.

Berouk Mesfin is a senior researcher who joined the Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis Division of the ISS in 2008. He has worked as a political adviser to the US Mission to the AU, and held several positions at the Addis Ababa University. He was also a research associate at the Institute of Development Research. Before joining Addis Ababa University he had served as an intelligence analyst at the Ethiopian Ministry of National Defence (1997–1999).

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