Support for the African Peace and Security Architecture

Project description

Title: Support to the African Union in the areas of crisis prevention, conflict management and peace building within the framework of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA)
Commissioned by: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: African Union (AU) and selected Member States​​​​​​​
Lead executing agency: African Union Commission (AUC)
Overall term: 2022 to 2024

Context

Almost one fifth of all violent conflicts in 2020 took place in Africa. The political, economic, and social consequences of these conflicts are devastating for the sustainable development of the continent.

In response to this situation, the African Union (AU) and its partners have been building up the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) since 2002. The five pillars of the APSA aim to provide the AU with comprehensive competences to prevent and, where appropriate, end violent conflicts.

Despite substantive progress in recent years, the quality and effectiveness of AU interventions remain limited. The newly-formed Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS) has so far brought together the staff and functions of the APSA and the African Governance Architecture (AGA) under one leadership structure. Next steps include further organisational development and the coherent integration of instruments and approaches to effectively respond to the existing need for crisis management and peace building in Africa.

Objective

The ability of the African Union to employ instruments of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the African Governance Architecture (AGA) to prevent crises in its Member States has improved.

Approach

The project supports the African Union (AU), regional economic communities (RECs) and civil society organisations in carrying out joint crisis activities on prevention, conflict management and peace building in Member States.

To this end, the project promotes the development of strategic guidelines to harmonise the AU architectures for peace, security and governance. It also provides assistance for the internal the change management process within PAPS.

Another objective is the establishment of a think tank network, which will provide the AU Commission with needs-based learning experiences and policy recommendations on the use of  AGA and APSA instruments.

Last update: April 2022