AFRICAN UNION (Programme)

Accompanying African Union Liaison Offices 

Working with the Peace and Security Department (PSD) of the African Union Commission (AUC), International Alert has recently taken up a three year project aimed at supporting African Union Liaison Offices (AULOs) to enhance the Commission’s work in conflict and post conflict environments.

This project, designed to accompany two liaison offices in Liberia and South Sudan, will initially focus on three countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Sudan. The project seeks to support AULOs by strengthening their capacity to engage with multiple actors, including members of civil society, academic institutions, the media and parliamentarians. It also aims to support citizens’ demands for transparent and accountable institutions, by advocating for the ratification and domestication of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.

The project promotes a result-based approach within AULOs, through accompaniment in building their capacities on conflict sensitivity, political economy, and gender mainstreaming, which will also improve strategic planning, monitoring and reporting.

The project will:

a) Support proper monitoring of peace and security situations on the ground to inform the PSC and AUC decision making process particularly in regard to localised conflicts and potential threats to peace.
b) Allow for follow up on mechanisms provided for by peace agreements through supporting their implementation.
c) Support the conduct of timely and evidence based quality analyses enabling the AU to improve its knowledge of the conflict and put in place response mechanisms.
d) Support post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding through helping empower those affected by conflict to determine their future and negotiate access to resources through democratic and peaceful means.
e) Enhance the AU’s reach by making its mandate and relevance known to those on the local level who have little or no idea as to the organisation’s role.

Through this project, International Alert hopes to bring the AU closer to citizens in member states, and in so doing, help the organisation fulfil its potential to act as one of the driving forces for change on the continent.