'Effective Global Peacebuilding Needs a United African Voice'

Peacebuilding is essential to help conflict-affected states build inclusive societies, prevent and mitigate armed conflict, and move towards sustainable peace and development. The partnership between the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) has become central to strengthening peacebuilding across Africa in recent years. The Common African Position, initiated and endorsed by the AU, is a valuable input to the Peacebuilding Architecture review. It helps member states and organisations identify areas of convergence and disparity in peacebuilding cooperation, and foster stronger UN-AU collaboration. AU member states have used the Common African Position to endorse recommendations on peacebuilding and its links to a wide range of issues such as: financing, conflict prevention, governance, transitional justice, women, peace and security, health and preventing and combating terrorism and violent extremism. This evolution from the AU's traditional post-conflict settings is encouraging as it brings Africa closer to the UN's own evolving peacebuilding approaches, writes Daniel Forti and Priyal Singh for the Institute for Security Studies.