High-Level Dialogue on Strengthening African-Led Conflict Prevention and Resolution: Seizing the Unique Opportunity that the Luanda Summit Presents

The timing is not incidental. The African continent is experiencing a convergence of protracted crises, democratic backsliding, and a new era and changing forms of conflict, including the proliferation of non-state armed groups, climate-related instability, and the systematic targeting of civilians, that are straining existing response mechanisms. The AU’s conflict prevention and resolution architecture, while normatively sophisticated, has struggled to activate in time to prevent escalation. The gap between commitment and actionthat has grown during the past years has created an image of the African Union floating adrift as the new era of insecurity entrenches on the continent. 

Against this backdrop, Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP), Amani Africa and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) convened a High-Level Dialogue in Addis Ababa under the theme ‘Strengthening African-Led Conflict Prevention and Resolution: Seizing the Unique Opportunity that the Luanda Summit Presents’. Held in advance of the Extraordinary AU Summit to be hosted by Angola, the dialogue brought together representatives of a Member State, a REC, civil society and community-level practitioners. It examined why existing mechanisms have underperformed, how leadership and political will can be generated, where prevention is already taking place, what commitments the Summit should adopt and how financing can reach both continental institutions and local actors.

The dialogue's central finding was that Africa's conflict-prevention deficit is not a shortage of principles or institutions, but a weak connection between warning and action, mediation and follow-up, continental and regional responsibilities, financing and implementation, and formal institutions and the communities that prevent violence every day. APSA provides an institutional foundation, RECs/RMs bring proximity and political leverage, communities bring timely knowledge and legitimacy, and civil society can connect the two. Realising this potential requires clear leadership, shared procedures, predictable financing and measurable accountability.

Please check the external reportof the high level dialogue for summary of the conversations and recommendations.