African Union Mediation Support Project

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

Finland’s project cooperation with the African Union (AU) for its support to peace mediation and conflict prevention will continue by a new four-year-project called African Union Mediation Support Project in 2023 – 2026. The cooperation is the flagship of Finland’s AU-relations. AU-relations and peace mediation are priorities of Finland’s Africa Strategy. The Mediation and Dialogue Division (MDD) will be the responsible project unit at the Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department (D-PAPS) of the AU Commission (AUC). As requested by the D-PAPS, CMI — Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation (CMI) will continue as the project implementing agency. Finland’s funding to the project will be granted as a Discretionary Government Transfer to CMI. The current three-year-project implemented by CMI will end at the end 2022. Finland’s current cooperation since 2009 has enhanced significantly the mediation support structures of the AU. Concrete results include the establishment and institutionalisation of the FemWise-Africa (Network of African Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation), support to AU high-level mediators' deployments, establishment of the annual high-level retreats of special envoys and mediators, and development of mediation tools, among other things. The desired long-term impact of the new project is the enhanced ability of the AU to prevent and resolve conflicts in a timely, sustainable and inclusive manner. The project’s outcomes will support the capacity of the D-PAPS towards 1) enhanced capacity of the AU to deliver timely preventive diplomacy, mediation and dialogue interventions of the AU, 2) enhanced participation of women and youth in conflict prevention, mediation and dialogue processes, 3) increased coordination in mediation and dialogue support with regional structures, and 4) strengthened policy and knowledge development and dissemination to support effective mediation, preventive diplomacy, and dialogue efforts. The project outputs and activities for implementing the outcomes are clustered and budgeted accordingly. Project implementation is based on the project document compiled by CMI together with the D-PAPS, and a joint project management. The project will start with an inception phase of six months. The MFA's financial contribution to the project in 2023 - 2026 will be in total four Million Euros.