Capacity-Building of AU Peace Support Operations. The Civilian Dimension,

In July 2008, on commission rom the Folke Bernadotte Academy, FOI conducted a rapid study centred on the status of development of the civilian dimensions of the Africa Union (AU) structures for peace and security. This report presents the main themes of that study, and is published as part of the overall AU study serie conducted by the FOI Studies in African Security team in 2008-2009. The more technical conclusions and detailed recommendations from the study have been presented to the sponsor separately, and are not included here. The AU is a young organisation with far-reaching ambitions in the area of peace and security. The emerging architecture for peace and security (the African Peace and security Architecture) contains a series of envisioned components to promote conflict prevention and management in Africa, inter alia the so calledAfrican stand-by Force, scheduled to be operational in 2010. Currently, however, there is a gap between will and capability. The AU suffers from limited institutionalisation, and lack of resources and processes for the planning and management of peace support operations. The laudable missions undertaken so far have been dependent on external support. Limited administrative capacity negatively affects the relationto the wide range of partners offering support. An important, but sometimes overlooked, area for AU capacity building is the civilian dimension of the peace and security architecture. It is envisioned to encompass both police and civilian wexperts in areas relevant to peace and security. Different initiatives are underway, and some frameworks are evolving, but significant efforts are required to meet future objectives.