Tomorrow (11 March), the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) will convene its 1264^th session to receive a briefing from the Panel of the Wise and its subsidiary bodies – FemWise-Africa and WiseYouth – on their activities and contributions to continental peace and security. The Council is also scheduled to consider and adopt its program of work for April 2025.

Following opening remarks by Mohammed Arrouchi, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco to the AU and Stand-in Chairperson of the PSC for March 2025, Bankole Adeoye, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS), is expected to make an introductory statement. Effie Owuor, Chairperson of the Panel of the Wise and Femwise-Africa, is expected to deliver the briefing.

The last session of the PSC with the Panel was during its 1204^th session on 13 March 2024. Apart from considering the report of the Panel on its activities, the session also deliberated on the institutional and operational arrangements of the Panel as well as its working methods. Apart from the key decision tasking the conduct of strategic reviews of the Panel’s activities to assess effectiveness, the PSC tasked the AU Commission to facilitate the provision of the Panel’s mission reports to the Council, ensure the Panel accesses early warning information and analyses for proactive preventive diplomacy efforts and support and facilitate for joint deployments of the Panel of the Wise with similar regional bodies in situations requiring urgent attention. Tomorrow’s session, therefore, can serve as an opportunity to follow up on these decisions.

In terms of the institutional interface of the Panel with other bodies, despite the PSC’s 665^th session decision to institutionalise quarterly briefings by the Panel of the Wise ‘in order to enhance the conflict prevention capacity, early warning and timely decision-making processes of the Council’, the engagements remain sporadic, with the last briefing occurring a year ago during the PSC’s 1204^th session. Prior to that, the Panel met with the PSC in May 2023 during the PSC’s 1152^nd session, which was convened to consider the Report of the Panel on its mission to the Republic of Chad. The gaps between these sessions show that the quarterly briefings by the Panel are yet to be fully institutionalised, as per the decision of the communiquéof the 665^th decision, which necessitates a more realistic timeline for the interaction between the PSC and the Panel. Such rationalisation of the Panel’s engagement with the PSC seems a necessity if the Panel is to focus on the delivery of its core mandate and enhance its engagement with similar bodies as specified in the communiquéof the 1204^th session of the PSC.

Arising from the 1204^th session of the PSC is also how realistic the PSC’s expectations for the Panel to play a role in countries in transition, support mediation processes and implementation of peace agreements. While these are areas relevant to the Panel’s work, as captured in an Ideas Indaba analysis, the PSC’s push for the Panel to deepen its engagements in these contexts raises concern of increasing the breadth of the Panel’s mandate, thereby spreading it thin and eventually limiting its effectiveness in its core mandate of preventive diplomacy. The Panel’s primary mandate, under Article 11 of the PSC Protocol, is to support the efforts of the Council and the AU Commission Chairperson in conflict prevention. The instruments for the Panel’s action provided for in the Modalities for the Functioning of the Panel range from establishing channels of communication, shuttle diplomacy, and fact-finding missions to assisting and advising mediation teams on how to resolve disputes. Particular attention is therefore needed for prioritising the core mandate of the Panel in preventive diplomacy rather than expanding the areas of engagement of the Panel before it has delivered effectively on this core mandate.

Tomorrow’s session follows the appointment of the members of the 6^th Panel of the Wise during the 38^th AU Summit in February 2025, with Domitien Ndayizeye (Central Africa), Effie Owuor (East Africa), and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (Southern Africa) being re-appointed. However, the appointment of representatives for North and West Africa remains pending, with the Assembly tasking the incoming AU Commission Chairperson to consult with West and North Africa regions to select one candidate each and delegating its authority to appoint representatives from West and North Africa regions to the 47^th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council.

In terms of the activities of the Panel, the PSC is expected to be updated on the work of the 5^th Panel of the Wise during the past year. Of particular interest to the PSC is the Panel’s engagement in South Sudan. The Panel’s High-Level Reflection Roundtable in July 2024 and subsequent shuttle diplomacy engagements played an important role in engaging key stakeholders to advance the peace process in South Sudan. The Panel’s field mission to Juba in November 2024 assessed the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) and identified key challenges, including slow progress on constitutional reforms, inadequate resources for electoral preparations for the elections that had been scheduled for December 2024 but have since been postponed to 2026, and the need for greater inclusivity, particularly of women, youth and marginalised communities in governance processes. The Panel had also been complementing the work of the C5 and the Tumaini initiative to ensure a unified and coherent approach to peacebuilding in South Sudan. Yet, South Sudan is facing the most serious risk of relapse back to conflict.

The 27^th Statutory Meeting of the 5^th Panel of the Wise focused on strategies to support Member States in transitions. In line with the direction by the PSC for the Panel to continue engaging with countries in transition, the Panel held informal consultations with representatives of suspended member states in April 2024 to assess humanitarian concerns, security challenges and governance reforms. Despite them being informal, and a stretch of the Panel’s mandates, there is no indication that anything came out of these engagements.

Another area of the Panel’s work that tomorrow’s session is expected to be briefed on concerns the Panel’s participation in election observation and governance initiatives. The Panel is expected to brief the PSC on its engagement in member states in efforts to mitigate electoral tensions and engage key stakeholders to address concerns over potential irregularities, particularly in Comoros (January 2024), Senegal (February 2024) and Ghana (October and December 2024). A notable case of post-electoral violence in which the Panel was not effectively deployed is Mozambique. One key decision in this regard from the 1204^th session tomorrow’s session may wish to follow up on is the request for the AUC to facilitate a rapid deployment mechanism for the Panel’s swift intervention in the emerging crises.

Despite its critical mandate, the Panel continues to face constraints that hinder its operational effectiveness in conflict prevention. The PSC, in its 1204^th session, had reiterated calls for the AU Commission to provide adequate political, human, and financial resources to the Panel, enabling it to carry out its mandate with greater efficiency. The 38^th AU Assembly also reiterated this by requesting the Chairperson of the AUC to prioritise the allocation of sufficient resources to the Panel of the Wise in the annual budget.

In addition to resources, the revitalisation of the Pan-African Network of the Wise (PanWise) remains a strategic priority to enhance cooperation with Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms (RECs/RMs) in conflict prevention. In this regard, the inaugural joint retreat between the Panel of the Wise and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Committee of Elders in November 2024 marked a significant milestone for coordination between continental and regional bodies to enhance mediation, dialogue and conflict prevention efforts in line with the PSC 1204^th decision to enhance the Panel’s role in revitalising cooperation with similar mechanisms at RECs/RMs. During the retreat, the two bodies agreed to establish a coherent framework to coordinate interventions and share experiences aimed at the resolution of border and territorial disputes, directing their respective secretariats to formulate a joint strategy for addressing conflicts in the region. This falls in line with the PSC 1212^th session request for the AU Commission to facilitate a joint deployment of the Panel of the Wise. Recognising the need for deeper collaboration, tomorrow’s session may encourage the Panel to reflect on the lessons from the engagement with its ECCAS counterpart on how to work with such counterparts in other regions for advancing conflict prevention and pursuing preventive diplomacy.

The fifth Panel had also seen increased coordination with its subsidiaries. A key development that may be of interest for tomorrow’s session is the full operationalisation of the WiseYouth Network, which was established as a subsidiary mechanism of the Panel of the Wise to engage youth in preventive diplomacy, mediation and dialogue across the continent. The first cohort of the WiseYouth Network with 20 members who will serve a three-year mandate, underwent training in preventive diplomacy and mediation and were co-deployed with the Panel in South Sudan and carried out some preventive diplomacy engagements, including dialogues with youth on pertinent peace and security issues. WiseYouth also participated in AU electoral missions.

The other subsidiary body of the Panel, FemWise, also pursued various efforts in member states aimed to strengthen mediation efforts, advocating for the need to strengthen the role of women mediators and their contributions to more inclusive peace processes. The network also commenced preparations for the induction of its second cohort of members in 2025, ensuring continuity in its efforts to mainstream gender perspectives in AU-led mediation processes. In collaboration with the Gender, Peace, and Security Program and the Office of the Special Envoy on WPS, FemWise welcomed the PSC’s directive to develop a policy framework ensuring gender equity and equality in all AU-led mediation and peace processes. Alongside these efforts, the Network continued to deploy women mediators and peacebuilders to AU Election Observation and Preventive Diplomacy missions and promoted peace dialogue platforms for women in conflict-affected countries, particularly through its support for the Sudanese Women Dialogue and its contributions to the South Sudan peace process. Apart from the four national chapters, FemWise also saw the launch of the Southern Africa Regional Women Mediators Network by SADC, complementing the regional networks of ECOWAS and ECCAS.

The expected outcome of the session is a communiqué. The PSC may underscore the need for prioritising and placing particular focus on the work plan and activities of the Panel on the core mandate of the Panel in preventive diplomacy. The PSC is expected to commend the Panel’s engagement in South Sudan and, in this respect, request the Panel to maintain active preventive diplomacy engagement in South Sudan within the framework of paragraph 7 of the communiqué of the 1204^th session. The Council may also welcome the inaugural joint retreat between the Panel and the ECCAS Committee of Elders and encourage the institutionalisation of the coordination mechanism with all similar regional bodies. The PSC is also expected to welcome the progress made in the operationalisation of WiseYouth. The PSC may encourage member states and RECs/RMs to accelerate the establishment of national and regional chapters with adequate resources, ensuring a stronger role for women in conflict prevention.