Briefing by the Panel of the Wise on its Activities in Africa
Briefing by the Panel of the Wise on its Activities in AfricaDate | 16 March 2026
Tomorrow (17 March), the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) will convene its 1336th meeting to receive a briefing from the AU Panel of the Wise on its activities in Africa.
Following opening remarks by Mahlaba Ali Mamba, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Eswatini to the AU and Chairperson of the PSC for March 2026, Bankole Adeoye, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS), is expected to make an introductory statement. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Chair of the Panel of the Wise, is expected to brief the Council.
The Panel of the Wise, one of the key pillars of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) for preventive diplomacy, last briefed the PSC in March 2025. Although the PSC’s 665th session in March 2017 envisaged quarterly briefings by the Panel, engagement between the two has in practice remained largely annual. During its 1264th session of 11 March 2025, the Panel reaffirmed the Panel’s central role in conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding. That session drew particular attention to tensions in South Sudan and underscored the need for strengthening both resources and the AU presence on the ground. The Council also highlighted growing expectations on the Panel, including responding rapidly to emerging crises, sustaining engagement in fragile transitions and working more closely with partners. To support this, the PSC directed the AU Commission to strengthen early warning analysis for the Panel and undertake joint scenario-building with experts such as NeTT4Peace.
Broadly speaking, three sets of activities are expected to feature during tomorrow’s session. The first relates to the core mandate of the Panel, preventive diplomacy initiatives with respect to risks of eruption of conflicts or relapse into conflict. The second relates to the Panel’s engagement in election-related activities. The final one relates to the activities of the subsidiary bodies of the Panel, such as FemWise.
In terms of preventive diplomacy work of the Panel, the Panel’s missions to South Sudan and Madagascar are expected to receive particular attention. The Panel’s continued engagement in South Sudan, while not enough to reverse the deteriorating situation, is expected to be of interest to the PSC. Following the PSC’s 1270th meeting of 31 March 2025, which requested a high-level delegation led by the Panel of the Wise to help ‘de-escalate the tensions, cease-fire, and to mediate between the parties’, the Panel undertook a four-day mission to Juba in early April 2025 and engaged key stakeholders. A major gap was the denial of access to Riek Machar. The Panel also convened a consultative roundtable with South Sudanese civil society in Addis Ababa in June 2025. The Panel reportedly later recommended the appointment of an AU High-Level Representative, and at its 1297th session, the PSC called on the Commission Chairperson to ‘urgently appoint’ one, although this had yet to be acted upon. The Council renewed the same appeal at its 1326th meeting on 23 January 2026. Tomorrow’s session may therefore allow the Council to assess how this engagement can enable conditions for effective peacemaking, urgently needed for arresting South Sudan’s relapse back to full civil war currently underway.
Another area likely to feature in the briefing concerns the Panel’s engagement in Madagascar. It is to be recalled that at its 1306th emergency meeting of 15 October 2025, the PSC suspended Madagascar following the unconstitutional change of government. In the same session, the Council reiterated ‘its recommendation to the Chairperson of the Union, with the support of the Chairperson of the AU Commission, to immediately dispatch a high-level delegation to Madagascar to engage with the stakeholders concerned’. This followed a similar recommendation made by the PSC at its 1305th meeting two days earlier. On 16 October 2025, the AU Commission announced the deployment of a high-level delegation to Madagascar, coordinated with the Southern African Development Community (SADC), aimed at engaging state authorities, political parties, civil society and youth representatives in support of a Malagasy-owned, inclusive and civilian-led national dialogue geared toward restoring constitutional democratic governance.
The delegation to Madagascar, led by Domitien Ndayizeye and undertaken alongside AU Special Envoy Mohamed Idris Farah, visited Antananarivo from 7 to 11 November 2025. During the visit, the AU delegation consulted transitional leader Michael Randrianirina, Prime Minister Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, Foreign Minister Christine Razanamahasoa and other stakeholders. The PSC’s 1313th meeting of 20 November 2025 received briefings from both Ndayizeye and Farah. Tomorrow’s session may therefore provide the PSC with an opportunity to take stock of the Panel’s engagement in Madagascar and to encourage sustained coordination between the Panel, the AU Special Envoy and SADC in support of mediation and an inclusive path toward restoring constitutional order.
In electoral contexts, the Panel continued with efforts to promote peaceful electoral conditions in countries involved in electoral processes. Accordingly, it undertook missions, among others, to Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Malawi and Tanzania through pre-election assessments, dialogue with political actors and institutions, confidence-building measures and post-electoral follow-up, helping to promote restraint, sustain political dialogue and reinforce trust in constitutional and electoral processes. As events in Guinea-Bissau and Tanzania illustrated, these efforts did not change electoral instability and violence. Tomorrow’s session would afford both the PSC and the Panel the opportunity to reflect on ways of improving the working methods and approaches to the Panel’s engagement in elections to make it more impactful than performative.
Another activity likely to receive attention is the Panel’s engagement in the Sahel and West Africa. On 15–16 December 2025, the Panel of the Wise convened a two-day consultative roundtable with eminent religious and traditional leaders in support of preventive diplomacy, dialogue, peace and social cohesion. The discussions highlighted the role of these leaders in promoting peaceful coexistence and stressed inclusive, community-based approaches involving women, youth, faith leaders, traditional authorities and state institutions, while also exploring more sustained mechanisms for collaboration with the PSC and the AU Commission.
Tomorrow’s session is also expected to review the work of the Panel’s subsidiary mechanisms and their contribution to AU preventive diplomacy. A key milestone for FemWise-Africa was the onboarding of its second continental cohort of members, conducted in collaboration with RECs/RMs and NeTT4Peace, through which 50 experienced women mediators were selected, expanding the pool available for AU deployment and concluding the Network’s re-conceptualisation to strengthen its support for AU-led mediation. FemWise-Africa also held a reflective meeting in Dakar in December 2025 on lessons from its decentralisation process, generating recommendations on membership, resource mobilisation and practical engagement to strengthen its chapters. Similarly, the AU WiseYouth Network held the first African Youth Consultation on Mediation, Preventive Diplomacy and Peace Processes in Kigali from 30 September to 2 October 2025, bringing together youth mediators, policymakers and emerging leaders to reflect on youth participation, share best practices and develop recommendations for expanding the role of youth in peace processes. Together, these efforts deepened the integration of gender-sensitive and youth-sensitive perspectives into AU preventive diplomacy and reflected closer coordination between the Panel and its subsidiary bodies, including through joint deployments to Gabon, Malawi, Tanzania and Côte d’Ivoire.
Another development that may feature in tomorrow’s briefing is the participation of members of the Panel, together with AU Special Envoys and High Representatives, representatives of regional organisations, and international partners, in the 16th High-Level Retreat on the Promotion of Peace, Security and Stability in Africa held in Aswan, Egypt, from 21 to 22 October 2025 under the theme ‘Reframing AU Mediation – Consolidating African Leadership and Ownership’. The retreat reflected on ways of strengthening Africa-led mediation and preventive diplomacy and underscored the importance of more inclusive peace processes that engage women, youth, traditional and religious leaders, and local communities as indispensable actors in building sustainable peace and reconciliation.
In addition, on 19 December 2025, the Panel was hosted by Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the AU Commission, at AU Headquarters for discussions on preventive diplomacy strategies, ongoing reforms within the peace and security architecture and the changing security threats facing the continent. During that meeting, the Chairperson expressed appreciation for the Panel’s proactive engagement in conflict prevention and mediation and reiterated the Commission’s commitment to supporting the Panel’s role in advancing African-owned and African-led peace initiatives.
The expected outcome of the session is a communiqué. The PSC is expected to welcome the Panel’s preventive diplomacy missions, particularly in South Sudan and Madagascar, as well as its missions to countries in transition and its electoral preventive diplomacy efforts. It may urge efforts for enhanced integration of FemWise and AU WiseYouth network into the various preventive diplomacy initiatives and peacemaking processes. The PSC may also call for an assessment of the efficacy of the working methods and approaches of the Panel, as well as the institutional and working arrangements of the Panel, as a critical measure for reinvigorating the role of the Panel in view of the escalation and complexity of insecurity and conflicts. It may stress the need to reinvigorate early warning and conflict prevention through closer collaboration with the Panel, while also calling for stronger coordination in supporting complex transitions, sustaining peace in fragile contexts and enabling early action to de-escalate emerging crises. The Council may further emphasise the need for better resourcing and more systematic follow-up to Panel missions, while encouraging closer cooperation with RECs/RMs and the UN, as well as other AU good offices. It may also welcome the first African Youth Consultation on Mediation, Preventive Diplomacy and Peace Processes held in Kigali from 30 September to 2 October 2025.