On 21 – 22 October 2025, Dr Vasu Gounden, the Founder and Executive Director, participated in the African Union’s (AU) 16th High-Level Retreat on the Promotion of Peace, Security, and Stability in Africa, held in Aswan, Egypt. The theme for this year’s High-Level Retreat was “Reframing AU Mediation – Consolidating African Leadership and Ownership.”
Since its establishment, the AU has prioritised conflict prevention, mediation, and peacebuilding within its mandate, in accordance with the Constitutive Act and the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council (PSC). Through the Panel of the Wise, High Representatives, Special Envoys, and Special Representatives of the Chairperson, the AU has built a mediation presence across the continent. The High-Level Retreat, launched in 2009, has served as the Commission’s annual flagship platform for strategic reflection on preventive diplomacy and mediation. It has brought together AU envoys, SRCCs/PRs, members of the Panel of the Wise, as well as senior envoys from RECs/RMs, the United Nations, and other international bodies. The Retreat offers a space for candid, off-the-record dialogue, enabling participants to evaluate emerging challenges, share lessons learned, and set strategic priorities for African-led peacemaking.
The latest High-Level Retreat was built upon the legacy of previous events and the 2025 Aswan Forum, held on 19 – 20 October 2025. It provided a platform for AU Special Envoys, SRCCs/PRs, and their counterparts from RECs/RMs, the United Nations, and partner organisations to reflect on the state of peacemaking in Africa and reaffirm a shared political vision for African-led, African-owned mediation that is inclusive, coherent, and credible.
The Retreat focused on five main interrelated priorities: i) examining the consolidation of coherence and doctrine in African-led mediation to navigate an increasingly fractured global order and ensure the primacy of a single African track; ii) reaffirming the principle that inclusivity and insider mediation are indispensable to AU practice, by recognizing the strategic roles of women, youth, and traditional and community mediators in strengthening the legitimacy and sustainability of peace processes; iii) reflecting on external alignment and diaspora engagement, exploring how to harness the political, social, and economic contributions of the African diaspora as a strategic multiplier, while ensuring that international and bilateral initiatives reinforce rather than substitute African-led frameworks; iv) considering the political economy of conflict, emphasizing the need to integrate governance of natural resources, borderlands, and maritime domains into mediation efforts so that peace agreements yield tangible dividends for communities and states; and v) highlighting the importance of enablers and sustainability, including the operationalization of the AU Peace Fund and other African financial instruments, to ensure that mediation and preventive diplomacy are adequately resourced, agile, and resilient.
The objectives of the Retreat included: i) reframing AU mediation doctrine to respond to the evolving nature of conflict, including hybrid threats, terrorism, and disinformation; ii) consolidating African ownership by operationalizing a single African track for mediation, grounded in complementarity with RECs/RMs and the UN; iii) placing inclusivity at the center of mediation, making the participation of women, youth, and insider mediators an integral part of AU practice; iv) addressing the political economy of conflict—including governance of borderlands, corridors, and maritime resources—as part of sustainable settlements; and v) agreeing on principles for engaging external partners and initiatives in a manner that reinforces, rather than substitutes, African leadership.
The expected outcome of the High Level Retreat is the Aswan Outcome Document, reaffirming African leadership and ownership of mediation, and providing strategic direction for coherence and coordination.
