In times of escalating geopolitical tensions and conflicts, non-military mechanisms for conflict prevention and resolution are crucial. Last week, the collaborative research network African Non-Military Conflict Intervention Practices (ANCIP), led by Antonia Witt, successfully concluded its first funding phase with a week of intensive policy engagement in Addis Ababa.
The ANCIP team engaged with key stakeholders, including the African Union’s Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department (AU PAPS), GIZ African Union Office, and in a high-level dialogue with embassies, think tanks, and research institutions organized in collaboration with the African Union Cooperation Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Further, bilateral meetings provided a platform to present and discuss ANCIP’s research:
Based on findings from the various subprojects of the research network, the ANCIP team discussed, among other themes, how to strengthen interactions between early warning systems and preventive bodies such as the African Union’s Panel of the Wise. PRIF Researcher Hilda Milka Koyier highlighted the crucial role of AU Liaison Offices as institutional resources for structural conflict prevention. Addressing the topic of civil society engagement, PRIF Associate Researcher Lamine Savané and Antonia Witt emphasized the need to popularize best practices for interacting with civil society actors in non-military conflict interventions, and shared research findings on how to overcome existing biases in civil society inclusion.
The team also presented the ANCIP database and dashboard, which reconstruct and visualize intervention practices by the African Union and ECOWAS.
About ANCIP:
ANCIP is a collaborative research network between the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), the Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics, and the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). From 1 April onwards, ANCIP will enter its second funding phase (until March 2028), focusing on the expansion of the ANCIP databased and exploring interfaces between military and non-military conflict interventions.