Following up on the 5-day study tour on peace and security in Germany in June 2019, the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) team of the Institute of Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of Addis Ababa University jointly organized together with the GIZ IPSS team a two-day methodology review workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. The rationale was to review the methodology of the APSA Impact Report. The report summarizes and aggregates findings of an annual study that assesses the impact of interventions by the African Union (AU) and/or Regional Economic Communities (RECs) or Regional Mechanisms (RMs) in violent conflicts in Africa.
The team members had fruitful discussions with experts from German Development Institute (DIE), Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK), Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) as well as European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM). The focus was on reflecting, reviewing, and improving the APSA Impact Monitoring Methodology.
Besides an exchange on knowledge and experience on conflict analysis methodology, challenges such as the clustering of conflicts or the mapping of AU and/or RECs interventions were addressed. In addition, linkages with other IPSS research activities were identified and further areas of cooperation with the different research institutes and think tanks were explored.