Expanding the protection toolbox

The report identifies a gap between the African Union's (AU) normative ambitions for civilian protection and operational reality, which is often dominated by military-heavy, counter-terrorism mandates. It argues that current community engagement is largely consultative and lacks agency. To improve outcomes, the report recommends shifting toward genuine community partnerships, reforming financing to support civilian roles, and integrating community-based early warning systems into mission responses.

• The African Union's 2023 Protection of Civilians (POC) policy is a significant normative step, but its implementation is hindered by gaps in mandate design, financing, and practice, rather than just difficult operating environments.
• AU-led missions are predominantly military-focused and operate in asymmetric conflicts, where limited investment in civilian components has restricted effective engagement with communities.
• Existing community engagement mechanisms, such as civil-military coordination (CIMIC), often fail to transfer meaningful decision-making power to local populations, leaving communities as information sources rather than partners.
• Mandates for AU missions, particularly in Somalia, frequently prioritise territorial stabilisation and counter-insurgency over proactive, civilian-centred protection, reducing POC to the mitigation of battlefield harm.
• The AU's financing architecture systematically prioritises uniformed personnel and measurable security outputs over essential civilian protection functions like liaison and early warning systems.
• AU protection frameworks are constrained by a state-centric approach that prioritises host-state consent and sovereignty, which can limit the ability of missions to act when state actors contribute to civilian harm.
• Community-based protection mechanisms—such as local mediation and early warning systems—are often the primary means of safety for civilians and offer a more durable and legitimate approach than military-led efforts alone.
• The use of Community Liaison Assistants (CLAs) in MONUSCO demonstrates the value of positioning community members as active contributors to protection analysis, though the model's success depends on the mission's institutional responsiveness.

APA

Liaga, E. A., & Connolly, L. (2026). Expanding the protection toolbox. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1782887943528-20260701-africa-led-peace-operations-report.pdf

Chicago

Liaga, Emmaculate A, and Lesley Connolly. Expanding the protection toolbox. Institute for Security Studies, 2026. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1782887943528-20260701-africa-led-peace-operations-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Liaga |first1=Emmaculate A |last2=Connolly |first2=Lesley |title=Expanding the protection toolbox |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=June 2026 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1782887943528-20260701-africa-led-peace-operations-report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{liaga2026expanding, author = {Liaga, Emmaculate A and Connolly, Lesley}, title = {{Expanding the protection toolbox}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2026}, month = jun, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1782887943528-20260701-africa-led-peace-operations-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }