The Central African Republic (CAR) have experienced decades of fractured peace building processes. After the 2016 elections, the country can seize the opportunity to reach sustainable peace. This policy brief focused on the role played by the African Union in supporting CAR’s peace building and post-conflict reconstruction and development processes; and identifies ways for the continental body to enhance its engagements. The peacebuilding field is desperate for more effective responses to countries facing or emerging from conflicts. A growing number of actors support peacebuilding processes on the African continent. However, despite all their efforts, responses do not always achieve the desired results. The various peacebuilding actors and processes provide a complex and interlinked array of responses that may complement, parallel and even compete with each other. In this context, an important case study is the Central African Republic (CAR). The country has been through various phases of conflict and has undergone some peacebuilding processes. However, continuous outbreaks of violence have forced external interveners to rethink their engagements and adopt more peacebuilding specific tasks. The fractured peacebuilding process in the CAR shows that it desperately needs long-term rather than just short-term responses for peace to be sustained.
