MAINSTREAMING SOCIAL WORK INTO THE AFRICAN UNION’S PEACE AND SECURITY FRAMEWORK: A HUMAN-CENTRED POLICY APPROACH TO CONFLICT PREVENTION

Abstract

The changing character of conflict in Africa increasingly exposes the limitations of security approaches that concentrate predominantly on military responses, while insufficiently addressing the social conditions that generate vulnerability, exclusion, displacement, mistrust and recurrent violence. Social work, with its professional emphasis on human dignity, social justice, community participation, protection, psychosocial wellbeing and institutional inclusion, possesses capabilities that are relevant to conflict prevention but remain insufficiently integrated into continental peace and security policy. This paper examines the rationale for mainstreaming social work into the African Union’s peace and security framework as a human-centred policy approach to conflict prevention. It adopts a qualitative documentary research design based on African Union, United Nations, Economic Community of West African States, International Federation of Social Workers and other institutional and scholarly sources published between 2021 and 2026. The study is guided by the Human Security Approach and Ecological Systems Theory. It examines the relationship between social conditions and conflict prevention, reviews European and African experiences, and considers the relevance of social work to the African Peace and Security Architecture and regional mechanisms. The analysis indicates that social workers can contribute to early identification of community-level tensions, social cohesion, protection of vulnerable populations, psychosocial recovery, mediation, reintegration and locally grounded prevention. The paper proposes an African Social Work and Conflict Prevention Mainstreaming Framework centred on policy recognition, professional capacity, early-warning integration and community-based peacebuilding. It recommends institutionalising social work within relevant African Union peace and security mechanisms while strengthening regional and national implementation capacities.