Women mediator networks trickling down Women, Peace and Security policies. An analysis of the localization of FemWise-Africa

25 years after the adoption of the resolution 1325 by the United Nations Security Council, policy-makers and activists take stock of the state of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. While many achievements can be celebrated, the discourse remains cautionary. Women’s rights and feminist policies are threatened in the current context of funding cuts and populist politics. International institutions like the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) represent authorities, rightfully criticized and questioned, however with a mandate and instruments in place to advocate for women’s participation and protection. In this paper, I want to take a look at one of those instruments established by the African Union, the AU Network of African Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation, FemWise- Africa. Created in 2017 as a tool to empower African women mediators and make them visible, the network is currently decentralizing its operations, creating national chapters in AU member states and African Regional Economic Communities (RECs). Examining the establishment of the FemWise chapter in Uganda (2023) and of the ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States) Women Mediators Network (REFEMAC) (2022), I aim to answer the following questions: How does the African Union localize its policies and practices? Which FemWise practices are kept at the regional and national level and which are discarded and adapted? Do the national and regional chapters represent an opportunity for inclusion or are they paper tigers failing women’s activists?