PSC/PR/COMM.(DCXXVIII) Page |1 COMMUNIQUE The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU), at its 633 rd meeting, held in Addis Ababa, on 18 October 2016, adopted the following decision on its partnership with the United Nations Peace Building Commission (UNPBC): Council, 1. Takes note of the briefings made by the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson of the UNPBC on its work and efforts in peace building in Africa and the prospects for enhancing the partnership between the AUPSC and the UNPBC, including in the area of conflict prevention and sustaining peace on the continent; 2. Takes note of the briefing by the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support on the Peacebuilding Fund, which supports conflict prevention and sustains peace efforts in twenty African countries; 3. Recalls its previous press statements and communiques on the issue of peace building, conflict prevention and promotion of peace in Africa; 4. Further recalls resolutions A/RES/70/262 and S/RES/2282(2016) on the review of the peace building architecture, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, respectively, which are landmark steps recognizing that “sustaining peace” encompasses activities aimed at preventing the outbreak, escalation, continuation and recurrence of conflicts, addressing root causes of conflicts, assisting parties to conflict to end hostilities, ensuring national ownership and reconciliation, as well as recovery, reconstruction and development; 5. Commends the UNPBC for its efforts in Africa and urges it to continue consolidating its work with a view to preventing conflict and assisting those countries that have emerged from conflicts, in order to prevent their relapse; 6. Emphasizes the provision of gender sensitive peace building activities, including the role of women in peacebuilding, the importance of women’s equal participation in all efforts in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security and the need to increase women’s role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution and peacebuilding; In this regard, Council welcomes the adoption by the UNPBC of its Gender Strategy to integrate a gender perspective into all its work and strengthen its engagement in gender-related aspects of peacebuilding; 7. Stresses the importance of youth participation in peacebuilding in this regard Council urges Member States to increase their investments in the youth as one of the ways of sustaining peace;