ABSTRACT
The African Union is not a secretariat of officials but the collective body of Member States and their societies. Non-governmental organizations represent the organized element of civil society associations. The term civil society is often contested and generally misunderstood. Historically on the African continent there has been an adversarial relationship between civil society and their governments. In most countries civil society tends to voice the aspirations of citizens about how their affairs are run. There is the perception that the African Union and its various initiatives remain elitist or top-down in the way they were developed, rather than being based upon African people's experiences, knowledge and demands. Civil society also plays an important role in emphasizing issues related to gender equality during the peacebuilding process. Efforts to establish a more institutionalized partnership with civil society were actually initiated during the transition of the Organization of African Unity into the African Union.
