Committees towards monitoring conflict situations.114 National chapters of ECOSOCC are being established and in some countries, peace, security and humanitarian assistance themes are prominent in their work.115 Below is an example of AU’s collaboration with civil society to promote post conflicting recovery measures for women in the area of sexual and gender based violence. Listening Units in Central African Republic:116 African Union and Civil Society promoting peacebuilding In the context of a weak and incapacitated state of the Central African Republic and yet the continued presence of armed militia in certain geographical regions, women became targets in the instability. This increased their vulnerability, exposing them to various forms of gender based violence including physical abuse, forced marriages, sexual servitude and resort to transactional sex. The AU embarked on a project ‘African Union Support to the Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence in the Central African Republic’ working with two African NGOs; Doctors of Africa/ Médecins d’Afrique and ‘Pan African Lawyers Union’ to provide medico-legal care. Apart from providing medical and psychosocial support, the AU also embarked on strengthening communities to develop mechanisms to prevent and respond to sexual violence. Another key component of the support was the reinvigoration of the judiciary and penal system to strengthen legal responses to sexual violence. Furthermore, an economic empowerment strategy relating to capacity building was integrated. A key element of the identification of victims and referral pathway involved a unique feature called the ‘Listening Units’ which were placed not only in various sub- prefectural councils, health facilities but also IDP sites in project intervention areas. Listening units were designed as part of the interventions for counselling, screening and medical referrals of victims by psychosocial workers who offered services relating to trauma-counselling, listening to and referring 114 victims. A network of thirty-one Nantulya P ‘The African Union Wavers between Reform and More of the Same’ April 19, 2019, African Centre for Strategic Studies. Available at https://africacenter.org/spotlight/the-african-union-wavers-betweenreform-and-more-of-the-same/ 115 AU-ECOSOCC Uganda Chapter. Available at http://www.ngoforum.or.ug/au-ecosocc-uganda-chapter/ 116 Extracted from-African Union ‘Final report of the project for African Union support to the prevention and response to sexual violence in the Central African Republic’ PS15231 2/9/2/31/7 46