1.0 INTRODUCTION The African Union has pronounced itself continuously on democratic governance, gender and peacebuilding norms, establishing architectural frameworks that extend from the continental to the regional level. Standard setting on the appropriate regulatory and institutional frameworks form part of these initiatives. Member states are required to collectively through the Regional Economic Communities and singularly through national home grown responses domesticate and implement these normative standards and frameworks. Harnessing the potential of men and women to contribute meaningfully to governance can be transformative. citizens develop As decision making systems, norms and institutions are developed over time to regulate how conflicts are resolved through established mechanisms.3 Governance responses to manage the vying interests of citizens must of necessity take into account the integration of the issues concerning women as well as men, reflecting gendered approaches in the structural composition of institutional, resource and regulatory frameworks. Sustainable peace stands a better chance of being consolidated when men and women continually engage governance mechanisms - policy frameworks and democratic institutions- for problem solving, conflict prevention and resolution. 3 Hufty M ‘Investigating Policy Processes: The Governance Analytical Framework (GAF)’. Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2019005 13