Lecture
Effective Peace Policy Advising
Picture Credit: AUC Egypt
Date & Time: Monday, September 28, 2026, 1:00–2:00 pm
Location: School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), The American University in Cairo
Our Policy Advisory Lead, Abdallah Abdelwahab spoke to political science students and faculty at the American University in Cairo about peace policy advising. On how advisers can be effective, he shared three key lessons from our policy work.
Understand the policy ecosystem.
While nexus approaches (such as the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus) aim to get different policy instruments and actors to work together, understanding the paradigms and worldviews informing actors and instruments is equally important. A pastoralist who believes he is entitled to roam freely across national borders diverges – paradigmatically – from a government officer who wants to ensure border security. Informed advice mediates worldviews as much as it does policy instruments and actors.
Understand yourself.
Being part of that ecosystem, advisers need to understand who they are – not only in terms of the instruments on which they are offering expertise (e.g., humanitarian action), but also how their individual values and goals align with and differ from the actors they are advising. Advisers, and especially peacebuilders, are not simply process facilitators: They are actors in the very same process they support.
Build action-based coalitions.
Acting towards a given policy goal often requires broad coalitions among local, national, and international actors alike. As advisers mediate between worldviews, policy instruments, and the actors who operationalize them, they build such coalitions. These coalitions do not seek to flatten difference. Rather, they take convergences among actors as a way forward. Such a common ground can only be found as advisers unpack the ecosystem and their role in it. Importantly, while self-understanding is central, learning how the adviser is perceived by different actors within the policy ecosystems is of similar importance to effective coalition-building and impactful advising.
Learn more about our Peace Ecosystems Model here.