NUPI/TfP co-hosted, with the AU Policy Development Unit, a workshop on developing a lessons learned and best practices framework for AU peace support operations, in Addis Ababa on 10-11 February 2016. The African continent has been inundated by security and many other types of challenges especially in the post-colonial decades and through the African Union (AU) and regional organisations, member states and stakeholders have been working hard to develop appropriate strategic responses, mechanisms and tools to confront the attendant challenges. For issues relating to peace and security, the Peace and Security Division (PSD) is the department within the African Union Commission (AUC) that is mandated to take to take corrective action. Within the PSD division, it is the Peace Support Operations Division (PSOD) that responds to Peace Support Operations (PSOs) matters. The aim of the experts meeting was to develop a generic methodology for the conduct of lessons learned studies of the African Union, with particular reference to the African Union Mission of Somalia (AMISOM) and other future missions. International experts from the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were invited to give presentations on their respective lessons learned methodologies on 10 February. Other participants who attended included representatives of the AUC PSOD, African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC), African Think tanks and TfP partners. On 11 February the African experts reflected on each organisation’s approach and discussed their applicability to the AU, and brainstormed directions for the AU’s own lessons learned guidelines.  As a follow up to the workshop NUPI/TfP will support the AU PSOD in developing a document outlining a set of guidelines for lessons learned and best practices for AU Peace Support Operations. Over the past twenty years conflict challenges have been gradually increasing and accordingly so have been the PSOD's efforts to address them. The establishment of the African Standby Force (ASF) continent-wide is one notable effort at containing such conflict related problems. On a continent that has a diverse doctrinal background among its security structures, interoperability does not come easy. As such, the ASF has encountered many problems both during training and in the field. To overcome this phenomenon, the PSOD has been busy putting together policies, guidelines, agreements, frameworks and mechanisms to help bring together regional peace and security tools to that it can use to respond to peace and security challenges.