 Africa has the fastest growing and youngest population in the world. It is a continent that is rich in innovations and technology, health, citizen activism, and approaches to solving disputes. Africa's participation, leadership, and engagement is critical to address global security challenges and opportunities for peace. But Africa also faces a complex combination of threats. These threats range from rising authoritarianism and coups, violent extremism, great power competition, and climate change. The United States Institute of Peace works directly with African citizens, including women and youth, to address communal grievances and curb violent extremism. We advise African political and civic leaders, as well as national and regional governments and organizations, to shape and redefine peace processes and ensure more sustainable solutions to violent conflict. USIP works across the continent, from Nigeria and coastal West Africa to the Sahel and Central Africa, to the Greater Horn and beyond. In 2019, in Nigeria, USIP-trained peace mediators helped the state government peace-building commissions in Kaduna and Plato States to initiate talks to end violence between Aten, Fulani, and Taqab communities in both states. A peace deal was signed December 2020, and USIP continues to support the state peace-building commissions to ensure that it holds. In the Central African Republic, USIP and our partners have identified hate speech as a major issue, particularly around elections. In the Horn of Africa, we collaborate with our Sudanese partners on ways to reduce violence and hold their leaders responsible for delivering services, security, and peace. USIP focuses on helping women and youth in areas that have experienced conflict. They are often the ones that are left out of decisions that impact their future. Some of this work helps women come together to create plans to make their communities and lives safer, and share those plans with security officials. This is something that would have been unheard of just a few years ago. USIP has been working with Sisters Without Borders, a network of women civil society leaders since 2014. These mothers, sisters, and daughters came together to strengthen their communities' resilience to violent extremism. The USIP Africa Center believes in the strength of citizens and institutions to design and lead effective solutions to manage conflict in Africa and make peace a part of its promise in future.