Mobilizing and building capacities of religious leaders and their communities towards peace building and peaceful resolution of differences in addition to creation of spaces for mediating conflicts remain strong action areas for the African Council of Religious Leaders — Religions for Peace (ACRL—RfP). This makes the Conflict Transformation and Peace Building Program very key in the Council's operations.
In order to realize the task of building an environment where conflicts and differences are addressed amicably and through dialogue and constructive engagement between and among people of different persuasions, the Council:-
- Facilitates and promotes actions of peace building, mediation and conflict transformation in the continent by focusing on issues of trans-national dimensions
- Supports National Inter-Religious structures in attending to their respective countries' challenges
- Mobilizes religious leaders and their communities employing their moral responsibilities and wide acceptability in the African societies, to act jointly in situations that require rapid responses in violent conflicts and in other situations of peace-threatening impasses across the continent.
- Facilitates and accompanies religious leaders and their communities in conflict transformation and peace building processes by augmenting the Religious Leaders' understanding and appreciation of the dynamics of the conflicts in Africa and its developmental challenges in a broader context.
Continued advocacy and lobbying for mutual participation and engagement between different stakeholders and leaders in the continent remain focus of the Council. The ACRL—RfP therefore, ensures that peace agreements, protocols and other structures of engagements are adhered to; monitoring them and lobbying for communities' grassroots ownerships. Through this, the Council promotes the building of regional bodies (SIRCBs), national frameworks (NIRCs) and Women (AWFN) and Youth (ARYN) networks to influence the multi-religious cooperation at those levels. Additionally, the ACRL—RfP opens spaces for the cooperation and exchange at the global levels. This implies recognition and opening spaces for women and youth to play their active roles to ensure that they are involved and mainstreamed in the Council's initiatives..
Key issues that are dealt with in the area of conflict transformation and peace building agenda include poor governance, corruption, human rights, poverty, human security, and sustainable development and protecting the earth.