The AU website https://au.int plays a key role in creating awareness and fostering a better understanding about the work of the African Union in various sectors and how its programmes contribute to promoting Africa's growth and development as envisaged in Africa’s Agenda 2063. It serves as the primary channel to distribute news and information, which are central to informing and engaging different stakeholder groups about African development. It is the front and center of the digital presence of the African Union. The AU website is designed, built and maintained in-house by the Information and Communication Directorate.

The website allows audiences to find out more about the AU, understand its role in the transformation of Africa and inspires them to become its voice. The AU website also plays a key role in building trust with, and increasing the AU's credibility among key stakeholders by making available information and knowledge that drives policy and public participation in national and development agenda that build towards achieving Agenda 2063.

In addition to current affairs and news , the AU website provides general information about the work of the AU in the various social, economic and political sectors, the structure and work of the various AU organs and institutions, decisions of the Assembly of Heads of States and other policy making organs amongst others. The website also acts as a repository of contemporary and historical resources of the organisation.

The website reaches a broad audience base located on the continent and internationally These include African citizens, governments of member states, diplomats, the African diaspora, the media, researchers, international organisations, development partners, the private sector and so on. It is important to note that over 50% of the website visitors are between 18 and 34 years of age. Therefore, special attention has been given to the design and content of the website to cater to the youth.

The AU website plays a key role in showcasing the AU brand, through iconography, colours, themes and content. It has a clean and modern design that visually connects with the audiences and promotes the AU's character and brand. It makes a great first impression of the Union, while at the same time showcasing the African Union in action.

The high quality, comprehensive and timely content, feeds into the narrative of an Africa that is focused on achieving prosperity, unity and peace for all its people It shows strong AU leadership in key development sectors, recently exemplified by the Union’s role in guiding the continent through the COVID19 pandemic, through the AfricaCDC. In this way, the site ensures that more and more African and international citizens use it as a trusted source of information on Africa and its place in the world.

In line with technology trends where users utilise diverse devices and browsers; the AU website is accessible on different hardware platforms (desktop, mobile phones, tablets) with functionality in different operating systems thus ensuring that the audiences find the website easily and conveniently on the devices at their disposal. Content is therefore organised logically across different devices and browsers to ensure an enjoyable user experience. 55% of user now access the website through mobile phones.

The Union's audience comes to the website through different sources, including social media, search engines, links on promotional materials, etc. The AU website is SEO-optimized to facilitate access to users coming through the search engines. Therefore, it shows up in the Google search results list, which helps increase its accessibility globally.

The AU has an active and consistent social media presence that allows it to stay relevant to the audiences who use social media platforms as a source of information. The AU is currently actively engaged on three social media channels i.e. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, with more than 1 million cumulative followers/subscribers. The AU's substantial digital presence provides the opportunity for integrated information dissemination, increased engagement, and reputation building. Generally, social media messages lead users back to the website, which is the anchor of the Union’s digital information dissemination system.

Live streaming service on the website allows on demand access by providing instant access to open sessions of all the meetings and media conferences of the AU to the public. In parallel to the live streaming on livestream.com, the AU also livestream its events on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. The live stream videos are embedded in the AU website and available on the AU account at livestream.com and can be accessed on-demand. 

Online branding of the AU being rolled out across organs and offices through the website

It is worth recalling that ICD is the custodian of the AU brand and manages the official communication channels of the AU, including digital platforms (i.e. website, corporate social media channels, corporate mobile applications, and the live streaming platform). Therefore, the project to safeguard the online brand of the AU will not be complete until the branding and online identity of all AU bodies are harmonized. In line with this, ICD has been working with all stakeholders in the Union. It has designed templates to be used by stakeholders and provided subdomain names, which are derivatives of the organization's domain name (au.int) (example: Afcfta.au.int). This effort has registered significant results, and ICD will continue working with all organs, offices, projects, etc., to ensure harmonization of the brand of the AU's digital presence.