This chapter studies two specific groups of actors considered “external” to the AU, which perform central functions within the AUBP web and challenge the binary inside/outside imagination of regional organisations: Academics and consultants as well as staff members from the partner organisation who work at the intersection with different programme stakeholders. First, the role of scholars and practitioners who advised the AUBP in a variety of forms and capacities, especially during the early years of the programme, is analysed. It is described how these external experts contributed to the programme design and implementation and how their transnational and transcontinental research and policy networks impacted on the AUBP. In the second section, the role of individual GIZ staff members, notably Germans of African descent as well as African nationals employed by GIZ who liaise on a daily basis with the AUC and the RECs, is studied. The practical importance of these connectors for the inner life of the AUBP scrutinises monolithic and unitary perspectives on regional organisations and their partners.