11 Apr 2008: ISS Today: The Challenge of Building an Effective AU Commission

11 April 2008: The Challenge of Building an Effective AU Commission



At a recent conference in Potsdam, Germany, the sea change that we have seen in the evolution of the continental security arrangements since the establishment of the African Union was reviewed. The dynamic leadership of former Malian President Alpha Oumar Konaré has transformed a backward, inward and often cautious OAU into an organization with an ambitious and forward-looking vision. A key enabler for the AU was the agreement with the European Union that established the Africa Peace Facility in 2004.


Through the Facility and its successive grants, now totalling €440 million, the AU has been able to undertake peace missions in Burundi, Darfur, the Central African Republic and the Comoros (in 2006). These funds included generous contributions to build the capacity of Africa’s continental peace and security architecture including its early warning system and internal structure. Much remains to be done, however.


The recent organizational review of the AU that was commissioned by heads of state in the middle of last year has been damning in its assessment of the Commission. The Commission is the heart of the AU and now has an approved staffing structure of 912 available positions, yet of these only 60% have been filled. The most vacancies are for professional staff.


Summarizing its assessment, the chairperson of the audit committee Professor Adebayo Adedeji, summarized the challenges thus: “Although the Commission, as the nerve center of the AU architecture, has lifted the profile of the Union globally, it is handicapped at three levels. First, there is lack of clarity in the set up of its leadership. Second, its activities are spread too widely for it to be effective in playing the role envisaged for it; and thirdly, the management needs to be improved.” Today, participants agreed, the challenge is no longer an lack of funds. Donors are falling over one another to fund various components of the African peace and security architecture. Apparently the yet-to-be-operationalized Panel of the Wise, the AU’s formal mediation team of five elder statesmen and women, has secured some $60 million in start-up funds without having started working!


While most funds have gone to build the capacity of the African Standby Force, other systems such as the Continental Early Warning Mechanism have also benefited handsomely. Indeed the AU cannot absorb the donor funds available to it, which possibly explains why it does not effectively ensure that African member states contribute their fees timely and in full.


Elsewhere in their review Adedeji’s team write about the dysfunctional relationship between Konare and his nine commissioners, with overlapping portfolios, unclear authority and responsibility, unwieldy and illogical division of areas of responsibility and the like.


To be sure, little of this is the fault of the outgoing commissioners who were handed a poisoned chalice in the way that the organization was designed.


It is therefore clear that the incoming chairperson, Mr. Jean Ping, Gabon`s former minister of foreign affairs and his team face a daunting challenge when they assume their positions in Addis Ababa early next month. Preparing the AU for the future is not only about providing vision and leadership to a Commission that has expanded its scope of work massively, but also to manage and restore the morale of an organization upon which so many pin their hopes for an improved Africa.

 

Dr Jakkie Cilliers, Executive Director, Institute for Security Studies

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