There is a widespread view that the African Union – and its bureaucracy – are glorified servants of African governments. They support this view scholars and by media.
But is that this accurate? I answer this query in a recent issue article because this yr the organization celebrates its twentieth anniversary.
The African Union was negotiated and signed by African governments in 1999. It is founding treaty wouldn’t have come into existence unless at least two-thirds of the 54 governments of Africa and Western Sahara had ratified it and deposited it on 26 May 2001.
My article shows that since its official establishment in 2002, the African Union has developed considerable agency. I defined it as the flexibility to shape the agenda and decisions in Africa and on global affairs.
There is little doubt that the African Union faces challenges. It is financially weak and depending on external donors. It is usually perceived as an old people’s club inaccessible to atypical Africans. It also has shortcomings in implementation, with its work sometimes held back by poorly governed states.
However, the organization is usually at the middle of agenda-setting, decision-making, policy-making, policy development and strategic leadership on the African continent.
Treating the pan-African bureaucracy as a mere servant of the continent’s governments is due to this fact an oversimplification of the complex relationship between the African Union and its members. The African Union and its bureaucracy are neither glorified messengers nor obedient followers of the orders of African governments.
It convened its 55 members to take common positions on numerous key global issues. These included constructing consensus on United Nations reforms, Covid-19 answerand financing Africa’s development.
Measuring impact and failure
My article presents various paths of motion for the African Union. Offers a differentiated way of understanding how a relationship:
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shapes draft international agreements
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enforces regulations, guarantees and treaties
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represents the collective will of the member states
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it sets the agenda and guides, influences and shapes considering at a worldwide level
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offers strategic leadership.
Preparation of international agreements. The African Union contributed to the event of promotion treaties roomdemocracy and goodness management.
Many treaties contain pioneering solutions on a worldwide scale. This is true though many Member States still have gaps within the protection of democracy.
It was in a position to contribute to the treaties since it attracted a few of the very best political minds on the continent. Tests shows that African Union staff are amongst essentially the most educated international civil servants on the earth. They even have extensive skilled experience.
Enforcing laws, guarantees and treaties. The African Union has created a well-oiled promotional machine peace and security.
Its initiatives included developing an institutional model for mediation, political dialogue, early warning systems and peace support operations. These have been a game changer in peacekeeping and have led to relative success. One example is the intervention in Somalia.
The EU has also effectively modified the way in which of considering of African political elites from the standard attitude of indifference to encouraging them to intervene in one another. She was quick to intervene in post-election violence in Kenya 2007 and quickly deployed Operation Democracy in Comoros in 2008
Collective will, agenda setting and shaping considering. The African Union has used the ability of recommendations to great effect.
She used it to unite members to support a bunch of African candidates running for positions in international organizations. Examples are elections Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus from Ethiopia as Director-General of the World Health Organization and Louise Mushikiwabo from Rwanda as Secretary General of the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie.
In addition, studies indicate that the African Union has managed to get members to adopt common positions on greater than 20 major issues.
Many of those positions have shaped global debate and decisions. These include influencing the terms of cooperation between the UN and regional organizations.
But the union also rallied and mobilized for evil purposes. An example was the hiding of former Sudanese president Omar al Bashir and Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta from summons to seem before the Court International Criminal Court reply to allegations of crimes against humanity.
Strategic leadership. The African Union has demonstrated its ability to offer leadership and act as an advisor to governments and intergovernmental agencies.
Future-proof development frameworks comparable to have been successfully developed Agenda 2063 and African Continental Free Trade Agreement. It also established development agencies, including the African Union Development Agency NEPAD.
The African Union is doing well in socializing African governments to simply accept development ideas and make them pillars of national growth plans.
This also happens mobilized resources stimulating the continent’s development initiatives. This included efforts to provide the COVID-19 virus vaccinations available to Member States.
But there are weaknesses.
African Union resources were mobilized criticized to deepen Africa’s dependence on international partners. Some people too to argue that a relationship can provide you with lofty ideas, but is usually unable or unwilling to implement them.
Problems
The organization was held back by continuing efforts to reform it.
Between 2002 and 2009, Muammar Gaddafi ruthlessly insisted on turning it into union government has turn into a serious distraction and a significant obstacle to the implementation of its programs.
And since 2016, the method has been ongoing reform the institution under the leadership of Rwandan President Paul Kagame sowed division among the many commission’s leaders. The process paralyzed staff for nearly five years and weakened the AU commission, former South African president Thabo Mbeki said noticed.
Over the past few years, old habits have turn into entrenched, comparable to the cult of personality, the concentration of power within the office of committee chairman and the limitation of space for popular participation in decision-making.
The turnover of the union’s president mainly amongst leaders with questionable democratic credibility also suggests that the union has entered the orbit of a particular group of African leaders. It consists of authoritarian leaders who’ve transformed the institution right into a conservative and risk-averse body.
An example of a more conservative approach is softening its position of zero tolerance towards military regimes.
It was mild towards the authors of the recent coup. This contrasts with its strong stance in previous years and the steps taken to exclude military regimes in Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe in 2003, Togo in 2005, Mauritania in 2005 and 2007, Guinea in 2008 ., Mali in 2012, and Egypt and the Central African Republic in 2013.
The recent increase in coups on the continent suggests that the African Union must review its position on unconstitutional changes of presidency and strengthen its democracy promotion agenda.
The continent needs stronger African Union leadership on this issue – and many others – over the following 20 years.