AU reforms present a unique opportunity for greater synergy in addressing inter-related issues of security and governance in Africa.

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juin 17, 2021

Democratic governance, peace and security are essential for the socio-economic development of the continent. The three aspects remain interrelated, interdependent, and mutually reinforcing imperatives for Africa to realize its vision for integration and sustainable development. This therefore underlines the urgency to strengthen the coordination and synergy between the African Governance Architectures (AGA) and the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) to effectively execute the mandate of governance, conflict prevention and management.

Aligned with the African Union Reforms that led to the merger of the African Union Commission departments of Political Affairs and Peace and Security into a single department, the AGA has concluded a high level Roundtable meeting to deliberate on practical modalities for operationalising the merger of the African Governance and the African Peace and Security architectures. The meeting was critical to reflect on the practical harmonisation of the two frameworks and work towards greater coordination and synergy that addresses the challenges of silo efforts, overlapping roles and duplication of work and ensure synchronized efforts in promoting the protection and promotion of Human and Peoples’ Rights, consolidation of democratic governance and the rule of law, as well as the promotion of social justice to ensure the structural conflict prevention, and as a prerequisite of socio-economic development.

The roundtable meeting brought together the AGA Platform members that include Regional Economic Communities and the APSA, and critically examined the political, normative, and institutional pronouncements aligned with the AU Reforms and identified the unique opportunities and prospects for enhancing synergy between the two architectures. The meeting brainstormed on strategic, practical and operational recommendations to actualize the closer collaboration of the AGA and APSA.

Building sustainable peace in Africa requires a paradigm shift – a clear departure from addressing symptoms of violent conflict to addressing root causes of conflict by building resilient democratic governance systems. Amb. Bankole Adeoye, Commissioner For Political Affairs, Peace And Security department of the African Union Commission, in delivering his remarks at the roundtable, underscored the role of the AGA-APSA in coherence with African Union, Agenda 2063, particularly Aspirations 3 and 4, as fundamental to support Member States in creating effective democratic governance systems characterized by strong institutions, responsive governance systems capacitating them to address issues of growing discontent,
dwindling public trust and inequality. He added, “The various conflicts that have occurred in the past few months in Somalia, Chad or even here in Ethiopia, illustrate the crucial need for well-developed African Governance, Peace and Security Architectures to address deficits of democratic governance and peace. While these architectures have contributed considerably well to the Union’s agenda, the time has come for these institutions to come together for closer collaboration and synergy. The AU reform process also realized the mutually reinforcing relationship between governance and security issues in Africa that led to their merger.”

Established from the Peace and Security Council Protocol of 2002, APSA is tasked with the critical role of preventing, managing and resolving conflicts, with complementary similarities with the role of AGA which serves as a framework for bringing together existing governance institutions and instruments to enhance response to the root causes and drivers of conflicts.

Going forward, the APSA Pillars and AGA Platform will work to institutionalize joint working methods, strategies, implementation action plans and monitoring and evaluation on issues of common interest and concerns between the APSA Pillars, the AGA Platform, Clusters, and Secretariat, strengthening the Peace and Governance Nexus within the African Union.

For further information, please contact:
Doreen Apollos, Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission | E-mail: ApollosD@africa-union.org | www.au.int|Addis Ababa | Ethiopia
Ms. Makda Mikre Tessema: Democracy and Governance Expert: African Governance Architecture MakdaM@africa-union.org