Amplifying Africa’s Voices in Global Peace and Security Discourses: Predictable and Sustainable Financing for AU Peace Operations
There is consensus that security is interlinked, and no organisation can address contemporary security challenges solely. Therefore, the African Union and the United Nations have worked innovatively to address critical security challenges on the continent – from Darfur, Somalia and more recently in the Sahel region. A significant challenge affecting the partnership of the two organisations is the absence of predictable and adequate resources. It was, therefore, a welcome development when the Secretary-General, at the request of the Security Council, commissioned a progress report on efforts to secure predictable, sustainable and flexible resources for African Union-led peace support operations. The Report, S/2023/303, issued on 1st May 2023, contained a bouquet of options for the consideration of the Security Council.
Training for Peace (TfP) Partners were instrumental in the processes towards the development of the report, participating in discussions on the issue of financing and contributing policy-oriented papers to inform the discussions. Aware that adopting a resolution to implement the report’s recommendations was subject to several considerations, including public opinion, TfP Partners embarked on advocacy initiatives. Leveraging the opportunity presented by the Academic Conference on the United Nations systems, an association of scholars, practitioners and institutions engaged on issues of global concern and international cooperation in Washington DC, where TfP partners organised round tables on the African Union’s critical agency in addressing contemporary security challenges and the need for predictable and sustainable financing. The TfP, drawing from its large global networks, collaborated with the Stimson Centre to organise a round table on the Effectiveness of Peace Operations for the policy, academic and practitioner audience in Washington, DC. A similar engagement was also undertaken in New York with staff of the United Nations.
The TfP also collaborated with the Challenges Annual Forum (CAF), a platform for academics, practitioners and policymakers, to organise the 23rd Challenges Annual Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The CAF 23, organised under the theme “Towards Stronger Global-Regional Peace and Security Partnerships”, attracted over 130 participants. The Forum reiterated meaningful collaboration between the two organisations and the imperative for predictable and sustainable financing.
