African Union To Get A New Chair: 6 Key Tasks They Must Tackle

(MENAFN- The Conversation) The African Union (AU) member states will elect a new senior leadership of the AU Commission in February 2025.

The commission was originally conceived as the secretariat of the AU. Over the years it has become the driving force behind the pan-African project.

The positions of AU Commission chairperson and deputy, as well as most of the six AU commissioners, are contested. The position of chair rotates between the five African regions; this will be east Africa's turn. There are four candidates , all male. North Africa will put forward candidates for the deputy chairperson.

According to the statutes of the African Union (2002) , the chairperson of the AU Commission is the chief executive officer of the AU, its legal representative, and its accounting officer.

The chairperson's tasks are complex. In essence, they focus on coordinating and harmonising policies between the AU, member states and the eight officially recognised regional economic communities. The term of office is four years, renewable once.

As a long-time observer of the African Union – among other things, as editor of the Yearbook on the African Union (open access with Brill Academic Publishers) – I've identified six areas where the coordination and harmonisation function of the future chairperson will be of utmost importance.

These are:

• renewing member states' commitment to the AU's shared values

• finalising the policy on the division of labour between the AU and the regional economic communities

• increasing the number of Common African Positions on key global challenges

• adopting a systematic approach to the AU's strategic partnerships with multilateral and bilateral players

• completing the process of financial and institutional reform of the organisation

• furthering the development of a“citizen's union” – as envisaged in Agenda 2063 , The Africa We Want, the blueprint for the continent's future.

These six areas are structurally at the core of the African Union's long-term policy development. If they are not tackled systematically, the pan-African agenda will not make much progress.

The set of shared values on human rights, the rule of law and the rights of women, youth, and minorities that the AU has agreed to in the past has been jeopardised.

The reasons include the democratic recession on the continent since 2006, the politics of member states denying human rights violations or the threat of violent extremism and terrorism in their countries, and the increasing number of so-called unconstitutional changes of government.

The AU's existing policy on unconstitutional changes of government does not seem to be working any longer. There is a lack of support for it from member states and regional economic communities. National sovereignty is being defended at almost any cost.

The coups d'etats in Mali (2021), Burkina Faso (2022) and Niger (2023) are just the most recent examples in which neither the AU nor the regional economic community concerned (Ecowas) could bring about a return to constitutional order.

Second, the division of labour between the AU and the regional economic communities needs to be finalised. The necessary policy documents and the related practices are not yet in place. And there are constant contradictions in various policy fields. This is particularly true in peace and security but also in trade. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is just one of many examples.

Third, the AU has developed several positions on key global challenges, including the reform of the UN security council and climate change. This is important for making an impact in international forums such as the United Nations and the G20 (where the AU became a member in September 2023).

The process of arriving at Common African Positions needs to be more systematic. And the implications for AU member states need to be defined more precisely.

Currently, the AU is developing an extremely important position on the nexus between climate change and peace and security.

Fourth, the AU Commission must be clear about the criteria for when an international organisation or a country becomes a strategic partner, and what the practical implications are. And there is no mechanism for monitoring and evaluating strategic partnerships.

Fifth, the institutional and financial reform of the organisation, which began in 2016/2017, has yet to be completed. Progress has been made on restructuring the AU Commission, but financial reform needs to be completed.

The AU has raised an additional US$341 million for the Peace Fund since 2017. But it still depends on international partners. In the current budget, which was adopted in Accra in July 2024, AU member states and African institutions contribute 41.85% of the estimated expenditure (mainly for salaries and maintenance) and international partners 58.15% (mainly for programme implementation and peacebuilding activities).

This continues to raise questions of ownership, commitment and independence.

And finally, the ambition to become a“citizen's union” is still unfulfilled. This involves cooperation with civil society organisations, their role in the Economic, Social and Cultural Council, and the potentially creative role of the Pan-African Parliament – established to ensure full participation of Africans in the economic development and integration of the continent.

There are also issues such as the free movement of persons and the African passport, and bridging the gap between the AU and what is happening at the local level in member states.

African citizens are supposed to experience the AU as relevant to their lives.

This is an extensive and complex agenda. There are reasons why many of the issues discussed here have been dragging on for years. And the incoming AU Commission chairperson has only limited room for manoeuvre against unwilling member states.

The future chairperson will again have to forge a coalition of the willing and the able – in relation to the member states, the regional economic communities and the AU commissioners.

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