Since even before the first waves of independence, the African continent was already striving toward a peaceful, developed and politically integrated continent founded on the common past of its people and their shared destiny.

To this end, the Organization for African Unity (OAU), later the African Union (AU), was created with the aim to facilitating the path to these aspirations. However, different evaluations of the continental organization questions the body’s abilities to efficiently and effectively deliver on those aspirations. At a retreat organized by the AU Commission for the Heads of State in January 2017, Rwandan president Paul Kagame presented a set of recommendations to resolve the institutional challenges that often impede the AU from meeting its goals.

Titled “The Imperative to Strengthen our Union: Report on the Proposed Recommendations for the Institutional Reform of the African Union”, the report noted that the continent is in need of an efficient continental organization that can fulfill its mandate. President Kagame stressed that an unfit AU has made Africa ill-prepared to adequately respond to global events. The inability to implement decisions, inadequate funding, an overstuffed AU Commission, a weak Pan-African Parliament, lack of clear priorities and weak linkages between the AU and Regional Economic Communities were listed as challenges that hindered the progress of the AU. These challenges, the report stated, resulted in a “dysfunctional organization in which member states see limited value, global partners find little credibility, and citizens have no trust”.

The report also suggested that leaders will need to engage on four action areas to strengthen the AU:

1. Focus on key priorities with continental scope.

2. Realign institutions to deliver continental priorities.

3. Manage the AU efficiently at both political and operational levels.

4. Provide sustainable finance from resources within the continent.

Each action area enclosed detailed recommendations to serve as guidelines in the reform.

The report further stressed that the choice to change and to provide citizens with a continent in which they can thrive ultimately lies in the decisions of the leaders. “Reform does not start with the Commission. It starts and ends with the leaders, who must set the right expectations and tempo. The effectiveness of the African Union, after all, is our business and responsibility,” the report stated.

President Kagame's report signaled the third effort by leaders of the continent to reform the AU. Previously, the 2007 Adedeji report and the 2016 Mekelle report on the AU's organs and institutions presented detailed studies of the challenges faced by the AU and provided recommendations on how to resolve them. However, lack of willingness and ability left the reports unimplemented and thus the challenges unresolved.

The Kagame report acknowledged this gap in implementation and called upon leaders in the continent to follow up on decisions taken at summits or otherwise risk implying that their decisions do not really matter. “We are indeed hard-pressed to embrace change and in fact, seen from the vantage point of the present, we are already too late. We cannot avoid reckoning with the hard truth of previous failures; otherwise the same mistakes will keep coming back. But acknowledging where we have fallen short does not mean being bound by it. The only mistake would be to allow the situation to become cyclical,“ President Kagame further added.

Downloads

Report on the Proposed Recommendations for the Institutional Reform of the African Union (PDF)

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