Africa Leadership Forum lauds African Union’s effort to peace and security

The Africa Leadership Forum has lauded the growing role that the African Union (AU) and African institutions are playing in fostering peace and security on the Continent.

The Forum was quick to add that “Nevertheless, it noted that challenges [of the AU] remain and that a doubling of effort is necessary”.

This was contained in a statement issued at the end of a follow-up [ads1]meeting on the 2017 Africa Leadership Forum held in August last year in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The follow-up event was convened by Former President Mkapa, and attended by Former Presidents South Africa and Somalia, Thabo Mbeki and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud respectively as well participants from regional and international organizations and think tanks focused discussion on the conflict situations of the Federal Republic of Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as cases to provide practical lessons and the context for the event’s recommendations.

The Forum calls on Africa’s Leaders and the AU to address a number of key challenges by, among others:

• Strengthening the continent’s institutions tasked with peace and security matters;
• Strengthening in-country frameworks for stakeholder engagement and consultation, and ensuring inclusive national discourse;
• Increasing collaboration among national, regional and continental organs and frameworks contributing to conflict prevention and peace enforcement;
• Streamlining and increasing collaboration with the United Nations peace and security structures, including the UN Security Council, and learning from their experience;
• Promoting universal accession and implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism as an essential tool for ensuring good governance, strong national level dialogue and inclusiveness;
• Encouraging burden sharing, including financing of the peace and security effort by African governments.

The Forum has stated that “A comprehensive report from the discussion will be forwarded to the AU Secretariat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as the Forum’s contribution to the organisation’s effort to drive the peace and security standing across the African continent”

The African Leadership Forum (ALF) is Africa’s dedicated space for open and frank discussion about the challenges facing the continent, by the continent. It is organized by the Office of the Former President of the United Republic of Tanzania, H.E. Benjamin W. Mkapa in conjunction with the Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development (UONGOZI Institute).

Each year, a different theme is determined based on inputs from the previous year and analysis. The topics are carefully selected to address the depths and gaps that are not often touched upon in the current global conferences. The ALF aims to address this ‘gap’ by bringing the key decision-makers and leaders together for these dialogues. Participants represent public, private, and civil society organizations and actors. Particularly those engaged at the regional and continental levels. In particular, the ALF reflects on the institutional context(s) of Africa – where there are impediments, where there is potential, what is lacking, what is worth persevering with, and what is going well.

Source: AwakeAfrica.com | Efo Korsi Senyo