AU Monitor Weekly Roundup

This week’s AU Monitor brings you a report back from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) civil society workshop written by Edwin Ikhuoria of the National Association of Nigerian Traders. The workshop was convened by ECOWAS in order to strengthen the integration of the peoples of the region. While these efforts were applauded, participants noted that the vision for a people-centred approach to integration had been created without consultation at the grassroots and in the usual top-down manner. However, the workshop successfully concluded with the formation of a platform for non-state actors’ interaction with ECOWAS through nine regional organizations, who will design and submit a memoranda on the outcomes of the workshop and outlining potential future collaboration with ECOWAS.

The African Union Commission signed a joint financing agreement this week with a group of pooled fund partners from Europe, including Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The contribution, earmarked for institutional transformation, is said to total nearly US$ 6.2 million. Meanwhile, Chambi Chachage questions the “cost” of African unity and particularly challenges Tanzania’s recent intervention in the Comoros crisis while noting that the “AU is shedding its OAU cocooning charter of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states”. Troops from Comoros, supported by the African Union, took control of the island of Anjouan last week but the humanitarian and economic issues facing the island are expected to take longer to overcome. Indeed, the restoration of political stability in Anjouan will be decided when elections finally take place, which the Union government of Comoros has indicated will be held within the next three months. Also in peace and security news, former President Obasanjo of Nigeria has claimed this week that the continued conflict in Somalia is caused by the lack of political will within the international community and the rest of Africa to solve the crisis and that “the downturn in the economy of Somalia and the sufferings of many, were indications of international neglect, rather than symptoms of a ‘failed state’”.

Meanwhile, the African Development Bank is said to have made progress in aligning national lending with national priorities ahead of the high-level forum on aid effectiveness expected in September in Accra, Ghana. However, improvement is still needed in technical cooperation with donors, use of country financial management systems, aid predictability and donor structure streamlining. In other economic development news, African governments are faced with mounting popular mobilisation and unrest due to surging food prices caused by “global supply concerns and heady world futures markets”.

Finally, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) will hold its 43rd ordinary session between May 7th and 22nd in Ezulwini, Swaziland. On the agenda are the periodic state reports of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania. As is customary, the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies will hold the forum on the participation of NGOs and the African human rights book fair ahead of the Commission session from 3rd - 5th of May also in Ezulwini. Information on the NGO Forum is also available in French. Further in human rights news, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and the East African Law Society are convening a roundtable on the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the regional human rights system more broadly from March 31 to April 2 in Arusha, Tanzania. Alliances for Africa will be convening a similar workshop on the Protocol of the African Court for West African judges and lawyers from April 9-10 in Abuja, Nigeria.