This presentation is a simple overview of the African union, featuring its main objectives and some of the major challenges it is facing as a union. it helps to answer the question; who truly drives the sole African agenda?

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INTRODUCTION
The African Union (AU, or, in its other official languages, UA) is a union consisting of
54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. The AU was
established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa and launched on 9 July 2002 in South
African to replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The most important
decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual
meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat,
the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The African Union is made up of both political and administrative bodies. The highest
decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, made up of all the heads of
state or government of member states of the AU. The Assembly is chaired by
Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, elected at the 20th
ordinary meeting of
the Assembly in January 2013. The AU also has a representative body, the Pan African
Parliament, which consists of 265 members elected by the national parliaments of the AU
member states. Its president is Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi.
Other political institutions of the AU include
the Executive Council, made up of foreign ministers, which prepares decisions for
the Assembly;
the Permanent Representatives Committee, made up of the ambassadors to Addis
Ababa of AU member states; and
the Economic, Social, and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), a civil society
consultative body.
The AU Commission, the secretariat to the political structures, is chaired by Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa. On 15 July 2012, Ms. Dlamini-Zuma became the first
female head of the African Union Commission, replacing Jean Ping of Gabon.

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The objectives of the AU are:
1. To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the
people of Africa;
2. To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member
States;
3. To accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent;
4. To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the
continent and its peoples;
5. To encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the
United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
6. To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent;
7. To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good
governance;
8. To promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights
instruments;
9. To establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its
rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations;
10.To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as
well as the integration of African economies;
11.To promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living
standards of African peoples;

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12.To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future
Regional Economic Communities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of
the Union;
13.To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields,
in particular in science and technology;
14.To work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable
diseases and the promotion of good health on the continent.
Challenges facing the African Union:
1. Funding
A major challenge facing the African Union is funding. The union’s 2013 budget
was approved at a summit in July 2012. 44% of the funds come from the member states,
while the remainder comes from development partners, leaving the question; who truly
drives the African agenda?
Only 4% of this goes towards programs of the AU, while 96% of the funds go to
operational costs. This means that program cost for key institutions are being payed for
by the donors. While only 5 contribute 2/3 of the portion from AU member states.
AU also faces a major task of dealing with corruption and illicit flow of money
from Africa especially by the extractive industries. The continent possesses great wealth
but little of this is used for the development of the continent. These problems have seen
most of the AU’s development programs unachievable or rather paralyzed.
Lack of enough funding has also crippled some of the AU’s important
operations such as peace keeping missions. For example, in response to the Darfur
conflict in Sudan, the AU had deployed 7,000 peacekeepers, many from Rwanda and
Nigeria, to Darfur. While a donor's conference in Addis Ababa in 2005 helped raise funds
to sustain the peacekeepers year and into 2006, in July 2006 the AU said it would pull out
at the end of September that year when its mandate expires.
Critics of the AU peacekeepers said these forces were largely ineffective due to
lack of funds. In June 2006, the United States Congress appropriated US$173 million for
the AU force. Some, such as the Genocide Intervention Network, have called for United
Nations (UN) or NATO intervention to augment and/or replace the AU peacekeepers.

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The UN had considered deploying a force, though it would not likely enter the
country until at least October 2007.The under-funded and badly equipped AU mission
was set to expire on 31 December 2006 but was extended to 30 June 2007 and merged
with the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur in October 2007.
2. Political issues.
Africa is still in the political development phase, confronted with the challenge of
promoting:
- Greater democracy
- Good governance
- The rule of law and respect for human rights
- Effectively addressing humanitarian crisis.
Despite the progress achieved, there still remains a formidable challenge facing the
African Union in the above areas. Confronting undemocratic regimes and mediating in
civil wars has deemed to be a major hurdle facing the AU. Although democratic
principles have been adopted by major countries, political pluralism, transparency and
freedom are still lacking in many countries that is conducive in bringing about
sustainable development and accelerating economic integration of the continent.
The union is trying to assist in ensuring that all African countries respect human
rights and finding durable solutions for problems of refugees and addressing the causes
and symptoms of humanitarian crisis such as civil wars and terrorism.
For example;
The African union is also faced with an uphill task of ensuring compliance by
member states and facilitating inter-African cooperation in political affairs.
Poor cooperation among the member states has weakened the process of development
of common political positions for use in international negotiations and also mobilization
of international mobilization of international support for the African political agenda.
The AU is also trying to deal with the problem of divided loyalties in that the
member states are also members of other organizations. This in a way affects the member
states’ full commitment to the union.

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Countries belonging to different organizations have different ideologies and also
advocate for different interests this brings a form of virtual ideological rivalry which
indeed affects the unity of the African member states.
Africa also lacks core representation on the international `table’ of negotiation and
decision making thus facing some form of virtual isolation by being on the peripheral
when it comes to pushing for the sole African agenda.
3. Economic issues
The current economic situation in Africa is paradoxical although it is the richest
continent in terms of natural resources; Africa remains the poorest and the least
developed region in the world. The African union is trying to resolve the numerous
problems accounting for this paradox so as to see Africa emerge as a major global partner
and become a continent of opportunities and a large potential market.
AU’s concerted efforts together with the international community can accelerate
this process. Although the economic growth over the last few years have been
impressive, it is still below the rate of 7% pa that is required for Africa to achieve the
millennium development goals.
The AU has to focus also on the global economy especially the increased demand
for commodities. The rapid growth of the economies of the emerging powers of the south
eg China has intensified global competition for Africa’s natural resources which has
become a major source of their recent economic growth.
The union has to ensure it maintains and enhances this economic growth through
introduction and deepening of economic reforms. These reforms are necessary for the
continent to effectively mobilize domestic resources and attract its fair share of global
foreign investment and capital flows.
There are still major challenges with regards to the promotion of business in
Africa. AU is working on ensuring legal and regulatory frameworks, governance and
accountability, policy reforms, incentives and support for business have been enhanced in
most African countries. Generally, the AU is faced with a major task of creating a more
investment and trade friendly climate.
The AU is also working on ensuring that Africa is able to industrialize and produce
finished goods instead of selling raw materials which only fetch less income to the

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continent, or better still try to see to it that Africa’s raw materials are bought at the right
prices to avoid exploitation.
4. Illiteracy
Illiteracy is the quality or condition of being unable to read and write. It has got serious
effects especially on Africa as a continent. Illiteracy is found to increase the vulnerability
of the people to various problems. The African union has undertaken several attempts
especially towards the millennium development goals on education. Illiteracy has been
mostly increased by economic poverty, poor education goals and some cultural aspects.
In fact it is said that poverty has got a ‘genetic’ element, that is to say that children of the
illiterate are likely to illiterate too.
Education should be seen as an important aspect through which knowledge and skills on
various ways in which the community or nation develops are passed, therefore it is true to
say that an illiterate person may no acquire these skills. Various opportunities that may
earn a country foreign exchange come with education, which most of the African union
member states have not perfected.
It is true to say that an illiterate nation is likely to import skilled labour, this is expensive
not only to the nation but also to the African Union as the overall body since most of the
member states are affected by illiteracy. This happens due to the inability of the illiterate
to access the skills necessary for such opportunities.
The African Union therefore needs to fight illiteracy by; improving on the funding of the
education sectors of different member states for instance the Union may offer
scholarships to a higher number of bright students, the Union might also try to help the
member states improve on their education policies by offering technical advice.
5.Promoting peace.
For the promotion of peace, security, and stability on the continent, the AU allows
for intervention, however, they have had very limited access in doing so. One of their few
successes was in the deployment of troops to Somalia in 2007, and some analysts believe
the AU, along with the Kenyan and Ethiopian forces, to have done a better job of
pacifying Mogadishu than any other outside force.
More recently, however, the AU came in for criticism for its failure to intervene
earlier in the civil war in Libya, as well as its delay in recognizing the new Libyan

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leaders. It is understandable that the AU would be reluctant to recognize the rebels who
overthrew a man who did much to found the union, but it was also a failure to act
decisively at a time when intervention was needed. AU continues to face similar
challenges in other war ridden countries.
6. Poverty.
Africa’s economic growth in recent years has been impressive, but it has not
translated into any meaningful reduction of poverty. According to a recent report on
Millennium Development Goals. Africa is not on track towards meeting the MDGs.
The challenge that the AU is facing in general therefore is how to promote equity
with growth and improve the quality of their economic growth by making it pro-poor and
ensure that growth is broadly shared in terms of generating decent employment, poverty
reduction and attainment of the MDGs.
Poverty in Africa is heavily concentrated in rural areas and among disadvantaged
groups, especially women, youth and informal sector operations. It is a great
responsibility of the AU to ensure empowerment of people at the grassroots level and
disadvantaged groups to enhance their capacity for productive employment and decent
income which is critical to the attainment of sustainable economic growth and poverty
reduction.
The AU is faced with the need to reduce poverty which entails putting more
emphasis in monetary and fiscal policy especially public expenditure on meeting the
basic needs of the poor. Measures such as the provision of the free or subsidized basic
health and education, rural water supply, subsidized farm inputs.
By eradicating poverty among the member states, the AU will be able to not only be
able to fund its operations and institutions but also focus on other objectives an drive the
sole African agenda successfully.
7. health

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Most nations under the African Union face heath problems and hence high mortality rate.
This leads to loss of labor and eventually slow economic growth rate. Inhibited economic
growth rate in the member states results to slow economic growth of the union too.
One of the major health constraints faced by these nations is the problem of disease
burden, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis being the major diseases. These diseases
overwhelm the heath sector, despite the health sector being heavily invested on the
member states still cannot completely eradicate these diseases.
Limited financing and poor health policies affect most of these nations; the health sector
in these nations does not receive enough funds to solve these problems due to young
economies. The nations on the other hand do not effectively plan for the health sector.
Poor planning leads to minimum utilization of the less funds allocated to the health
sectors. This may even discourage donors.
Most of the population under the African Union falls below the poverty line. This means
that even the little health facilities available and the drugs; affordability and accessibility
is still a major problem. Most of these people cannot afford drugs and the services.
Most of the labour in the health sectors of these nations lack the adequate skills needed to
solve the problem of most of these diseases. This is a major setback in the health sector.
The African Union as an organization bears the responsibility to guide the health sector
of the member states. The union should therefore offer more technical training on
important skills and knowledge about the diseases. Due to the poverty levels of the
people, the union may offer important services to the people for free, for example running
vaccination in the villages. Another challenge being policies on the health sector, African
union may try to offer technical advice that may help the nations to develop their health
sectors.
Health still remain a major challenge to the African Union and therefore ken interest
should be taken to ensure the elimination of these problems hence reduce the mortality
rate.
CONCLUSION:
It is too early to declare the AU a failure after a mere eleven years in existence. It
could be argued that African countries have been remarkably successful in maintaining
Africa’s colonially demarcated borders, which has brought a degree of harmony to inter-

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continental foreign relations. Perhaps we are asking too much from a continent still trying
to terms with its colonial past.
The existence of AU is crucial despite the challenges it faces. However a greater
effort is needed to show its relevancy and ensure the continent has a stronger voice in the
global area rather than a mere whisper drowned out by stronger players.
REFERENCES:
-www.africa-union.org - www.hiiranonline.com/au
-w ww.Africamasterweb.com
"The African Union, NEPAD and Human Rights: The Missing Agenda" Human
Rights Quarterly Vol.26, No.4, November 2004
- 13th AU summit June 2009, Sirte, Libya
-"African move on Bashir dismissed". BBC News. 5 July 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2010
- www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldafrica.
- www.au.int/en/commission