


In 2002, the AU set up a Peace Fund, as part of its African Peace and Security Architecture, to finance the organization’s peace and security activities. And finally, AUPSOs may hold out the prospect of responding to several governments’ preference for external forces that will deploy quickly and play combat roles, demands that traditional U.N. administration, which under former President Donald Trump had threatened to veto the 2018 draft resolution, is actively courting Africa. Worldwide geopolitical shifts now foreground Global South priorities, and especially those put forward by African states, more than they have in recent years. After a previous push for a Security Council resolution, in 2018, was derailed partly by disunity, the AU recently adopted a “consensus paper” on the issue. assessed contributions for AUPSOs have reason to sense fresh momentum in 2023. But despite advances in recent years, the AU’s Achilles heel is its lack of adequate resources to support and sustain these operations. The way the Security Council discusses this issue has evolved, with Council members increasingly acknowledging the AU’s proactive role on matters of peace and security in Africa, including its enhanced capacity to respond expeditiously to conflict and crises on the continent-particularly through deploying peace support operations. Security Council has adopted five resolutions and eight presidential statements since 2008 recognizing the need to provide “adequate, predictable and sustainable” funding for AU peace operations. It has remained an unresolved issue in the relationship between the U.N. to examine the possibility of funding such operations from U.N.-assessed contributions. By our count, this will be the eighth major report or review on financing AUPSOs since 2007, when the AU first formally requested the U.N. support for AUPSOs in greater detail.īy the end of April, the United Nations Secretary-General will publish a report on the financing of African Union (AU)-led peace support operations (AUPSOs). In mid-April, Security Council Report will publish a research report (available at which traces the evolution of the financing issue and discusses the options for U.N. A version of this article will appear in Security Council Report’s April Monthly Forecast. By Dawit Yirga, Paul Romita and Karin LandgrenĪuthor’s note: Security Council Report is an independent think tank dedicated to supporting a more effective, transparent, and accountable U.N.
