The Sunday News
Darlington Musarurwa in ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Zimbabwe fully supports reforming the African Union into a lean, well-managed, efficient and performance-based body capable of delivering peace, stability and inclusive economic development on the continent, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.
Addressing a historic 11th Extraordinary Session of the AU Assembly here yesterday, whose sole focus is to make decisions and declarations on mechanics of the reform process, President Mnangagwa said streamlining portfolios of the AU Commission — the bloc’s secretariat — through focused units would help “remove overlaps and duplication in portfolios”.
The Assembly — made up of Heads of State and Government from 55 African countries — is the AU’s supreme organ.
“Today, we have an opportunity to address the structural deficiencies of the Commission. We add our voice in calling for a lean management structure and portfolios aligned to the key priorities of the Union and clustering the portfolios along thematic lines to improve policy coherence and co-ordination and remove overlaps and duplication in portfolios,” said President Mnangagwa.
Efforts to reduce the number of portfolios from eight to six, he said, would improve efficiencies and support Africa’s developmental aspirations. The envisioned new structure will have a Chairperson, a deputy and six commissioners presiding over the portfolios of Sustainable Environment, Agriculture, Rural Development and Blue Economy; Economic Development, Trade and Industry; Education, Science, Technology and Innovation; Infrastructure and Energy; Political Affairs, Peace and Security; and Health, Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. The creation of portfolios focusing specifically on environment, rural development and agriculture, he added, would drive “sustainable development that leaves no-one behind”.
“The development trajectory we have undertaken should be in harmony with the environment; it must pay attention to agriculture — a key sector in many of our economies. The focus on rural development as a broad mandate is most appropriate and resonates with inclusive and sustainable development that leaves no one behind,” said Zimbabwe’s Head of State and Government.
Yesterday, AU Chair President Paul Kagame of Rwanda launched the Peace Fund, through which African countries raised more than $60 million to support the secretariat’s peace and security operations. The available resources, he said, were sufficient to cover the secretariat’s preventative and diplomatic peace and security activities. There are plans to increase the fund to $100 million by 2021.
African leaders also intend to come up with a definitive mandate, structure and funding mechanism for the AU Development Agency — formerly the New Economic Partnership for African Development.
Efforts are also being channelled towards establishing an effective division of labour between the AU, regional economic communities, member states and continental organisations. Effecting the broad changes involves amending the rules and procedures of the AU Assembly and the Constitutive Act, a process expected to be completed before the 32 Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly in February 2019.
President Kagame, who is Leader of the Institutional Reforms, said transforming the AU into an organisation fit for purpose was an urgent task.
“The purpose of this Extraordinary Summit is to advance the institutional reform of our Union. Events on our continent and across the world continue to confirm the urgency and necessity of this project. The goal is simple: To make our continent stronger and give our people the future they deserve,” he said.
