ECDPM joined officials of the African Union Commission, members of the AU Peace and Security Council, RECs, the UN, diplomats, independent researchers and academics from across Africa from 21-22nd of July 2009 in Uganda to discuss in closed session “State of the Union 2030: Security Threats and Responses”.
The event was organized by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Addis Ababa office and was opened by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Uganda H. E. Hon Henry Oryem Okello. The Minister noted that while there was consensus on the United States of Africa, “Uganda supports the gradual process of integrating Africa because it is the assured way of bringing about sustainable unity in Africa” .
In this forward looking seminar a stocktaking of existing African responses to peace and security challenges on the continent was placed against existing and possible future threats. Issues such as the resurgence of coups, the impact of drugs trafficking on West African states, piracy, demographic changes, post-conflict reconstruction, the prospects and challenges of regional integration and state fragility in the face of the financial crisis were all discussed in depth. A draft paper written by Ele0nora Koeb, Andrew Sherriff and Henrike Hohmeister of ECDPM laid out the nature and consequences for European Union support of African Peace and Security Architecture looking forward to 2030. The EU through the Africa Peace Facility and other instruments is the largest financial backer of African Peace and Security Architecture. The challenge of peace and security on the African continent requires both a short-term response but also a long-term vision and genuine partnership. Peace and security forms a core element of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) its Action Plan 2008-2010 on Peace and Security. The issues of how EU support can genuinely build endogenous African capacity in peace and security is of growing interest to ECDPM as is the impact of enhanced dialogue under the JAES. ECDPM also intends to reflect on its extensive knowledge, learning and research on capacity development more generally in relation to this topic.
ISS will publish a monograph on the theme of the seminar toward the end of 2009 to ensure it feeds into emergent thinking within the development of the African Union. ECDPM will continue to work on issue of how EU support can enhance sustainably peace and security on the African continent – for further information please contact at ECDPM’s Andrew Sherriff – as@ecdpm.org or Eleonora Koeb at ek@ecdpm.org.
