The African Union (AU): Key Issues and U.S.-AU Relations
Released: 2016-12-16T00:00:00

Introduction

The United States has long cooperated with the African Union (AU), and its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity (OAU). U.S.-AU ties have strengthened and assumed increasing prominence since the establishment in 2006 of a U.S. diplomatic mission to the African Union (USAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the AU is headquartered.

In mid-2015, President Obama addressed the AU in a speech focused on democracy and a range of other issues centering on governance and security. He had previously met with the AU Commission Chair, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, in 2013 and in 2014. Key Obama Administration goals with respect to the AU have been to

support AU efforts to promote democratic and electoral reform across the continent; promote inclusive regional economic development and growth through improved trade and investment; support various AU developmental objectives, including projects in such areas as agriculture and education; strengthen the capacity of the AU and sub-regional organizations to effectively address peace and security challenges, and aid individual stabilization missions; improve AU staff and organizational/technical capacities; and increase public diplomacy and multilateral engagement with the AU and its member states to further U.S. interests.

While U.S.-AU cooperation is multifaceted, direct annual U.S. assistance to the AU in support of the organization and its nonmilitary program activities—referred to as "core" assistance—is limited. In recent years it has ranged between a low of $521,000 (FY2015) and a high of $1 million (FY2012), with an increase to $2.4 million requested for FY2017. Such aid has been supplemented by periodic one-off U.S. efforts to support special AU activities, such as the AU response to the Ebola viral disease outbreak in West Africa and, separately, the AU's establishment of an African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Some additional U.S. aid funding that is allocated to Africa at the regional level, bilaterally, or under presidential initiatives—such as the U.S. Feed the Future food security and agricultural development program—also indirectly supports various AU objectives.

Traditionally, the bulk of U.S. aid for the AU has supported the deployment and sustainment of AU military peacekeeping or stabilization missions, as well as the participation of individual African countries in them. U.S. support for the U.N. Security Council-authorized AU Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) and its troop contributors since 2007, for instance, stands at nearly $2 billion. U.S. support to the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), a 2004-2007 AU peacekeeping operation in Sudan's western Darfur region, totaled roughly $472 million.

While in recent years the AU has funded nearly all of its operational (organizational) budget, it remains highly dependent on external funding for its program and security operations budgets. It is taking steps, however, to increase the proportion of funding its member states contribute, including through a new initiative to impose a small levy on imports into these states. If successful, such efforts may shape the future relationship between the AU and donors such as the United States.

Congressional engagement with AU institutions has historically been relatively limited, although it has gradually increased as U.S.-AU relations have gained a higher profile, and as U.S. funding of AU peacekeeping and military intervention missions has also increased. Congressional appropriation and oversight activity has regularly focused on such aid. In recent years, some Members of Congress have met with AU leaders or traveled to AU headquarters to discuss with AU leaders common concerns and interests regarding the region. Still, little substantive recent legislation or congressional oversight activity has focused specifically on the AU.

There is arguably considerable potential for expanded U.S.-AU ties and cooperation—and for expanded congressional engagement with the organization—given the AU's diverse program and policy activity, the limited extent of U.S.-AU development cooperation compared to some other AU development partners (e.g., the European Union), and a dovetailing of some U.S.-AU policy goals and interests. Current and prospective areas of cooperation include such issues as peace and security; trade and investment; and socioeconomic and infrastructure development; and science and technology cooperation.

Some U.S. policymakers may also seek to leverage engagement with the AU to counter what they may see as objectionable efforts by individual AU member states' leaders to use the AU to advance or preserve these leaders' parochial interests or political power. Actions that interested U.S. policymakers might seek to counter through engagement with AU institutions include efforts by some African governments to

withdraw from the International Criminal Court or limit the scope of its efforts to achieve judicial accountability for human rights abuses in Africa; ensure U.S. financial support for AU military operations while limiting U.S. input into such missions' operational goals and conduct; subvert democratic processes and related constitutional measures at the national level; and limit the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

Other Members may wish to more closely tie any U.S. aid to the AU to its pursuit of programs that comport with U.S. objectives, given that many in Congress may be leery of providing aid to multilateral institutions absent the ability of the United States to strongly influence decisionmaking by such institutions. In addition, given that the AU is an arguably bureaucratically cumbersome and technically weak entity, and presents a potentially politically challenging venue through which to pursue U.S. interests, some in Congress may prefer to approach relations with Africa primarily through a bilateral lens, and generally minimize U.S.-AU engagement. Such a strategy, however, risks reducing the ability of the United States to bargain with the region as a whole on such issues as climate change, trade, and action on other global issues in multilateral forums.

Background

The African Union is an intergovernmental grouping that includes as members all countries in Africa except Morocco. The AU, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was established in 2002 as the successor to the now-defunct Organization of African Unity (OAU). OAU members formed it to achieve the goals of the 1991 African Economic Community (AEC) Treaty more quickly. That treaty, which remains in effect, and the AU Constitutive Act, the founding charter of the AU, are intended to promote African regional economic integration and socioeconomic development through the phased creation of a common African market and shared political and economic institutions.

Other key objectives identified in the act include greater political and economic unity, peace and security, and stability within Africa; advocacy of common African positions in international forums; strengthening of democratic governance and the rule of law; respect for human rights; and greater regional self-reliance, gender equality, and social justice. The act identifies "noninterference" by member states in their peers' internal affairs as a key AU principle, but unlike the OAU charter, it recognizes exceptions and grants the AU the right to intervene in member states' affairs in "grave" situations (e.g., to prevent crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide). It also allows states to request AU intervention to restore peace and security, and calls for the AU to reject unconstitutional changes of government, as well as "impunity and political assassination, [... and] terrorism.

The creation of the AU was, in part, spurred by criticisms that the OAU's long-standing doctrine of noninterference in member states' internal affairs had often caused it to prioritize member state sovereignty over other principles in its charter, such as respect for human rights. The AU has proven more willing than the OAU to condemn unconstitutional changes in government, to suspend member states whose governments come to power through such means, and—in some cases—to investigate human rights abuses by member states. In many such cases, however, the AU has remained inactive, which has sparked some criticism. The AU's policy of providing immunity from arrest during AU forums to heads of state facing International Criminal Court (ICC) criminal prosecution has also drawn criticism from advocacy groups, as has its opposition to ICC actions against two sitting African heads of state and other high officials.

AU Goals and Objectives

In 2013, the AU celebrated the 50 th anniversary of the formation of the OAU and its later transformation into the AU. During the celebration it released a 50-year AU development plan, Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want , which is complemented by a number of shorter-term general and sector-specific plans. Key Agenda 2063 goals include the following:

enhancements in standards of living and citizen well-being, especially in the areas of education and skills, health, habitats (e.g., urban services), gender equality, and youth empowerment; economic transformation and job growth, notably through agricultural investment and development and underpinned by infrastructure improvements, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience; increased political and economic regional integration based on the ideals of Pan Africanism (regional political and economic self-determination and solidarity) and greater African agency in global affairs; improved governance, deepening of democratic values, and "entrenched" respect for human rights, justice, and the rule of law; institutional and leadership capacity development; and regional peace and security.

Agenda 2063 also discusses the trends and opportunities that underpin these goals, drivers and enablers of progress toward meeting them, and strategies for mitigating challenges. Planned programs for achieving these goals are diverse, but center on enhancing performance monitoring and evaluation, marshaling funding for the AU, and improving communications at all levels. Various donors have funded initiatives to strengthen the AU's organizational development and program implementation, the most notable of which is a 2014-2018 World Bank program.

Structure

The AU is a policymaking, representational, and diplomatic body that also undertakes peace- and security-related efforts and programmatic development work. The Assembly, a grouping of heads of state and government, is the AU's supreme decisionmaking organ and is supported by a network of subsidiary institutions. An executive council, made up of AU members' foreign affairs ministers, coordinates the AU Assembly's work and elects the AU Commission (AUC) from among the AU's five sub-regions. While the AU directly undertakes many functional programs, attainment of many of its goals (e.g., in the areas of regional economic growth, development, and integration) is delegated to Africa's various regional economic communities (RECs), which each have specialized functional units.

The AUC, the AU's secretariat, implements diverse AU initiatives for the Assembly and Council, administers AU legal instruments, manages relations with the RECs, and undertakes a range of programmatic activities, as do other subsidiary AU functional organs. Notable among these are

the Peace and Security Council (PSC), the AU's primary decisionmaking organ for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts; the Department of Political Affairs, which coordinates AU election observation missions and other governance-related activities; and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordinating Agency, which carries out a number of the AU's flagship development projects.

In addition to these key organizations, the AU has several representative bodies and numerous specialized technical agencies and working groups, which address such issues as veterinary medicine, space exploration, science and math education, and climate change, among others. In general, AU institutions work to establish and help implement regional goals and policies in various sectoral or thematic areas, and to design best practices for countries and RECs to follow.

Current Leadership and Issues

The current AUC Chairperson, Dr. Dlamini-Zuma, a former South African Foreign Minister, was elected in 2012. Dlamini-Zuma's term was originally scheduled to end in 2016, but was extended until January 2017 at a July 2016 summit of the AU Assembly after none of the three candidates running for the post received the required two-thirds vote. Chadian President Idriss Déby was elected chair of the African Union in early 2016 and is to serve in the post until January 2017. His predecessor was Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe. While the post is largely ceremonial and rotates annually, it offers a high-profile policy advocacy platform.

One key challenge for Dlamini-Zuma and the broader AUC leadership has been to oversee AU efforts to resolve Africa's multiple conflicts, in concert with international agencies and donors. Simultaneously, the AUC must maintain high-level African and global attention on efforts to bolster diversified economic growth and broad-based socioeconomic development. While growth had been strong in much of the region over the last decade, generally weak commodity prices and demand in recent years have slowed growth in the many African countries that depend on exports of one or two raw commodities. Another AU goal is to secure adequate external and AU member funding for AU activities. Dlamini-Zuma has cited dependence on donor funds as a major AU concern. Donor funding is the source of almost all AU programmatic financing, with the balance coming from AU member assessments, which are often in arrears. Dlamini-Zuma has also prioritized efforts to streamline the AU Commission and make it more effective.

Other stated Dlamini-Zuma priorities have included crisis resolution in multiple countries, reconstruction and transitional aid in post-conflict countries, and continued AU monitoring of African elections. She and AUC Commission Deputy Chairperson Erastus Mwencha—former Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) trading bloc—have also sought to promote sustainable regional economic growth and integration, focusing on infrastructure construction, intra-African trade, and agricultural development. Dlamini-Zuma has also pushed, with limited success, to ensure that the sale of Africa's rich natural resources, especially minerals, produces broad-based economic benefits. She has also sought to increase gender equity, access to social services, and jobs; enhance AU institutional, technical and other capacities; promote ties with key external partners; and advance and defend shared African political and economic positions and interests in global contexts.

Peace and Security

Peace and security are major goals of the AU, given that so many African countries have been or are affected by armed conflict or violent extremism, or are undergoing lengthy post-conflict transitions and remain politically and economically fragile. From an AU perspective, insecurity can impede investment, damage perceptions of the region, hamper socioeconomic development, and harm human welfare. Armed conflict is also a source of large refugee flows in parts of Africa.

The AU takes several approaches toward strengthening peace and security. Some are broadly preventive: fostering support for inclusive development, accountable and transparent governance, democracy, and human rights. Others are more focused on conflict prevention or mitigation in particular cases through the various entities and processes that make up the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), a broad framework that encompasses diverse policies and institutional development efforts relating to peace, security, and stability in Africa.

The PSC is the main AU security policy decisionmaking organ and houses or facilitates much of the APSA. It has a broad mandate to prevent, manage, and resolve conflicts in Africa. Its main functions are indicated by the names of the divisions or entities that make up the AUC Department of Peace and Security: Conflict Prevention and Early Warning; Conflict Management and Post-Conflict Reconstruction; Peace Support Operations; Defense and Security; and the PSC Secretariat. The PSC coordinates its actions with Africa's RECs, the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council, other U.N. and international entities, and donor governments.

The AU routinely mediates in internal and inter-state armed conflicts and political crises. It is, for example, currently seeking to resolve differences between Sudan and South Sudan, among parties to Sudan's internal conflicts, and between the parties to South Sudan's civil war, in concert with other regional organizations and actors. It is also supporting an EAC-led mediation effort to resolve Burundi's political crisis and an IGAD-led mediation for South Sudan. The AU has also repeatedly intervened militarily to address crises in Africa, usually on a first-response basis and often prior to deployments of larger U.N. missions.

The most notable and long-standing AU intervention has been the U.N. Security Council-authorized AU Mission to Somalia (AMISOM, deployed in 2007), which undertakes robust, often offensive operations to counter threats from Al Shabaab and other armed groups and expand Somali government-controlled areas. It also protects the government, trains government forces, and supports humanitarian aid deliveries. AMISOM receives logistical and other support through the U.N. Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS).

The most recent major AU military decision took place in early 2015, when the AU PSC authorized four member states of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC)—Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria—to establish a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF). Benin, a non-LCBC country, is also contributing to the force. The MNJTF's mandate is to combat Boko Haram, a regional terrorist group of Nigerian origin that is active in the four LCBC countries. The United States provides substantial support to MNJTF member state militaries, and helped fund the creation of an MNJTF headquarters in N'Djamena, Chad. The AU also helps coordinate joint regional, U.S.-aided military responses in central Africa to counter the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group of Ugandan origins, through the Ugandan-led AU Regional Task Force (AU-RTF). The United States has provided or pledged financial support for all AU military interventions, except for its 2008 mission in Comoros.

A key long-term AU goal has been to create an African Standby Force (ASF) made up of five REC-based brigades, to be tasked with peacekeeping or peace enforcement operations, conflict monitoring, and post-conflict mandates. Development of the ASF brigades has been slow, but all of the five ASF forces have made progress. The State Department's Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) provides capacity building aid to individual ASF contributing countries, and the United States has provided some ASF-related support to the AU. DOD has also established liaison officers to some of the regional brigade headquarters. In the interim, pending full ASF operational capacity, and in response to challenges faced by ECOWAS in marshaling troops for the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) in 2013, the AU Assembly established the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC; see text box).

Justice Issues

The AU Constitutive Act prioritizes the promotion and protection of "human and peoples' rights," in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Charter—which entered into force under the OAU and remains a binding AU document—lays out a wide variety of human rights, duties, freedoms, and related protections. It also requires member states to recognize and take "measures to give effect" to these provisions. The Charter is a potentially important vehicle for the administration of justice in a continent, where the rule of law is often weak, human rights abuses occur regularly in some countries, and a number of alleged cases of large-scale war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of international humanitarian law have occurred in recent years. Attempted enforcement of these provisions has nonetheless been the exception rather than the rule, and human rights conditions have not often been a diplomatic focus of AU institutions.

To help enforce the Charter and build a human rights protection system in Africa, the AU established the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (AfCHPR) headquartered in Tanzania, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) in The Gambia, and an AU Commission on International Law (AUCIL) in Ethiopia. The AfCHPR is charged with defending human rights throughout Africa, and has jurisdiction to hear cases and disputes regarding the interpretation and application of the Charter and related AU human rights instruments, as well as to issue advisory opinions relating to their application. The AUCIL helps codify and institutionalize international law in Africa, interpret the application of human rights instruments, and draft international treaties, and carries out legal research and legal capacity-building advocacy in the region. Activists, however, have questioned the effectiveness of these institutions, and several AU member states have either resisted the institutions' jurisdiction or declined to implement their decisions.

In addition to continent-wide justice mechanisms, the AU has periodically established special purpose commissions of inquiry, such as one formed in 2014 to probe human rights abuses in the South Sudanese civil conflict. One successful ad-hoc institution was an AU-Senegalese hybrid court that was inaugurated in Senegal to try former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré after the AU opposed Belgian efforts to extradite him; in 2016, the court convicted Habré of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to life in prison. Under a 2015 peace deal for South Sudan, the AU is also charged with establishing an independent hybrid court to try war crimes and other serious offenses committed during the conflict, although its prospects are unclear. The AU has taken no concrete steps to do establish the court, and key South Sudanese leaders—including some who could face indictment by the court and, as a result, lose their positions—reportedly oppose it.

African Court on Human and People's Rights: Developments, Prospective Changes, and Implications for the ICC in Africa

The AfCHPR, which is based in Arusha, Tanzania, is a relatively new institution with a limited juridical record; it delivered its first judgment in 2009. Some of its cases have dealt with matters involving AU entities, such as employment cases involving AU bodies and member states and an unsuccessful AfCHPR suit against the Libyan state alleging massive human rights violations. Most of its cases, however, have involved appeals by individuals alleging various violations of the Charter or other instruments by AU member state courts or other authorities, often in labor cases. The Court's deliberations and decisions have often focused on procedural issues, including decisions on admissibility. The court has made relatively few, if any, major international legal precedent-setting rulings that could change the legal landscape at the continental level. Its willingness to consider issues regarding the adequacy of national legal and institutional processes, however, makes the court a potential check on national judicial systems and as well as a mechanism for addressing alleged human rights violations by governments. This is significant, given that national systems are reportedly institutionally weak, politicized, or blemished by corruption in a number of African countries. Still, while the protocol establishing the court requires signatories to comply with its judgments, the manner and extent to which states may do so—or to which the court may seek to enforce its decisions—is largely yet to be determined.

Prospects for the court may also be influenced by prospective changes in its makeup. In 2008, the AU Assembly decided to merge the AfCHPR with the Court of Justice, a body authorized by the AU Constitutive Act but not established. The resulting African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR) is to take over the mandates of the AfCHPR and would have jurisdiction over essentially all juridical matters and dispute resolution relating to AU decisions and to legal relations between member states. In addition, as a result of a 2014 AU Assembly decision amending the court's statute, the new court would also have jurisdiction in Africa over crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and certain other crimes. The new court may not be established for some time, however. For the 2008 and 2014 protocols to enter into force, 15 AU member states must ratify and deposit them; as of early 2016, when the most recent ratification update was issued, this threshold had not been met.

The amended 2014 statute defining the court's role is controversial because it does not define the relationship between the planned court and the ICC, and arguably represents a rejection of the ICC and its mandate to try genocide and other serious international crimes, for which the planned AU court is given jurisdiction. Moreover, the protocol—unlike the Rome Statute creating the ICC, which many African states ratified—would protect AU heads of state and certain other senior state officials from prosecution before the court during their tenure in office. This provision appears to relate to concerns by some African leaders over the ICC's attempted prosecution of sitting national leaders and seeming prioritization of cases in Africa (see text box). Criticism of the ICC has not been universal, however. Botswana, for instance, has strongly supported the ICC's work and approach in Africa.

In 2013, mirroring a number of prior statements, the AU Assembly issued a decision on Africa's relationship with the ICC. Alleging "politicization and misuse of indictments against African leaders" by the ICC, the Assembly—in a statement that is of debatable legal standing —declared that no charges could be brought "before any International Court or Tribunal" against any sitting AU head of state or government and other high officials. It also requested the suspension of ICC cases against Kenya's president and vice president pending their exit from office, as well as a deferral of the Kenyan and Bashir cases, pending a dialogue with the U.N. Security Council on the AU's ICC concerns. The Assembly also decided to push for reforms of the ICC's Rome Statute to address these concerns and to fast-track the expansion of the AfCHPR mandate to include genocide and related high crimes, among other actions. The Assembly has reiterated its demands and criticized the ICC several times since 2013, but has gained little traction on its proposed reforms.

These actions have drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups and some analysts who see them as prioritizing leaders' political positions and power at the expense of accountability for serious violations of human rights. Often missing from deliberations over the AU's relationship with the ICC and the debate over African agency and/or AU institutional efforts to address genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes has been the role of other, ad-hoc international courts. Examples include the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR); hybrid courts of mixed jurisdiction, such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL); and possibly national courts, such as the planned Special Criminal Court (SCC) for CAR, which is to be established with international support to complement the ICC in addressing major human rights crimes in that country. The United States financially supported the ICTR and the SCSL, and has voiced support for the SCC.

Regional Development Initiatives

A major vehicle for achieving Agenda 2063 is the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the AU's main strategic policy framework and plan for continent-wide socioeconomic development. The NEPAD Agency manages programs and projects to aid AU member states and RECs in formulating and implementing policies and programs in six thematic areas: agriculture and food security, climate change and national resource management, regional integration and infrastructure, human development, economic and corporate governance, and cross-cutting issues (e.g., gender equality, institutional development, and information technology). Implementation of NEPAD programs is supported by a range of bilateral, multilateral, and private donors.

A key NEPAD program is the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), aimed at boosting investment in food and agriculture production via scientific and technical innovation, finance and distribution for farm inputs, and market and trade development. Some CAADP activities are supported under the U.S. Feed the Future initiative. Another is the NEPAD-linked African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a voluntary process under which participating states assess one another's adherence to AU standards and goals relating to democracy and political governance, economic and corporate governance and management, and socioeconomic development. The APRM is meant to stimulate examination and diagnosis of state performance with the implicit goal of improving state capacities. Countries are expected to implement NEPAD goals at the national level, but a lack of domestic institutional and financial capacities often hinder these efforts.

Other key NEPAD-facilitated initiatives include the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) and the linked Africa-EU Infrastructure Trust Fund. The EU uses the latter to provide technical assistance, loan interest rate subsidies, investment grants, and loan guarantees in support of the AU-NEPAD Infrastructure Action Plan, the African Science Technology and Innovation Program, and the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative.

Other large AU technical and development initiatives are often joint efforts between the AU, international development agencies, and donor governments. Examples include the following:

the African Resilient Landscapes Initiative (ARLI), an initiative announced in late 2015 focusing on forest and ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation, "climate smart" agriculture, and rangeland management, aided by the World Bank and World Resources Institute; the Climate to Development in Africa (CLIMDEV Africa), a joint AUC, AfDB, and U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) climate change adaptation project; the EU-funded African Monitoring of Environment for Sustainable Development project; "Better Training for Safer Food in Africa," an AUC food safety and phyto-sanitary program supporting regional health and export standards compliance; the EU-funded AU Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) Vaccines for the Control of Neglected Animal Diseases in Africa (VACNADA) project; and various programs to support the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA).

Regional Integration

Progress toward regional integration, a key REC and NEPAD goal, has often been slow, but is improving. Challenges have included governments' sovereignty concerns, uneven economic capacities among states, protectionism, and institutional and legal/regulatory incompatibilities. Despite the existence of two multi-country central banks (for West and Central Africa), country participants do not fully overlap with REC boundaries. Additional REC macroeconomic and monetary convergence initiatives have often experienced difficulties, in many cases due to uneven member state performance. While interstate travel and trade within REC regions are often slow and costly, due both to poor infrastructure and burdensome border controls, some RECs now have regional passports that are complemented by AU passports. They are also pursuing various trade facilitation efforts, increasing cross-border movement of citizens and trade in goods and services. Regional communications links are rapidly improving, and there has been some success in developing regional electricity pools and natural gas trade. Similarly, while trade growth and economic integration within RECs (e.g., harmonization of trade rules) has also often been limited—and remains so in some regions, due to such factors as poor infrastructure, high tariffs, and conflict and instability—there are a growing number of successes in this area.

In June 2015, for instance, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) united to form a Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) comprising 26 countries accounting for over half of Africa's aggregate GDP. Also in June 2015, the AU launched negotiations for the establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), which would integrate the eight RECs into a single continental customs union, a goal of the AEC Treaty. The decision calls for negotiations on the CFTA to be concluded by 2017, although they appear likely to continue past that date.

Regional economic integration and trade growth within the EAC is a major Obama Administration goal under the U.S. Trade Africa presidential initiative. Regional integration could have significant implications for potential increases in U.S. trade with and investment in Africa, since major disincentives for U.S. investors are the small size of many national markets; highly variable business rules and investment climates among countries; disparate treatment of investment and profit repatriation among countries; and large variances in tariffs and relative ease of undertaking cross-border trade among countries.

Financial and Technical Challenges

While criticisms of the AU's effectiveness are common, some observers have noted that the AU's institutional development and pursuit of regional political unification have been relatively rapid, despite a lack of financial wherewithal and the presence of obstacles comparable to those facing similar efforts in richer regions of the world. Nonetheless, the challenges facing the AU are profound. Securing the financial resources to strengthen the AU's institutional, technical, and staff capacities is one key obstacle. In recent years, while member states have funded all or nearly all of the AUC's organizational operational budget (e.g., headquarters staff costs), with a handful of member states funding the bulk of such costs, roughly 95% of the AU program budget has been funded by external donors. The demise of the Qadhafi regime in Libya, which had provided large amounts of funding for the AU, exacerbated such trends. The AU has had to reduce its budget several times in recent years after receiving insufficient donor commitments to fund its initial plans.

A number of efforts, often backed by foreign donors, seek to enhance AU technical, oversight, monitoring and evaluation, and fiscal management capacities, and the AU is taking steps to fund its activities from the resources of member states and gradually reduce its reliance on external funding. In June 2015, the AU Assembly adopted a new scale of assessment targeted, in part, at having AU member states fund 100% of the AU operational budget, 75% of the program budget, and 25% of the peace support operations budget. Under the decision, these targets are to be phased in over five years starting in January 2016. In a meeting in July 2016, the AU Assembly took an additional step toward attaining these goals when it instituted a 0.2% levy on imports into the continent, to be imposed over several years at the REC level. Whether these goals will be reached remains to be seen; past efforts to achieve greater self-reliance have had limited impact.

U.S. Relations, Policy, and Assistance

While the United States has long aided and cooperated with the AU and the OAU before it, U.S.-AU ties have strengthened over the past decade, and have assumed a higher profile in U.S.-African relations. In July 2015, during his third presidential trip to sub-Saharan Africa, President Obama addressed the AU in a speech addressed "to the People of Africa." The speech was wide-ranging, focusing on various issues of shared concern. A key topic that drew particular attention among observers was the President's call for strong adherence to democratic norms in the region and for African leaders to "abide by term limits and their constitutions." He also stressed the need for respect for "human dignity," a concept that he used as a vehicle to address issues of peace and security, including efforts to counter terrorism and political extremism, and of respect for human rights, social equality, and the rule of law, among other ends.

President Obama had previously engaged with the African Union in meetings with AUC Commissioner Dlamini-Zuma in mid-2013 during a trip to Africa, and in 2014 during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC. Key topics addressed at both forums included U.S.-AU partnership, peace and security efforts, development, women and youth, and trade and investment.

The U.S. move toward closer ties began in 2005, when then-President George W. Bush granted the AU international organization status, allowing it to open an office in Washington, DC; the first AU ambassador to the AU was accredited in 2007. The U.S. AU mission (USAU) was initiated in 2006, making the United States the first non-African country to have an accredited AU mission.

According to USAU, which includes representatives from the Departments of State, Defense, and Agriculture, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the mission's key goals under the Obama Administration have been to

support the AU in playing a lead role in democratic and electoral reform; develop inclusive economic development through improved trade and investment; strengthen Africa's capacity to address peace and security challenges; accelerate implementation of the AU's human capacity and educational development projects; and increase public diplomacy and multilateral engagement to further U.S. interests.

Conflict prevention, mitigation, and peace operations have been key traditional focuses of U.S.-AU relations. The United States has also played a key role as an observer during multiple AU, OAU or REC peace negotiations, often through various international contact groups that the AU has formed to address unfolding crises. Some U.S. aid has centered on helping the AU develop its peace and security capacities, but such aid is modest compared to that of certain other donors, notably the European Union. The United States is, however, a major source of often large amounts of logistical support to member states participating in individual AU peace operations. U.S. support for AMISOM troop contributors since the mission's inception in 2007, for instance, stands at about $1.8 billion. U.S. support to the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), a now-concluded AU peacekeeping operation in Sudan's western Darfur region, totaled about $472 million. The United States also provided sizable military logistical support to troop-contributing countries participating in recent AU peace operations in Mali and CAR.

U.S. Assistance

While the United States provides aid in support of various other AUC and AU agency nonsecurity development activities and programs, the level of such capacity-building aid is far smaller than that for peace and security, particularly compared to funding provided by European donors. U.S. direct funding for AU institutions, sometimes dubbed "core" funding, is limited (e.g., $774,000 in FY2014, $521,000 in FY2015, and $935,000 in FY2016, with $2.4 million requested in FY2017) and focuses on technical assistance at the headquarters level and selected other initiatives. Total U.S. aid for the AU is challenging to track, but totaled an estimated $7.6 million in 2015; in 2014, the total was $4.7 million, along with a one-time $10 million grant to support the deployment of the AU Response to the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa (ASEOWA). Most U.S. aid related to the attainment of AU goals is provided on a bilateral basis or to regional RECs, rather than to the AU itself, and is thus not always accounted for in analyses of U.S. support for the AU.

The United States has nonetheless increased cooperation with the AU in recent years. In 2013, two key U.S.-AU cooperation agreements were signed: a June follow-up to a 2010 agreement that had pledged $5.8 million in U.S. non-peacekeeping mission aid to the AU through 2013, and a January "partnership" Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The June 2013 agreement centered on areas of possible U.S. support for the AUC's Strategic Plan 2014-2017, which addresses a wide range of peace and security, governance, and sectoral and human development goals and programs. The 2013 MOU prioritized cooperation centering on the Obama Administration's 2012 U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa : peace and security, democracy and governance, economic growth, trade, and investment, and promotion of opportunity and development. The MOU also formalized an annual U.S. Secretary of State-AU Chairperson dialogue; AU Peace and Security Department-U.S. Defense Department staff talks, and information exchanges on various technical issues and best practices.

U.S. support for AU democracy strengthening initiatives is another key area of engagement. Broadly, U.S. efforts are designed to support AU implementation of the AU African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance , which sets out the AU's democratic principles and objectives in this area, and capacity-building of the African Governance Architecture—a broad set of democracy, governance, and human rights charters, frameworks, and implementing institutions. The United States has in the past deployed contracted advisors to support the work of the AU's Democracy and Elections Assistance Unit (DEAU), which is part of the AUC's Department of Political Affairs. DEAU sends observation teams to monitor most African elections and assists member states efforts to improve electoral systems. In mid-2015, the AUC and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a U.S. democracy capacity-building organization that receives U.S. government funding, signed an MOU aimed at increasing African youth involvement in democratic processes. In late 2015, during a global summit of the Open Government Partnership (OGP)—of which the United States is a founding member—NDI also signed an MOU with the Pan African Parliament focusing on cooperation "on a broad range of issues, including women's and youth participation, good governance, rule of law and other areas of common interest." Both programs are supported by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which receives a direct annual congressional appropriation . The Pan African Parliament also participates in the OGP's Open Data Group.

Other areas of cooperation, administered mostly by USAID, center on development goals, such as AU efforts to reduce maternal mortality; to support the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP); to increase intra-African trade and regional integration efforts; and to advance AU climate change adaptation efforts. In 2013 USAID and the AU also agreed to jointly pursue geothermal energy development in East Africa. Much of this kind of U.S. sectoral aid is funded through various bilateral, sectoral, or regional programs, and is often undertaken jointly with other donors. Other aid helps the RECs implement their programs, which are often linked to overarching AU policies or programs. U.S. and AU officials also periodically engage in dialogue over various issues, such as peace and security capacity building, criminal justice, and political crises. The United States, along with other donors, also supported the AU's recently-established African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (African CDC).

Planned U.S. Assistance to the AU

According to the Obama Administration's FY2017 State Department foreign aid Congressional Budget Justification (CBJ), current aid to the AU "focuses on strengthening diplomatic and nonmilitary approaches to advocacy for implementation, policy harmonization and coordination, strategic communication for political engagement, and resource mobilization and partnership." A key goal is to develop AU public diplomacy tools and strategic communication capacities to "drive reform across African countries and help prevent, manage, and resolve conflict and accelerate investment and improved social outcomes."

The outgoing Administration's planned FY2017 U.S. assistance would build on current programs. A core target in FY2017 would be support for the AU 2014-2017 Strategic Plan "in areas of mutual interest with the United States" and with respect to strengthening future prospective AU leadership. Specific targets of this proposed aid include staffing and technical assistance for

AUC departments implementing or advocating for activities that foster human rights, youth empowerment, economic governance, and the reduction of illicit activities. AU efforts that focus on political consensus building and AU-donor cooperation. AUC-private sector and -civil society collaboration focusing on advancing the rights of youth, women, and the private sector in AU member states, and AU efforts to boost youth employment.

The request also seeks to maintain the deployment of a USAU-based rule of law adviser to support the AU Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and Office of the Legal Counsel.

Whether Congress and the incoming Trump Administration may pursue a similar or different approach to providing aid to the AU in FY2017—or potentially cut it in whole or in part—remains to be seen. At present, the current continuing resolution ( P.L. 114-254 ) generally extends into FY2017 foreign aid funding at existing FY2016 levels, albeit at a lower rescission rate.

Outlook

The AU is a multifaceted organization engaged in ambitious development and capacity-building efforts across a wide range of policy areas. Its capacity to realize its stated goals, however, has historically been limited by political tensions among African leaders, insufficient member state funding, and, often, technical or institutional weaknesses. While the AU has taken a number of steps to address these challenges, whether it will become a more effective institution remains to be seen. Future AU Commission leadership changes, including one expected in early 2017, could reshape the organization's goals and priorities. The AU's overall policy objectives, however, are collectively set by the AU member states' leaders, and are unlikely to fundamentally shift in the short to medium term.

For the United States, there is arguably much potential scope for expanded cooperation with the AU, both with respect to security challenges—historically the most resource-intensive area of cooperation—and broader political and development goals. The AU may, in many cases, offer the United States an effective partner—and one that can uniquely work at the regional level—in mutually beneficial efforts to spur greater trade, investment, and economic integration and pursue socioeconomic development goals, among others. Some policymakers may also view U.S.-AU engagement as a forum for pressing African countries to take on a greater role in shouldering the burden for security and stability in the region and, more broadly, for promoting "African solutions to African problems." Some may also see the AU as a key interlocutor through which the United States can advance its own national interests and policy objectives—and counter trends to which U.S. decisionmakers may object.

At the same time, AU bureaucracy and the influence of heavyweight member states, whose policy priorities have often been at odds with U.S. preferences, are likely to continue to hinder the AU's effectiveness as a U.S. partner. The United States is therefore likely to continue to direct the majority of its aid and diplomacy through bilateral and sub-regional channels. Whether the Trump Administration and the 115 th Congress may make such assumptions, and whether and how they may pursue expanded U.S.-AU engagement—or not, in light of countervailing U.S. interests and resource constraints—has yet to be determined.

Appendix. Organization of the African Union