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. 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. 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. 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.