African Union – Africa’s new societal project?

50 years after the independence of most African countries the independence of the African Union could grow to become the new societal project.

In a multimillion dollar building that was a gift from China, the African Union leaders held summit in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa this week.

African heads of states discussed the continents complex political issues like the crisis in the horn of Africa.  But the summits agenda “Africa’s young people and their future” was also overshadowed by another issue. The structure reforms of the African Union itself and how the organization can pay its own bills.

In a press statement Zimbabwean President Mugabe said, that unless the AU cannot finance itself, it will never truly be Africa-owned. The AU is mainly financed by the US and the European Union, but with EU-Budget cuts and with unclear US-African policy. As a consequence, the summit was also a push for member states to take greater responsibility of the body that represents them. African leaders have been talking about self-financing for many years. People say it is important now more than ever for the African Union to be self-reliant. But it is unlikely to happen if member states ignore or fail important obligations such as paying their membership dues. At the end of last year fewer than half of the countries had paid in.

Again, we raise the question about how effective is the AU? The membership organization of 55 member states that seeks to provide peace among the states and end poverty in Africa mainly lacks of bureaucracy compared with the EU. If Africa cannot exist without an organization like the AU – in a globalized world that is heavily driven by technology – the question we are going to discuss about is, whether a strong non-imperialistic AU must be the next societal project for Africa?

We will discuss… Dr. Bukasa, Mag. Tsehay, Cyril, Moyen, MGB