From 29th August to 5th September 2025, the AU Commission for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (CPAPS) convened a series of activities to formally initiate the High-Level Review of the African Union’s Governance, Peace and Security Policy Frameworks, in Nairobi, Kenya.

After almost a quarter century of existence, an honest accounting of the African Union’s Governance, Peace and Security Policy Frameworks is long-overdue. Consequently, during its 38th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly Heads of State and Government at its 38th Ordinary Session in February 2025, Assembly/AU/Dec. 903-941(XXXVIII), the review aimed to critically examine and recalibrate AU’s key continental frameworks in governance, peace, and security, ensuring their continued relevance in line with Agenda 2063.

The AU High-Level Panel is chaired by former South African Deputy President, Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and also includes Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, former Foreign Minister of Nigeria; Amb. Amr Moussa, former Foreign Minister of Egypt and Secretary General of the Arab League; Sam Kutesa, former Foreign Minister of Uganda; and Mahamat Annadif, Former Foreign Minister of Chad.

The High-Level Panel formally met from the 1st to 5th August 2025 to deliberate on the initial preparatory work undertaken by the Group of Experts, as well as the Reference Group of current and former senior officials of the African Union, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Regional Mechanisms (RMs), the African Union’s Network of Think Tanks for Peace (AU NeTT4Peace), the Pan-African Civil Society Network for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PANPAPS), and a range of other actors.

The Expert Working Groups were convened to assess the broad range of 27 policy and operational frameworks of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the African Governance Architecture (AGA), alongside cross-cutting issues such as climate security, youth, women, and children in conflict.

The Group of Experts undertook preparatory work prior to the convening of the High-Level Panel. In particular, the Group of Experts conducted a comprehensive review of the Global and Continental Risks and Threats that are confronting the African continent. In addition, a mapping of all of the AU’s 27 Policy and Operational Frameworks was conducted as well as their specific areas of thematic focus. The Group of Experts also developed a Review Template including detailed Lines of Enquiry to guide the work of the AU High-Level Panel.

The Group of Experts were sub-divided into Working Groups which thematically focused on issues relating to Early Warning and Conflict Prevention; Conflict Resolution and Management; Governance, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice; as well as cross-cutting thematic issues relating in particular to Women, Peacebuilding and Security (WPS), Youth, Peace and Security (YPS), and a range of other issues. The Working Groups utilised the Review Template and Lines of Enquiry to undertake a Preliminary Assessment which would be reviewed, interrogated, analysed, and revised by the AU High-Level Panel. Subsequently, the Panel engaged with the preliminary documents and further refined and reviewed the assessment of the AU’s Governance, Peace and Security Frameworks.

For the remainder of the year, the African Union Commission will continue to guide the review process with a view to generating a High-Level Panel Report which will be considered by the AU Champion for Reforms and then considered by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

Some of the initial issues emerging from the review include the recognition that the AU is a political body that ultimately depends on the voluntary acquiescence of its constituent member states. As a result, the AU faces significant hurdles in terms of enforcing compliance and sanctioning non-implementation of its decisions. This is despite the fact that the AU holds significant powers of intervention, embodied in Article 4(h) of its Constitutive Act, of 2000. A reactionary posture to emerging crisis has consistently placed the AU on the back foot, which has not augured well for regions and countries affected by violent conflict across the continent, particularly in Sudan, Sahel, Somalia and Mozambique.

The preliminary findings of the Review emphasised the need to revive Pan-African Unity, solidarity, and collective responsibility in proactively pursuing early response and conflict prevention to achieve negotiated political solutions to the continent’s multiple crises. Furthermore, the Review re-emphasised the importance of African ownership in the provision of governance, peace, and security processes. Concretely, with the emerging global withdrawal of financial resources, AU member states need to re-engage and reaffirm their commitment to utilising AU peace processes and initiatives. As a practical step to achieve this, the Review was introduced to the idea of establishing an African Union Levy of 5% of National Defence budgets, to be held by a Pan-African Taxation Organisation. Additional resources for an AU Levy could be generated through taxing 1% of all incoming air tickets into the African Union airspace, as well as 1% of outgoing financial transactions from the African union economic zone.

The High-Level Review also noted that Africa needs a coordinated global policy to manage Africa’s interest in an evolving global landscape characterised by geopolitical rivalry, transaction and interest-based relations. In addition, the continent needs to continuously develop, implement, and adapt an African Global Policy that can guide AU member states to work in a more coordinated manner and deliberately promote Africa’s shared interest and place in the world. The foundations for such an approach already have precedence in the number of African Common Positions adopted on issues such as reform of the United Nations Security Council, Climate Change, International Trade, Illicit Financial Flows, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment to name a few. In this regard, the High-Level Review also considered the importance of mobilising AU member states to champion and build a global coalition to invoke Article 109 of the United Nations Charter, with the aim of convening a General Conference to Review the UN Charter in line with the AU’s demand for historical restitution for Africa’s exclusion from the establishment of the multilateral system.

The AU remains an aspirational union that can more accurately be understood as a work-in-progress rather than a fait accompli. The High-Level Review meeting identified the continuing relevance of several policy frameworks but also noted the importance of conducting a robust assessment of those frameworks which do not have any continuing relevance, while also taking bold decisions to reimaging and restructure Africa’s Governance, Peace and Security frameworks.

Prof. Tim Murithi