Africa has embarked upon its most ambitious combination of regional initiatives ever, including the African Union and NEPAD. These initiatives cannot afford to fail: failure would be devastating blow to the self-regard of Africa and the reputation of African institutions and initiatives globally. The coming year presents an opportunity that needs to be seized. In order for this to work, careful attention must be paid to the requirement of institution building. Africans must examine best practices in management and institution building. Leadership of institutions is also called for. We need to focus on establishing standards for leaders, and examine how we select our leaders.
If the African Union is to succeed, national governments must cede some of their sovereignty. The Constitutive Act, in both spirit and letter, is not threatening to the standing of governments. Sovereignty is combined for the common good. This will be a gradual process, but it must be begun at once.
The following issues need to be addressed:
- Given the background of weak linkages in the past between the OAU and the subregional organizations (SADC, ECOWAS, EAC, IGAD, AMU etc.), how is the AU process rectifying this weakness?
- How can subregional organizations be helpful to the integration process? What kind of structural relationship is envisaged to integrate the RECs into the AU?
- How does the AU model reflect specifically African experiences and aspirations?
- How are CSO’s and other stakeholders to be engaged, sensitized and activated in the process of building the Union?
- What is the timing and sequencing of the establishment of the institutions?
- Given the provisions for human rights in the Constitutive Act of the AU, what monitoring and enforcement mechanism should be established?
- How are existing national and subregional parliaments to relate to the African parliament? What principles for assumption of powers are to be followed?
- What are the resource requirements for the AU Commission and other institutions. Where will the resources come from? If they are to be primarily membership dues, how will the AU augment its resources in comparison with the OAU, which has always had chronic funding problems?
- What provisions are envisaged for seeking technical assistance in building the necessary African institutions?
- What are the human resource requirements for the AU? How should its senior staff and leaders be selected?
- How will it seek to leverage a collaborative and meaningful association with relevant research institutes, foundations, CSO’s, universities, and other independent institutions? What interface does the AU anticipate with the UN?
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