The African Union (AU) and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Partnership in Peace and Security

Achievements and Challenges

Abstract

The  last  two  decades  have  seen  Africa  adopted  a  new  security  approach  through  the activities of Regional Economic Communities  (RECs) and the African  Union’s African Peace  and  Security  Architecture  (APSA).  Being  one  of  the  major  building  blocks recognized by the African Union (AU), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is striving for sustaining peace and security throughout its turbulent and conflict raging  operational area. The IGAD in collaboration with the AU has played a pivotal role in peace mediation and conflict resolution of Sudan, Somalia, and South Sudan. However, research works that have so far been done in the AU-IGAD cooperation lack inclusiveness, specifically, in terms of what constitutes the achievements and challenges. In view of that, this  article aimed  at  exploring  the  achievements  and challenges  of  the  AU-IGAD partnership in the area of peace and security. The writer argues that despite progress in conflict  prevention  anD promotion  of  peace  and  security  through  the  AU-IGAD collaboration, challenges do remain. The analysis of the data obtained from the literature, confirms that the challenges that the AU-IGAD collaboration grappled with ranged from financial, legal, political to structural. Thus, for peace and security initiatives undertaken by the AU-IGAD to be effective: adopting a comprehensive legal regime, promoting the principle  of  self-reliance,  addressing  the  problem  of  membership  overlapping  across different RECs, providing considerable autonomous decision making power to the AU and IGAD,  establishing  a common  governance management  structure,  and  promoting and encouraging the involvement and participation of civil societies are essential.