Briefing on the nexus between maritime security, safety and development of the blue economy in Africa
Amani Africa
Date | 21 March, 2019
Tomorrow (21 March) the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) is scheduled to receive a briefing on the nexus between maritime security, safety and development of the blue economy in Africa.
Deputy foreign minister of Kenya is expected to brief the Council. AU Commission Peace and Security Department will also make a statement. Additionally, statements are also expected from invited participants including Seychelles as the Champion for the Development of the Blue Economy in Africa, representatives of Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms (RECs), Norway, Canada, the European Union and United Nations.
The briefing will take place in two parts. The first part is open to both PSC members and the representatives of invited countries and organizations. The second part involves only PSC members.
As indicated in the concept note Kenya circulated for the session, the main objective of the session will be to examine trends, progress and challenges of maritime security and safety in Africa. It also seeks to formulate steps in addressing the security threats and risks and to collectively work towards realizing the commitments of developing the blue economy.
The intervention by Kenya is anticipated to provide an overview and update on the major outcomes of the Global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference held in Nairobi from 26-28 November 2018. The first ever such global event on the blue economy, the conference highlighted the necessity of multilateral cooperation as a pre-requisite for the realization of the development potentials of the blue economy. Such multilateral cooperation, among others, provides the platform for the creation of a secure maritime domain as the foundation for value addition to the sustainable development of the blue economy in terms of trade, tourism, fishing industry and transport. Accordingly, the issues raised at the conference in these respects include maritime security and safety and regulatory enforcement. The outcome report underlined the importance of regional cooperation and the role of multi-stakeholder approach to effectively respond to maritime issues. The report explicitly discusses the need for strengthened implementation of and compliance with regional and international regulatory frameworks.
This session seeks to build on and takes forward these various themes highlighted in the Blue Economy Conference. In terms of regional cooperation on the Blue Economy, it is worth noting that the blue economy is recognized as the next frontier for the economic transformation of the continent in Agenda 2063. If one considers the fact that 38 of the 55 African countries are coastal states covering vast ocean territories of an estimated 13 million km² and having a maritime industry worth over USD $ 1 trillion per year (as pointed out in the concept note for this session), the potential for growth in an atmosphere of effective international and regional cooperation and regulation and secure maritime domain is very high. As this continental framework put it ‘Africa’s Blue economy, which is three times the size of its landmass, shall be a major contributor to continental transformation and growth’.
While this is not an area on which the AU been engaged in for a long time, it has established key legal and policy instruments in recent. The first continental instrument is the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy (2050 AIMS) adopted in 2014. The strategy provides further guidance on the nexus between security and development within the maritime domain. The framework is also developed to complement the PSC protocol article 3 in developing a common defense policy and to address the maritime security challenges. With its focus on addressing threats to maritime security, the strategy is more defensive in its orientation than developmental.
In a development that underscored the heightened policy interest with increased attention to the development of the maritime domain for socio-economic benefits, the AU in October 2016 convened an Extraordinary Summit on Maritime Security and Safety and Development in Africa in October 2016 in Togo. The Summit sought to strategize on mechanisms for strengthened protection of seas and oceans and to utilize maritime space for the development and transformation of the continent. As its major outcome, the Summit adopted the Charter on Maritime Safety and Security and Development in Africa (Lomé Charter).
Going beyond these normative instruments, provisions are made in AU plans for putting in place a dedicated structure within the AU institutional setup. The10-year implementation plan of Agenda 2063 envisages the establishment of African Centre for Blue Economy by 2025. Under the reformed structure of the AU Commission, from 2021 for the first time, there will be a dedicated maritime component in the agriculture, rural development, blue economy and sustainable development department of the AU Commission.
This session is also an opportunity for a follow up on the PSC’s first session on maritime security. The PSC at its 682nd meeting, held in 2017 at a ministerial level underscored the important role of RECs/RMs, the need to put in place appropriate follow up mechanism, the finalization of the draft annexes to the Lomé Charter.
The consideration of maritime security together with or in relation to the blue economy has the advantage not only of shifting the focus from security threats and defensive policy approaches to immense economic growth potentials of the marine resources. The interest in the exploitation of the potential of the blue economy will help mobilize the necessary investment and development of capacities for maritime security and safety.
There are however a number of issues that would be of interest to the PSC session’s deliberations. One of the issues is the mapping of the major threats to maritime security and safety and their manifestations for designing responses tailored to the specific nature and form of the threats in the various maritime zones of Africa. The threats in the maritime domain that the PSC identified at its 682nd include piracy, illegal,unreported and unregulated activities including fishing, drug and human trafficking, and terrorism. Maritime governance and environmental protection also constitute important issues for the development of the blue economy.
Additionally, security challenges that are encountered are mainly supranational, requiring regional efforts and responses. The Lomé Charter remains a critical instrument of such strategic efforts. The PSC refers to it as an ‘instrument to promote peace and address the safety and security threats in Africa’s maritime domain’. However, to date only Togo has ratified the Charter. Indeed, Togo as Champion of maritime security has interest as a PSC member on this issue of ratification of the Lomé Charter and finalization of the annexes to the Charter.
As noted above, sustained development of the blue economy necessitates a secure maritime domain. However, the report of the Nairobi conference pointed out that the ‘inadequate collaboration among stakeholders in maritime security sector compounded by overlapping or uncoordinated institutional mandates and lack of or weak law enforcement capacities’ are critical challenges to ocean governance.
Other issues for the PSC to address during this session include the articulation of the approach that best suits the mandate of the PSC in continuing its engagement on this theme and the norm-to-implementation gap. In these respects, the implementation of the 2050 strategy may in particular be one of the key areas of discussion during the briefing. As it was indicated in the outcome of the Nairobi conference, partnership and regulatory measures as well as implementation frameworks are among the top ten commitment priorities identified by the participants.
The form that the outcome of the session was unknown when this ‘Insight’ was finalized, but is expected to be a communiqué. The Council may underline the importance of addressing existing and imminent threats in the maritime domain to ensure the realization of Africa’s blue economy development. To this end the PSC may call on the implementation of international and regional instruments including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the 2016 Lome Charter and 2050 AIMS in order to address maritime threats and crimes and to enhance regulatory enforcement. It may provide concrete steps in securing maritime areas for economic development by strengthening monitoring and control systems through regional and international cooperation. The PSC could also articulate the approach that best suits its mandate for it to carve out meaningful role in pursuing this theme further.
Open Session on the Role of Women in Conflict Prevention and Post Conflict Peace building
Amani Africa
Date | 19 March, 2019
Tomorrow (19 March) the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) will have an open session on‘The Role of Women in Conflict Prevention and Post Conflict Peace Building: the Contributions of Women Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Returnees’.
During this session, it is expected that Bineta Diop, the AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security will brief the PSC. The PSC Chair of the month, Catherine Mwangi Ambassador of Kenya and Smail Chergui, the Commissioner for Peace and Security, are also expected to make a statement. UNHCR representative will also makean intervention. Refugees are expected to share their experiences as well.
The main focus as indicated in the concept note is to highlight the role of women’s participation in prevention, mediation and peace building efforts by particularly focusing on the experiences of displaced and refugee women. The session makes linkage to the annual 2019 AU theme on Refugees, IDPs and Returnees. Over a third of the world’s forcibly displaced persons are found in Africa, including some 6.3 million refugees and 14.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Conflicts account for more than two-third of the humanitarian crises inducing internal displacement and refugee flows.
While it is known that displacement and refugee flows in Africa disproportionately affect women and children, it remains unclear how far policy and humanitarian responses are informed by this fact. Additionally, despite being the primary victims of combined effects of political and humanitarian crises, women continue to be excluded from having effective role in the policy and humanitarian response decision-making processes and in the peace agreement negotiations and mediations.This session offers the opportunity for the effective integration of women in the AU activities on the theme of the year.
The PSC at its 600 meeting highlighted the violence experienced by women and their exclusion from peace efforts by particularly making reference to the ‘low levels of participation of women in a variety of official roles in formal peace processes and political settlements, weak support to women’s economic recovery and empowerment in post-conflict settings’. Hence finding long-term solutions to conflicts requires addressing the multiple obstacles faced by women and facilitating their meaningful participation at all levels of peace processes.
This open session will build on the previous PSC session on women, peace and security held in October 2018. It is to be recalled that at that session the PSC underscored ‘the importance of including women in decision-making positions and in all stages of peace processes.’ There is also the need for supporting grassroots and community centered peacebuilding processes informed by the perspectives and needs of the primary affected populations, which improve ownership and effectiveness of peace processes. Ensuring that voices of displaced populations are considered in decision making will contribute towards a more responsive and sustainable peace process as well as post-conflict reconstruction.
The 2019 focus of the AU theme of the year has presented the opportunity to renew efforts to advocate for the increased respect of displaced women’s rights. Most particularly, it serves as the occasion to raise critical issues around the experience of women and to systematically enhance their participation in peacebuilding processes and in efforts to address the plight of IDPs and refugees.
As indicated in the AUC report ‘Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Africa’, published by the office of the Special Envoy in 2016, the continent has demonstrated leadership by establishing extensive body of instruments and policies which are relevant to the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda including the Protocol to the African Union Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA). And more specifically the AU Commission has put efforts towards opertionalizing the UN Security Council resolution 1325. There is however poor implementation of these standards. To date only 25 countries have developed national action plans of the UNSC resolution 1325. Women’s representation in the legislature, the security sector and peacekeeping keeping forces and mediation remains low.
With the aim of enhancing implementation and monitoring the office of the Special Envoy has developed the Continental Results Framework (CRF) for Monitoring and Reporting on the Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The CRF was adopted in May 2018 by the PSC and was launched last month.The intervention by the Special Envoy may provide an overview of the framework in line with the pillars of the UNSCR 1325 namely prevention, protection, participation, relief and recovery focusing on the conditions of displaced and refugee women.
The concept note indicates that the outcome of the session is to mainstream the experiences of refugee and IDP women and girls in AU’s relevant policy process. In line with this objective the session may examine how the experiences of refugees and IDPs can be used to inform policy making in the AU, including the PSC. In terms of the return or local integration or resettlement of IDPs or refugees, the issues that this session could address include the safety, dignity and consent of displaced women, which should be at the core of any intervention towards durable solutions. The efforts towards sustainable peace and recovery cannot be disassociated from programs geared towards addressing the specific violations experienced by displaced women.
In humanitarian context particularly in protracted crises, displacement is often times cyclical. This exposes the overwhelming majority of displaced women to a continuous state of vulnerability. Hence, prolonged crises necessitate long term intervention that enhances displaced women’s resilience and their role in decision making processes. In line with the objectives of durable solutions, lifesaving assistance and protection should be further complemented by a support that is more empowering and that increases displaced women’s self-sufficiency, which will positively enhance their decision making role.
It is anticipated that the session makes reference to the ongoing commemorative events of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention and the 2009 AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (the Kampala Convention). The discussion may elaborate on how the two instruments and the WPS agenda can mutually reinforce one another in ensuring that peace processes are informed by the needs of refugee and displaced women and explicitly aim at addressing their plights.
The expected outcome is a press statement. The Council may welcome the recently launched CRF and may call on member states and RECs to provide the necessary data and information for the completion of the annual report produced by the office of the Special Envoy. The statement may underscore the importance of UNSCR 1325 national and regional action plans. It may also address issues related to the systematic integration ofthe needs and perspectives of women refugees and IDPs in conflict management and peacebuilding processes as well as humanitarian action. The PSC may call for the use of indicators that ensure the inclusion of women in all these efforts and underscore the need for renewed efforts in removing the obstacles that impede women’s full participation in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
Briefing on the proliferation of small arms and light weapons
Amani Africa
Date | 14 March, 2019
Tomorrow (14 March) the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) is scheduled to receive a briefing on the proliferation of small arms and light weapons and its impact on the AU plan for Silencing the Guns in Africa by the Year 2020. The PSC is expected to receive briefing from the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA). The AU Peace and Security Department (PSD), particularly its division on Defense and Security is expected to brief. Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms are also expected to share their experiences.
The session is initiated by Kenya as the Chair of the month and host of RECSA. As the concept note for the session developed by Kenya indicates, the aim is to identify concrete actions to address the proliferation and circulation of illicit weapons and ammunition in line with the provisions of AU Master Roadmap on Silencing the Guns. The concept note makes reference to the Silencing the Guns Continental Plan of Action (STG-PoA) that is currently being developed by the African Union Commission (AUC) as a framework to operationalize the Master Roadmap. The briefing will also offer an overview of the success and challenges of the efforts undertaken against the proliferation of illicit weapons by particularly focusing on the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region. At its 778th session the PSC stated that ‘illicit flow of arms, particularly small arms and light weapons (SALW), to non-state actors contributes significantly towards various parts of Africa’. exacerbating insecurity and violence in Following its 824th meeting held on February 5 2019, the Council, in a press statement, emphasized the centrality of national institutions in the fight against the proliferation of SALW and further urged ‘Member States to invest more in building and further strengthening their capacities to effectively safeguard national stockpiles of weapons, with a view to preventing weapons and ammunition from falling into wrong hands’.
Building on this, the session is expected to discuss the role of regional organizations and inter-state coordination in mitigating the proliferation and accumulation of illicit arms. AU peace and security frameworks including the Silencing the Guns Roadmap recognize the role of RECs/RMs to design and monitor tailored policy instruments that addresses the specific security situation in their respective regions.
In line with the session’s objective, the briefing by RECSA may provide an overview of the impact of flow of illicit arms and gaps in control measures on peace, stability and development. RECSA’s intervention is expected to shed light on the recent political developments in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes regions and their impact in fostering regional cooperation to eradicate illicit flows of arms and weapons. It may also make reference to the UN Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspect and the Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa in order to identify practical steps towards accountability and regulation of non-states actors possession SALW.
The briefing from PSD may highlight challenges around regulatory frameworks, including the lack of protection and management of stockpiles which often lead to diversion of legally sourced arms by illegal non-state actors. The intervention may emphasize on the importance of compliance with international and regional legally binding instruments, including the universal ratification and implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty, as well as the need to strengthen national legislations and institutions. PSD may also speak on the draft AU policy for the management of recovered arms and ammunitions in peace support operations.
The Assembly decision Assembly/AU/Dec. 645 (XXIX) adopted by the 29th Ordinary Session of the AU, has declared the month of September of each year until 2020, as “Africa Amnesty Month” for the surrender and collection of illegally owned weapons and arms. During the commemoration in September 2018 the PSC has urged RECs/RMs to submit reports to the Council, through the AU Commission, on the actions taken in line with the Africa Amnesty Month.
The AUC has also been leading on the development of technical and operational guidelines by the Council to inform national and regional efforts in undertaking activities under the Africa Amnesty Month and a compendium of the success stories and best practices across the continent in implementing voluntary disarmament programs. The PSD may provide status update on the development of such instruments and on following up on national measures.
PSC members may discuss the increased link between the circulation of small arms, terrorism and proliferation of rebel armed movements. The UNSC resolution 2457 on Silencing the Guns in Africa adopted on 27 February 2019 underscored ‘the need for effective implementation of relevant arms control and disarmament instruments and regimes as well as arm embargoes imposed by the United Nations Security Council’. The PSC may urge member states and regional organizations to take measurable actions against the proliferation of illicit weapons and arms, including through the strengthening the criminal justice response and enhancing law enforcement institutions. The PSC may also follow on UNSC resolution 2457, urging international actors to take specific measures of cooperation including in terms of effective regulation of the sale and movement of small arms and light weapons and supporting the sanctioning of illicit flows.
At the time of production of this insight the form that the outcome of the session takes was unknown. The PSC could consider urging member states to strengthen their capacities to vigorously monitor and protect national stockpiles of weapons and recover illegally owned arms. The Council may also call on RECs/RMs to complement the efforts of member states and assist them in developing and implementing national action plans and regional cooperation to curb illicit proliferation of arms. The PSC may reiterate its previous decision by urging compliance with international and regional legal frameworks and task the AU Commission to submit a report on the trends and dynamics of illicit flow of small arms and light weapons and progress made and challenges faced in implementing continentally and regionally agreed measures. The PSC may call on member states in transition from conflict to undertake sustainable disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs to prevent relapse to violence and conflict.