Tomorrow (2 October), the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) will convene its 1234^th meeting to deliberate on the theme ‘Peace, Security and Development nexus in Africa: Bridging the gaps between policy and practice’.

There will be opening statements from Mohamed Gad, Permanent Representative of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the AU and PSC Chairperson October 2024, and Bankole Adeoye, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security. Ashraf Sweilam, Assistant Foreign Minister for African Multilateral Organisations is expected to make a remark. The session will also hear from Ahmed Abdel-Latif, Director General of the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding and Executive Director of the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development; Nardos Bekele-Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, African Union Development Agency; Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice-President, Intra-African Trade Bank, African Import-Export Bank; and Libakiso Matlho, Executive Secretary, African Union Centre for Post-Conflict Reconstruction.

The various peace and security issues on the continent are linked to development issues in more ways than one. As enunciated in the Constitutive Act of the AU, on the one hand ‘the scourge of conflicts in Africa constitutes a major impediment to the socio-economic development of the continent.’ On the other hand, promoting peace, security and stability is ‘a prerequisite for the implementation of our development and integration agenda.’ Buttressing this interlinkage between peace and security and development, the World Bank reported that a civil war costs the average developing country roughly 30 years of GDP growth, and countries in protracted crises can fall over 20 percentage points behind in overcoming poverty. It further estimates that by 2030, up to two-thirds of the world’s extremely poor may live in fragile and violent conflict settings.

This is one of the thematic issues that featured on the agenda of the PSC on several occasions. The first time the PSC had a session dedicated to this theme was at its 883^rd meeting whereby the PSC, in the communiqué it adopted, underscored ‘the importance of giving due consideration to the interdependence between peace, security and development, in order to ensure the effectiveness of all efforts aimed at conflict prevention, peacekeeping and the consolidation of peace in Africa.’ It also requested the AU Commission Chairperson to submit an annual report on the measures taken towards enhancing collaboration and coordination between departments within the AU Commission and AU Specialised Agencies on account of its recognition of the interdependent nature of peace, security and development. This theme was also featured during the 975^th meeting of the PSC.

Subsequently, the PSC held the Tangier Conference from 25 to 27 October 2022 in collaboration with four key partners in the development arena: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). It is to be recalled that, the 36^th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union held on 18 and 19 February 2023, through Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.842(XXXVI) ‘Endorsed the Declaration of the First African Union Policy Conference on Promoting the Peace, Security and Development nexus in Africa – The Promise of Regional Integration adopted in Tangier, Kingdom of Morocco, in October 2022; and urged the AU Commission to implement its conclusions; in this regard, called on the partners of the Tangier process to scale up support for the implementation of the nexus projects.’

A major challenge for the peace, security and development nexus is the persistent divide between the peace and security and the development dimensions. As pointed out in the edition of Insights on the PSC on the Monthly Programme of Work for October, despite wide recognition at a normative level of the need for aligning peace and security policy action and development policy action as reflected in various meetings the PSC held on this theme, this is not translated into practice owing to various factors. These factors include, as outlined in our Special Research Report, ‘The growing threat of terrorism in Africa: A product of misdiagnosis and faulty policy response?’ (EN and FR), the inertia of existing practice in peace and security policy-making with its focus on peace and security tools, gaps in expertise, divergent working methods and lack of interaction between peace and security policymakers and those engaged in development policy making.

These persisting challenges to the nexus question require changes both at policy and operational levels. In a presentation of Amani Africa during a joint African Union and Aswan Forum workshop on the operationalisation of the humanitarian, peace and development nexus held on 1 December 2023, the dimensions of change to which reference was made include: a) a multidimensional analytical approach that goes beyond the narrow focus on peace and security indices; b) joint strategy that integrates the peace and security and development dimensions for informing peace and security policy making and development policy making; c) intervention  programming by either peace and security or development actors informed by joint analysis and strategy; d) a joint forum of peace and security and development policy makers for regular dialogue and exchange as vehicle for strategic coherence and operational coordination critical for leveraging the comparative advantage of both dimensions; and e) creating space for enlisting inputs and contribution from each other in each other’s decision-making process for advancing complementarity. Also, of significance is exploring avenues to build synergies between existing continental, regional and national frameworks for the operationalisation of the Peace, Security and Development Nexus.

At its 1055^th session held at the ministerial level, the PSC specifically called for ‘collaboration between the AU Commission, AUDA-NEPAD, African Development Bank and the broader international community to overcome socio-economic challenges and address human security.’ A major development in this respect was the launch of the AUDA-NEPAD Programme on Socio-economic development in post-conflict states. Bekele-Thomas is expected to flag this in her intervention. The establishment of the Africa Facility for Supporting Inclusive Transition (AFSIT) in collaboration with the UNDP is another practical example of translating the issue of nexus from policy discussion to policy practice.

Tomorrow’s meeting provides the Council with an opportunity to discuss the progress AFSIT has made in advancing the nexus issue in practical terms and the support rendered within that context to targeted member states of the AU. Additionally, the PSC may also draw on the aspect of the Tangier’s conference declaration which, along with the AU Assembly Decision (Assembly/AU/Dec. 817(XXXV)), called for a financial instrument designed to mobilise scalable and flexible resources via a Security-Indexed Investment Bonds to address the root causes of insecurity, enhance the capacity of formal institutions, and rehabilitate communities and infrastructure adversely affected by insecurity. This initiative is expected to be carried out via the Africa Development Bank. A recent development worth addressing by the Council is the signing of an MoU between the African Development Bank and partners to scale up support for the Security-Indexed Investment Bonds and the implication it might have for mobilising resources for programmes related to peace, security and development.

The session is expected to also draw on insights from the 4^th Aswan Forum conclusions. In this respect issues that may be highlighted, in the intervention of Abdel-Latif, include the connection highlighted in the conclusion between the reform of international financial institutions and peace and security, the emphasis it put on the need for focusing on conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the work of the PSC including through leveraging the role of peacebuilding bodies, the adoption of a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach and promotion of the role of trade and investment in unlocking Africa’s economic potential and in advancing sustainable peace and development.

The expected outcome is a communiqué. The PSC may reiterate the importance of giving due consideration to the interdependence between peace, security and development, in order to ensure the effectiveness of all efforts aimed at conflict prevention, peacekeeping and the consolidation of peace in Africa. In terms of bridging the gap between policy and practice, the PSC may call for the establishment of a forum that brings together peace and security policy actors and development policymakers in Africa for mainstreaming the nexus lens in respective processes and policy action. The PSC may also call for the need for adopting a multidimensional analytical approach that leverages the peace and security-specific analysis and the development lens. It may also underscore the need for integrating the development in the implementation of the AU Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to silence the guns in Africa. It may also call for the activation of its call from the 883^rd session on the AU Commission Chairperson to submit an annual report on the measures taken towards enhancing collaboration and coordination between departments within the AU Commission and AU Specialised Agencies on account of its recognition of the interdependent nature of peace, security and development. The PSC may also underscore the need for leveraging the PCRD policy as an instrument for mainstreaming nexus particularly in deploying peacebuilding and post-conflict development interventions.