Some 50 AU member countries have contributed close to 131 million dollars since 2017 to finance peace and security activities across the continent, the AU disclosed on Friday.
The 55-member Pan African bloc said this in a statement issued on Friday in Addis Ababa.
Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Mahamat, speaking during the meeting also reiterated his commitment “to ensuring strong accountability and financial governance for the effective, transparent and prudent use of resources in the organisation.”
“In demonstrating their commitment to ensuring predictable and sustainable financing for peace and security activities in Africa, 50 AU member states have contributed 131 million dollars since 2017,” Mahamat said.
According to the AU, the stated financial amount represents “the highest member state contribution to the AU Peace Fund since the establishment of the fund in 1993.”
The AU also stressed that the amount was expected to “gradually increase to 400 million dollars by 2021.”
“Once fully operational, the Peace Fund will finance activities in three thematic areas that include mediation and preventive diplomacy, institutional capacity, and peace support operations,” Mahamat read.
The AU envisaged that the continental Peace Fund, once fully operational, would “become the principal financing instrument for peace and security activities on the continent.”
Earlier this week, the AU Peace Fund Board of Trustees had held a meeting to take stock of the status of operationalisation of the AU Peace Fund.
The meeting mainly reviewed the ongoing financial governance and administrative processes of the fund, which is expected to be fully operational in 2020.
Mahamat also underscored the AU’s keen interest to ensure best practices in international fund management with an emphasis “on concrete results and impact to ensure the continent is peaceful and secure.”
The AU Peace Fund Board of Trustees is made up of five African members representing the five AU regions and two of the AU’s international partners that are the EU and the UN.
The Peace Fund is the first endowment fund to be established by the pan African bloc.
The Board of Trustees mainly works to ensure strategic coherence and enhanced governance, financial and administrative oversight of the Peace Fund.
