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Between February 17 and 18, the bearers of the top political positions in the African Union’s (AU’s) 55-member countries will meet at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to deliberate on and determine the continental body’s policies, establish its priorities, adopt its annual programme and monitor the implementation of its policies and decisions.

Africa’s top national political leaders, who constitute the AU’s assembly of heads of state and government, which is the continental body’s supreme policy and decision-making organ, will be meeting at their 37th ordinary session to shape the continent’s agenda for the next 12 months – and beyond.

The meeting of the presidents, prime ministers, and kings will culminate a month-long series of African Union Summit activities, which started on 15 January 2024, with the 47th ordinary session of the permanent representative’s committee (ambassadors). Their meetings ended on 26 January.

“The PRC comprises Permanent Representatives to the African Union and other plenipotentiaries of Member States. The PRC conducts the day-to-day business of the African Union on behalf of the Assembly and Executive Council. It reports to the Executive Council, prepares the Council’s work, and acts on its instructions. All AU Member States are members of the PRC,” explains the African Union website.

The meeting of ambassadors was followed by the 44th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council, which took place on February 14 – 15. 

The Executive Council, which is answerable to the assembly (heads of state and government), coordinates and makes decisions on policies in areas of common interest to member states.

“The Executive Council is composed of foreign ministers, or such other ministers or authorities as are designated by the governments of Member States,” explains the AU on its website. 

“It considers issues referred to it and monitors the implementation of policies formulated by the Assembly.”

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Executive Council meeting, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said the continental body is currently undergoing an institutional reform process that “aims at [to make] it more efficient and better able to take up the challenges of a changing world.”

“The Champion of Reform, His Excellency Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, and I will Report faithfully at the Summit,” he said. “We will also, in the same spirit of transparency, highlight the shortcomings and the steps that remain to be taken so that our national leaders can take the appropriate decisions as far as they are concerned.”.

Besides the conversation on the proposed reforms at the AU, the leaders will also discuss and pass resolutions on several other vital issues that affect the continent. 

Below are highlights of the most pertinent issues you need to watch at the upcoming African Union Summit 2024, as outlined in the official program and gleaned from other official documents.

1. Governance, Security Issues on the Continent and Beyond

In his remarks to the Executive Council, the AU Commission Chairperson Faki set the tone by addressing governance and security issues in Africa and the Middle East as the first item of his nine-page speech. 

Mr Faki stated that the African and international situation continues, day after day, to increase the concerns, agonies, and bitterness of the AU.

“The resurgence of military coups, pre- and post-electoral violence, humanitarian crises linked to war and/or the effects of Climate Change, are all very serious sources of concern for us,” he said. “They seriously threaten to obliterate the signs of the emergence of Africa, of which we are proud.”

On the security situation across Africa, Mr Faki described the armed conflict in Sudan, Somalia, the Great Lakes Region (the eternal tension in the East of the DRC), Libya, and the Sahel as “serious situations of conflict” that could become worse if not addressed.

Mr Faki’s concerns were echoed by the Current President of the Executive Council of the African, Dhoihir Dhoulkamal, also the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Comoros. He said, “The multiplication of centres of tension, with the return of the old demons of war in Sudan, the persistence of insecurity in Eastern Congo, and the civil war in Libya, are all challenges which are considerably slowing down our collective momentum towards peace and development.”

While saluting “the firm commitment of the Republic of South Africa” to justice and the recognition of the fundamental rights of all, following the case they lodged against Israel, Mr Faki also noted that the co-existence of ‘the smoldering hotbed in the Middle East,” alongside other centres of serious tension in Ukraine, in the Red Sea and the Pacific Ocean, threatening to “darken the dual international economic and security climate.”

The AU Commission Chief also expressed his dismay at what he described as “another new phenomenon of weakening our regional and continental governance institutions,” which he said is affecting almost all the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). 

Three West African countries recently withdrew from the Economic Community for West African States.

“What some like to call the ill of the RECs worries about the fate of the Continental Organisation since the RECs are its pillars,” he said. “I ask myself the question and put it to you. 

Since when and for how long will the building stand and resist the collapse of its pillars and its foundations?”

Given the concerns openly expressed by the African Union Commission boss, governance and security issues will likely constitute a top agenda item during the closed-door meeting of the Heads of State and Governments.

You can follow the opening ceremony of the 37th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly, which takes place on 17 February at 10 am East African time (EAT), via this link.

2. Education as a strategic investment in Africa’s prosperity

The African Union theme of 2024 is “Educate an African Fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Lifelong, Quality, and Relevant Learning in Africa.” Consequently, you can expect the African Union to shine the spotlight on education over the next 12 months as it seeks to raise the profile of schooling as a necessary investment for sustainable development in Africa.

At the Executive Council opening ceremony on 14 February, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete, underscored the need to foster partnerships between industries and educational institutions for the curricula to align with job markets, improve the efficiency of educational spending and investments, and crowd in the private sector to support human capital development.

“Africa cannot afford to play small in this 4th industrial revolution. We must be drivers or miss yet another opportunity. We can build technological capabilities that foster value addition in strategic sectors like agribusiness, manufacturing, green transitions, global health, etc. We can generate economies of scale and agglomeration because we have the necessary workforce. When we integrate TVET within a modernised education system, we ensure capable labor markets for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises to become more competitive.”

Today, Friday, 15 February, the Committee of 10 Heads of State and Government (C10) dedicated to advancing education, science, and technology will convene for a session to deliberate on the theme and affirm their support for the education roadmap. Leaders from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Chad, Egypt, Tunisia, Malawi, Namibia, Kenya, and Mauritius will participate in this pivotal meeting.

The C10 session will then pave the way for the pre-launch of the African Union theme for 2024, which takes place from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm East African Time at the Multipurpose Hall in the AU headquarters.

3. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

With the African Union theme of the year 2023 being the “Acceleration Of AfCFTA Implementation,” there will be considerable interest in the reports from the AU Commission on the status of the move towards an African Continental Free Trade Area.

The AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area, bringing together the 55 countries of the African Union (AU) and eight (8) Regional Economic Communities (RECs), says the AU. The overall mandate of the AfCFTA is to create a single continental market with a population of about 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of approximately US$ 3.4 trillion.

According to a 15 February press statement from the African Union, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government session is set to deliberate on the milestones and progress made on trade, regional integration, and multilateral cooperation.

“The conclusion of the African Union theme of the year 2023 focused on the acceleration of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area has recorded progress in a report that will be considered by the Assembly,” says the statement.

4. Implementation of Africa’s Agenda 2063 for the Next 10 years

The African Union concluded the first decade of the implementation of its Agenda 2063, which the continental body launched in 2013. Touted as “Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future,” Agenda 2063 is anchored on successive 10-year implementation plans focusing on select key development areas.

At the opening ceremony of the Executive Council, AU Commission Chairperson Faki noted that after the first decade of Agenda 2063, “the assessment made is mixed.” He explained that the continent's governance challenges had hamstrung the AU in its efforts to achieve the objectives it set out to implement in 2023. 

“Within the framework described, the conditions were not conducive to optimal attainment of the objectives set under the various programmes, so many constraints and uncertainties have obscured the horizon,” he said.

Mr Faki added that the AU needs to turn its attention to addressing the “uncertainties” that stood in the way of total success during the first decade of implementation of Agenda 2063. He said, “It is more these uncertainties which must engage our attention, sharpen our sense of anticipation. We must, therefore, prepare to face the unknown, with an approach based on rationality and prudence, as we launch the Second Decade of Agenda 2063.”

5. African Financial Institutions & Global Financial Architecture Reforms

Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is also the Champion of African Union Financial Institutions, will host Heads of State in the 17 February presidential dialogue in which “participants will have the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to establishing AU Financial Institutions, solidify Africa’s Agenda for Global Financial Architecture Reform and agree on a way forward; and officially launch the Africa Club as a key avenue for strengthening Africa’s position in the global financial landscape.”

The move is part of an effort to find solutions to a global financial architecture that African leaders say is unfavourable to Africa’s development. “The global financial architecture, which encompasses international financial institutions, global economic governance structures, and financial regulatory mechanisms, plays a pivotal role in shaping Africa's economic destiny. However, the current system inadequately addresses the unique development needs and vulnerabilities of the African continent,” says the AU in a statement.

President Akufo-Addo will collaborate with the AU Commission, the African Multilateral Financial Institutions, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) to bring together the brains behind the push to set up African financial institutions and push for global financial architecture reforms.

“The African Union, Heads of State and Government have long underscored the need to establish an African Monetary Union by harmonising monetary zones and creating three African Union financial institutions: the African Central Bank (ACB), the African Monetary Fund (AMF) and the African Investment Bank (AIB),” says the AU in a statement.

“Additionally, in January 2006, Heads of State and Government of the African Union requested that the African Union Commission conduct a feasibility study on the creation of a Pan-African Stock Exchange (PASE). [But] since the legal instruments to establish the AIB and the AMF were adopted in 2009 and 2014, respectively, none of the financial institutions has reached the requisite number of ratifications to enter into force.”

It remains to be seen if President Akufo-Addo’s efforts will generate the consensus needed to set the ball rolling on these financial institutions. To follow the Presidential Dialogue on African Financial Institutions, which takes place on 17 February starting at 7:30 am East African Time, register here.

6. Funding of African Union activities

Still, on money matters, AU Commission Chair Faki expressed regret at the opening session of the Executive Council that member countries were not making sufficient contributions to the AU budget, resulting in the low execution of the programme budget by various organs of the continental body.

“The very low contribution of Member States to the financing of the programme budget, estimated at only 9 percent, leaving 91 percent for external contributions, places such programmes in an uncertain situation, disrupting the entire execution chain,” he said, adding: “However, we must not look for an excuse to exonerate ourselves from our responsibility in the phenomenon of non-implementation of our Programmes.”

With Mr Faki’s term of office coming to a close this year, his open admission that AU countries are not doing enough to fund the continental body is a challenge to Heads of State and Government, as well as his successor, to work towards meeting their financial obligations to the African Union.

7. Africa’s Stance on a Fairer Energy Transition and Financing Measures Against Climate Change

One of the positive developments from 2023 that the President of the AU Executive Council, Dhoihir Dhoulkamal, sought to emphasise was that “the voice of Africa has resounded in the main international forums to defend the superior interests of the continent.”

Mr Dhoulkamal noted that at COP 28 in the United Arab Emirates, Africa called for a fairer energy transition and financing of measures against climate change, including financing for adaptation, and urged Western countries, the main polluters on the planet, to increase funding for climate action and green growth for the benefit of Africa.

The AU Executive Council President added that Africa will continue advocating for measures that reduce the effects of climate change on Africa, including the push for special treatment for coastal and island states, which are highly vulnerable to climate change. 

Will the Heads of State and Government pronounce themselves on this matter after concluding their meetings on 18 February? Keep an eye out for their resolutions, which will be made public at the closing ceremony of the 37th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly on Sunday morning.

Writer is an African Union Media Fellowship Mentor