A Stronger Alliance: Enhancing Resilience, Peace, and Security in the Africa-EU Partnership

The security partnership between Africa and Europe is making significant progress, participants at the latest Friends of Europe Debating Africa-EU event said Wednesday. However, greater efforts are needed, particularly to shift the focus from managing crises to preventing them.

“A more strategic approach … should be driven by the principle of anticipation, not being called when there is a fire to extinguish, but to prevent the fire,” (14:40) said Josep Borrell Fontelles, European Union High Representative and Commission Vice-President for A Stronger Europe in the World. “We need to work more on conflict prevention, using the big number of tools we have at our disposal.”

Borrell joined two fellow European Commissioners and a senior diplomat from the African Union for the last of a series of seven online Africa-EU debates hosted by Friends of Europe. Over the past eight months, they have brought together hundreds of government and business leaders, civil society representatives and other key stakeholders from both continents.

The ideas they have generated are feeding into preparations for the AU-EU summit scheduled for this year.

Participants in the latest debate emphasised the links between security and development, insisting that one is not possible without the other. There were complaints that neither the EU, nor the African Union are devoting enough resources to the preventative side of security.

Abdoulaye Diop, Chief of Staff of the Chairperson of the AU Commission, pointed out that crisis prevention is intrinsically linked to development on a continent whose youth population is forecast to reach 800 million over the next 20 years.

“Prevention is not only investing in preventive diplomacy, in dialogue and mediation … it’s how we can make meaningful investments to create jobs, create opportunities and economic development for our young people,” (46:20) said Diop, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali.

“For these young people, either we decide to make meaningful investment for them to become agents for prosperity, shared prosperity, or they will be fuelling the gangs and militias, and will be a threat to all of us,” (46:57) he warned.

The need for economic development to back up security policy, was also underscored by Smaїl Chergui, African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security. He was travelling and unable to attend the debate but sent a personal video message to participants.

Chergui urged a comprehensive approach to build resilience and address the root causes of conflict, for example by investing in infrastructure to facilitate cross-border trade; diversification of livelihood opportunities; climate-change initiatives; and inclusive growth efforts bringing in women and youth.

“A key priority to build resilience is the reaffirmation of the social contract, to build trust between people and the government,” (6:53) Chergui said.

Speakers also emphasised the importance of creating better synergies between civilian and military operations; between humanitarian aid, development and security policy; and between the actions of European and African players at national and regional level.

“With humanitarian aid we only try to save lives and alleviate suffering, we attempt to address the symptoms, but we want to do more,” (32:54)  Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, told the debate. “We want to look at what are the root causes that lead to symptoms like that, and tackle them together with our African partners.”

He too insisted preparedness and cooperation are key to predict crises and build resilience against challenges, such as pandemics like COVID-19 or the growing impacts of climate change. “We need to get better prepared,” Lenarčič said. “The heart of resilience is preparedness. We’d like to work with our African partners to make them better prepared for the disasters that may come.” (34:11)

Throughout the debate, there was cautious optimism that Africa’s great potential can be unleashed with the right balance of good governance, improved security and sustainable development. The EU is willing to help and plans to strengthen the partnership through a renewed Africa strategy.

“Our partnership on peace and security is strong. It is based on our mutual interests and understanding that African states and institutions are best at ensuring peace on their continent,” (4:40) said Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships.

“Peace and security are intrinsically linked to resilience,” (5:47) she added. “This means prevention, resolution and rehabilitation by well-targeted humanitarian, development, peace and security action.”

Urpilainen also looked back over the successful series of debates, which have attracted hundreds of online participants and several thousand of viewers from both continents.

She highlighted the broad range of topics covered, including green and digital growth, gender equality, healthcare and migration. Urpilainen was particularly encouraged by the level of youth participation.

“The engagement of young people in the debate was very impressive,” (55:10) she said. “We will definitely continue building the future together.”