6 November 2025
Background
Over the past decade, the geopolitical, normative and operational landscape of peace operations in Africa has undergone significant change, marked by a notable rise, of ad-hoc forms of African-led peace support operations (PSOs) alongside the drawdown of major United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UN PKO) missions on the continent. These shifts have also been marked by a lack of sufficient or adequate action on the part of the African Union (AU) and the UN, shifting geopolitical alliances, hybrid threats, rising demand for and often resort to localised, agile and context-specific responses and a heightened scrutiny of multilateralism itself.
Since the signing of the 2017 UN-AU Joint Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security and more recently the UN Security Council Resolution 2719 (2023) on using UN-assessed contributions to finance AU-led PSOs, expectations concerning the partnerships` ability to respond to Africa's evolving security threats have grown, which are testing the foundations and functionality of the partnership.
The shifting nature of conflicts, marked by asymmetry, fragmentation and transnational threats, has exposed the limits and often the inadequacy of existing peace operation models across the continent. Simultaneously, regional actors have moved to fill the vacuum. This includes not only RECs and ad-hoc coalitions but also private security actors, often operating under politically complex and resource-constrained conditions. Beyond these changes in the security dynamics, the international system is undergoing a fundamental transition from a unipolar order historically dominated by Western powers to a more fluid and contested multipolar configuration. While formal multilateral institutions remain in place, the actual management of global order increasingly occurs through ad-hoc negotiation, tactical alignments, and regional power bargains among a mix of primary and middle powers. This emergent order is less rules-based and more transactional, marked by shifting coalitions, divergent normative frameworks and uneven commitments to multilateralism.
In view of the foregoing, the importance of the partnership between the AU and the UN and the role of the AU have acquired particular significance as encapsulated in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Res 2719 and the Pact for the Future despite the partnership not always being equal. In this context, the two institutions will need to find a way to navigate these dynamics going forward. Therefore, the AU-UN partnership must move beyond the familiar burden-sharing and capacity building assertions to confront the current fundamental challenges such as strategic alignment, political coherence, sustainable financing, accountability mechanisms, shared assessments and adaptive mission design.
The Defining Pathways Forward: Enhancing the Partnership between the African Union and the United Nations in Peace Operations event, held during the Peace Operations Review Week, aims to facilitate a bold and forward-looking conversation. It will convene leading African and international policy and research institutions, as well as AU and UN officials, to discuss not only possible models but also a wide range of ways in which the two organisations can work together going forward. As a result, the event will serve as a platform for honest assessment and creative policy thinking.
Objectives
The main objectives of the event are as follows,
- Critically assess the evolution of the AU-UN partnership, highlighting progress and limitations;
- Interrogate entrenched assumptions around mandates, legitimacy, operational sequencing and financing;
- Examine persisting risks, dilemmas and challenges;
- Explore innovative and realistic engagement and deployment models;
- Explore pathways for institutional, normative and operational innovation;
- Propose forward looking policy recommendations, including the roles of diverse actors, RECs/RMs, civil society, youth and knowledge institutions.
The event
Key issues discussed
The discussion examined how the AU–UN partnership can adapt to Africa’s shifting peace and security landscape amid geopolitical competition, financial constraints, and the rise of ad-hoc and hybrid missions. Participants debated the implementation of UNSC Resolution 2719 on UN-assessed contributions for AU-led peace operations, exploring how mandates, sequencing, and financing can better reflect African realities. Speakers emphasised rebuilding trust, strengthening coherence between AU, RECs, and UN frameworks, and clarifying the division of labour under comparative-advantage and subsidiarity logics. Dialogue also addressed innovative financing—including private-sector engagement—and the need for common political analysis and shared accountability mechanisms.
What is being done/to do about them
Both organisations committed to operationalising Resolution 2719 through joint planning, compliance (including PoC), financing (although all agreed that UN-assessed contribution funding for AU-led operations is highly unlikely for the time being), and accountability frameworks. The AU is advancing its review of its governance and peace and security frameworks, as well as the ASF, and the AU is also organising a Lessons-Learned Forum to refine AU-led PSO models. The UN is completing its comprehensive peace operations review and deepening cooperation through the annual AU–UN leadership meeting. Next steps include socialising 2719 across African capitals and RECs (e.g., explaining that in order to access 2719 financing, operations have to be AU-led), developing a shared political-analysis framework, identifying “low-hanging-fruit” pilots to demonstrate readiness, and exploring private sector contributions to the Peace Fund and other financing options. The 2026 review of 2719 will be an important status check on the relevance of this mechanism for AU-UN partnership arrangements in the peace operations arena.
What implications emerged for the UNSC and UN HQ
As the goal of securing financing for UNSC-mandated AU-led peace operations from UN-assessed contributions is highly unlikely due to the long-standing position of the US Congress and currently also the Trump Administration, the role of 2719 in the AU-UN partnership and the way it is being implemented will have to adapt. Currently, the UN partnership teams in DPPA/DPO and DOS is continuing to engage the AU to develop various SOPs and systems that will enable the implementation of 2719, despite the fact that financing from assessed contributions is highly unlikely for the foreseeable future. The AU on the other hand, in response to this reality, is focusing on exploring various forms of self-financing and voluntary contributions. As both organisations are under financial pressure, the partnership needs to pivot away from UN financial support to AU peace operations and related modalities, and re-focus on how they can support each other through joint planning, burden-sharing (e.g. division of tasks) and the coordination of parallel missions.