The African Peace and Security Architecture : need to refocus EU support; Special report No 20, 2018

The member states of the African Union established the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) in 2002 as a long-term structural response to the peace and security challenges on the African continent. Through the APSA, the African Union and mandated sub-regional organisations have access to tools which help them to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts. We examined the EU's support for the development of the APSA, concluding that the support has had a poor effect and needed refocusing. The APSA has been for many years heavily dependent on donor funding and the EU support had been focused on contributing to APSA's basic operational costs. We make a number of recommendations for improving the EU's approach, aimed at fostering African Union's ownership of the APSA, refocusing EU support and making the Commission's interventions consistently results-based.