Heads of state and government gathered in Addis Ababa for their 16th African Union assembly which officially kicked off on Monday 24 January under the theme ‘Towards greater unity and integration through shared values’. Present at the opening session of the summit were incoming AU Chairperson Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, AU Commission President Jean Ping, UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, President of France Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs.

“The focus on greater unity and shared values is particularly timely in the light of recent political events,” said Development Commissioner Piebalgs. “The EU fully supports the continent’s evolution towards more integration, democracy and good governance.”

Recent political events

Addressing current concerns, it was announced that a high level panel of representatives from the AU Commission and the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) would be tasked with seeing that peace and democracy prevail in the Ivory Coast. “The panel has been created to ensure that the parties involved take up their historical responsibilities,” explained AU Commission President Ping.

Hope was expressed that free and fair elections would be held in Tunisia. “We hope that the political measures taken recently will make it possible for Tunisia’s political leaders to bring about a peaceful and democratic transition,” said Mr Ping.

He spoke also of the situation in Egypt and how it is being monitored closely by the AU Commission. On Somalia, he announced that 12 000 Ugandan and Guinean forces have been enlisted to beef up the African Union’s Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). Sudan, he said, was also a concern and stressed the need for concerted efforts from the international community to create positive change.

Sustaining development through agriculture and food

In the assembly’s opening session outgoing AU Chairperson, Bingu wa Mutharika, urged those present to “vindicate the fact that Africa can indeed eradicate poverty, become prosperous, and improve the standard of living of the majority of our people by using our own natural resources and our own human capacities”.

“As we embrace the New Year, let me reiterate the importance of agriculture and food security as the basis for sustaining peace, security and development […] Without food, we cannot maintain peace-keeping missions; without food, we cannot sustain our national defence forces; without food, we cannot keep children in schools; and without food, we cannot have political stability […] Africa must be able to feed itself within the next five years. This can be done.”
In full recognition of this, the EU adopted a new food security strategy last year which puts emphasis on support for those countries furthest from meeting MDG 1 of halving poverty and hunger by 2015. The EU’s four-pronged strategy covers: small-scale farm owners’ resilience; effective governance; regional agriculture and food security policies; and, assistance for vulnerable groups.

The need for this support is firmly understood by the African Union: “The gains we have achieved in the past years were possible through the strategic partnerships developed by the African Union with the rest of the world,” said Bingu wa Mutharika.

The EU believes that to increase the availability of food in Africa, the intensification of food production should be sustainable and environmentally friendly. A recent communication on food security in developing countries emphasises this approach by prioritising “ecologically efficient agricultural intensification for small-scale farmers”.

Increasing resilience to climate change

On the sidelines of the summit, Development Commissioner Piebalgs met Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi to discuss further strengthening cooperation and to sign a €13.7 million grant agreement. This grant will be an important step in helping Ethiopia to build a climate-resilient economy. “I am grateful that Ethiopia is at the forefront of climate change debates in international fora. It is also one of the priority countries that the EU has chosen for projects under the Global Climate Change Alliance. Our signing of a €13.7 million grant agreement will be an important step in helping Ethiopia to build a climate-resilient economy,” said Mr Piebalgs.

Vaccines for health

The Commissioner also met with Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is dedicated to bringing innovations in health, development and learning to the global community. Together they share the goals of fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries, and most particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

On the EU side, this goal is being taken forward by the clinical trials partnership (EDCTP) between European and developing countries. Since 2003, the EDCTP programme has launched 33 contracts and committed to funding 74 projects that include clinical trials, capacity development and network support. The projects span 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Looking forward
African and European leaders will now take the appropriate measures to implement the second action plan (insert link) that was adopted for the period 2011-2013 at  their 3rd Africa-EU Summit in Libya in November 2010 .