Advancing Continental Synergy: FES at the 39th AU Summit

The program started with the AU-ECOSOC meeting on the theme of the year 2026 “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063" and continued at the FES Office in Addis Ababa, where participants received an in-depth briefing on FES’s work in cooperation with the African Union, AU’s structure and processes as well as current challenges on the continent. The exchange highlighted cooperation within the African Union, ongoing policy and reform processes.

The rest of the week the delegation participated in various side events of the summit like the Amani Africa event on “Africa at a Crossroads: Pan-Africanism, the breakdown of global order, and the Future of Collective Security”, the Open Society Foundations Pre-Summit Citizens' Dialogue on „Human Rights, Justice, Governance and Peace “, or the UNDP conference on the “Gen-Z, Political Transitions and the Future of Governance in Africa”.

Peace and Security featured prominently in many discussions and also in a FES summit-side event hosted by FES and the Institute for Peace and Security Studies on the realities of Peace support operations. Samira Gaid and Reagan Miviri presented findings from Somalia and DRC, with Dr. Ueli Staeger drawing conclusions from the findings and emphasizing the need of sustainable funding, bridging coordination gaps between different actors as well as aligning short-term security interventions with long-term political and economic strategies for sustainable peace.

In addition to that, the FES African Migration Policy Center and the Civil Society Network on Migration and Development held a discussion with the delegation on the implications of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s withdrawal from ECOWAS, emphasizing the need for inclusive approaches to safeguarding free movement across the region, while drawing lessons for other Regional Economic Communities and the African Union.

A special highlight during the week which brought the summit feeling closer to the delegation, was a FES and AFFORD dialogue on diaspora engagement. The findings on diaspora direct investments and their transformative potential were directly presented to H.E. Mr. Mohammed B.S. Jallow, Vice President of The Gambia, and representatives of the African Union’s Citizens and Diaspora Organizations Directorate (CIDO) with lots of protocol and pictures taken. 

FES’s African Union partners were very busy pre-summit, however, FES National office facilitated various bilateral meetings focusing on the AU thematic issues and Member state perspective. One of these meetings was e.g. with the Interim Director on the Africa Peace and Security Program, Lettie Tembo Longwe, on conflicts and peace in Africa, as well as unconstitutional changes of government. Another one with the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU), about their role on implementing some AU supported policies on National level like the National Action Plans (NAPs) on Business and Human Rights (BHRs) or the Just Transition agenda. And a final one with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance on the restructuring of debt, the G20 Common Framework process and the relevance of AUs participation in the G20. 

The events and bilateral discussions showed the complex environment and engagement of African Union, the dominant influence of member states, and the difficulty of implementation of some policies due to the lack of political will. However, the delegation also learnt that acting in Union makes Africa stronger, that multilateralism is challenged, but that there is still a strong commitment for it in Africa, and that there is a will for inclusive, evidence-based, and collaborative approaches to tackle Africa’s challenges