UN-EU-AU Coordination in Peace Operations in Africa

This report presents the results of a project, commissioned by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, on the coordination between the UN, EU and AU in multinational and multifunctional peace operations in Africa. The UN, EU and AU are three different entities, with individual comparative advantages, internal structures, capabilities, experiences and roles. This report presents some of the coordination challenges inherent in contemporary peacekeeping, through the use of examples from recent missions in Africa where coordination between these three organisations has been an issue (eg UNAMID, AMIS, EUFOR Tchad/RCA, MINURCAT, AMISOM). A distinction is made between Hybrids and Support Missions, Co-deployment and Transitions. Several factors affecting inter-organisational coordination of peace operations are analysed, together with a presentation of findings and ideas for enhanced coordination from a wide range of sources. Core elements are enhanced strategic direction, compensating for a perceived `strategic deficits`, enhanced coordination arrangements in the field and enhanced capacity building, as a coordination situation in itself and as a potential enhancer for coordination in missions. The final ewcommendations highlight several areas requiring attention regarding the efforts of enhancing future UN-EU-AU coordination. These revolve around, eg promotion of mutual understanding and organisational learning, jointness in key stages of the strategic process and a wide range of practical mechanisms for field coordination, such as joint coordination bodies and the decentralisation of decision-making authority, a series of recommendations for UN, EU, and other partners´ support to AU capacity building is put forward.