The African Union’s (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) called on the African Union (AU) Commission and partners to implement the Tangier Declaration on promoting the nexus between peace, security, and development in Africa.
In a communiqué issued on August 8, following its meeting on July 21 at the ministerial level on community responses to security challenges in Africa, the Peace and Security Council (PSC) called on the Office of the African Union’s (AU) Special Envoy for Women, Peace, and Security to take into consideration the conclusions of the meeting on “the intersecting challenges of climate change and the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Africa,” which was organized by Morocco on February 16 in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the 36th AU Summit.
The communiqué stated that the Peace and Security Council “calls on the Commission and partners to implement the Declaration of the first AU Strategy Conference on the theme Promoting the Peace, Security, and Development Nexus in Africa: The promise of Regional Integration, in accordance with paragraph 34 of Decision 842 adopted by the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU (February 18-19 in Addis Ababa).”
In this respect, the communiqué added that the Peace and Security Council (PSC) “encourages partners to redouble their efforts to support the implementation of projects promoting the link between peace, security, and development.”
The statement added that the PSC also “requests the Office of AU’s Special Envoy for the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda to integrate issues relating to women in development and climate change into its future forums, taking into consideration the conclusions of the meeting on the intersecting challenges of climate change and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Africa organized on February 16 on the sidelines of the 36th AU Summit.”
The Council also stressed the importance of facing the rapidly growing multidimensional threats to peace, security, and development in Africa, including climate change, armed conflict, and natural disasters that affect communities’ living conditions and livelihoods.
The Council strongly condemned terrorist attacks against communities and defense and security forces, stressing the need to ensure the security of people’s lives, property, and livelihoods, and strengthen their resilience in the face of the negative effects of the multiple and multidimensional crises facing Africa.
The PSC also emphasized the need for concerted efforts to address the multidimensional threats to peace, security, stability, and development in Africa, such as terrorism, radicalization, extremism, armed conflict, climate change threats to human security, hate crimes, and ideologies of hatred and intolerance, which harm the living conditions and livelihoods of African populations.
In a similar context, the PSC underlined the importance of holistic approaches to address the structural causes and triggers of conflict and all security threats, while recognizing the intrinsic link between peace, security, and socio-economic development.
