The United Nations Security Council adopted a Ghana-led African resolution on Thursday, December 21, recognizing the need for support and funding for peace support operations in Africa.
This will go beyond traditional UN peacekeeping operations to address all threats to international peace and security in Africa.
Under this resolution, all AU-led peace support operations mandated by the UN Security Council will receive UN funding of up to 75% of their annual budget from UN-assessed contributions.
The remaining amount will be jointly mobilized by the United Nations and the African Union from the international community as extra-budgetary resources.
The Board also committed to considering all viable options in the event of a significant shortfall in resource mobilization.
The resolution was submitted under the authority of the African Union Peace and Security Council, of which Ghana currently serves, along with other African countries in the Security Council, Gabon and Mozambique (A3).
The dramatic outcome of complex and difficult negotiations comes 10 days before Ghana’s term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ends.
Ghana changed its traditional response to international peace and security at the beginning of its term in January 2022, as violent extremism and terrorism have outpaced traditional conflicts, attracting UN peacekeeping operations, particularly in Africa. announced that it would be a priority to secure Security Council agreement to do so. , many people expressed skepticism.
Previous attempts to agree to the use of UN-assessed contributions to support African-led operations have faced opposition from some permanent members of the Council and other major contributors to the UN. It ended in failure. Ghana’s ambition was to achieve all these goals within a two-year term.
As Chair of the Council in November 2022, President Akufo-Addo and Minister of Foreign Affairs Shirley Ayoko Botchway signed a high-level signature on the growing threat of violent extremism and terrorism in Africa, particularly in the Sahel region and the West African coastal region. We had a discussion. , the need to fund African-led operations through UN-assessed contributions, and the importance of ensuring balanced funding for both military operations and addressing the socio-economic and climate root causes of conflict. sex.
One of the key objectives was to ensure that terrorists were not conditioned to radicalize and recruit from vulnerable communities.
The adoption of the Framework Resolution ensures that ECOWAS plans and related security initiatives in the region, such as the Accra Initiative and Multinational Joint Task Force to Combat Boko Haram, potentially benefit from the necessary resources and international support. It is understood that you will receive Support to defeat terrorism and violent extremism in the ECOWAS region.
Commenting on the adoption of the resolution, Shirley Ayoko Botchway, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, said: “Today is a great day for Africa and diplomacy.
βTogether with partners around the world, we have taken a major step towards ending the many threats to international peace and security in the region.
βOur people deserve the peace, stability, and progress that comes from successful peace support operations.
βThe disruption to our regional integration projects and the pressure on development resources due to security needs will ease as we move forward. I commend President Akufo-Addo for his leadership.
βI also commend our team in New York, my Department, and the UN Security Council Multi-Stakeholder Working Group we established to advise me.β
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