AU seeking to raise annual budget

African Union (AU) foreign ministers have been called upon to increase the 53-nation body’s annual budget fivefold, an AU spokesman said on Monday.

The AU was looking to raise its annual budget from US $43 million to $297 million, officials said at the end of a two-day meeting of ministers in Addis Ababa.

"Funding is extremely important to us," Adam Thiam, AU spokesman, told IRIN. Already, he added, the AU had shaved $200 million off its current plan to meet the approval of member states.

The proposal to increase the budget is part of AU chief, Alpha Oumar Konare’s, three-year, $1.7 billion-strategic plan that would help revitalise the union. Konare had proposed in July that AU members pledge 0.5 percent of their national budgets to the pan-African organisation.

Under his strategic plan, key institutions would include a $200 million peace fund with its own standing army, a $30 million pan-African parliament that would sit in South Africa and $3 million for a court of justice. Some $600 million would also be ploughed into the continent-wide, anti-poverty blueprint – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

Konare also wants to double the number of staff at the AU base in Addis Ababa to make the commission a more effective body. This would increase the commission’s running expenses to around $130 million a year.

This year, the AU has collected just $26 million for its current budget from member states. Thiam said that while the commission was looking for $297 million, member states were willing to endorse finances of around $160 million. The AU would have to appeal to wealthy nations for extra financial support to help finance its ambitious proposals. Any agreement would have to be endorsed by AU heads of state at a yet-to-be-scheduled summit.

The AU was formed two years ago to replace the Organisation of African Unity.