COVID-19 Conflict & Resilience Monitor – 17 February 2021

Heads of State and Government of the 55 Member States of the African Union (AU) met on the 6^th and 7^th February 2021 for their 34^th ordinary session. For the first time, the most significant diplomatic gathering of the Continent, which usually brings together over 7000 delegates at the headquarters of the AU in Addis Ababa, was held by videoconference to avoid further spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The 2021 elections of the top leadership team of the African Union Commission (AUC) were historic because they were the first following the adoption of the institutional reform process of the Union. It was therefore the litmus test for the proposed reforms adopted by the Union in 2018 particularly concerning the election of the senior leadership of the Commission. Of particular importance is that according to the reforms the chairperson, deputy chairperson and six commissioners have to be, on a rotational basis, representative of the five regions of Africa and the team has to be gender balanced.

The 34^th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Assembly took place without the usual fanfare. Held away from the gaze of the public via an online platform courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AU summit set by design a very limited agenda. Apart from the transition of the leadership of the AU Assembly from South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa to Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and an update on the institutional reform of the AU, the summit focused, in the main, on the election of the new leadership of the AU Commission and Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 15^th of February 2021 will go down in history as the day on which a woman, and an African, was elected for the first time to the important post of Director-General of the WTO. It is a proud day for women all around the world and a proud day for all of us in Africa. However, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had to wait several months for a change in the administration of the United States before there could be consensus on her appointment, despite her having the support of the overwhelming majority of the members of the WTO. This very fact underscores the vital importance of this job at this particular juncture in our world.