Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR)

The African Standby Force - An update on progress

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What progress has been made with the African Standby Force (ASF)? What are the challenges for the African Union (AU) and its international partners is achieving full ASF readiness by 2010? This review by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) gives an update on ASF progress.

The ASF is intended for rapid deployment in peace support operations for the AU that may include preventive deployment, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, post-conflict demilitarisation, and humanitarian assistance. The aim is to have one standby brigade in each of Africa’s five regions, supported by civilian police and other capacities, by 2010. Good progress has been made in training, development of doctrine, Standard Operating Procedures, and command and control concepts. Progress has been uneven across the regions. However, Africa has not met the ambitious goals set for the ASF four years ago.

The review finds major obstacles, including inadequate and unpredictable funding and lack of capacity and leadership within the AU. In addition:

• Logistics remains hugely problematic. The insertion of a regional level of political control between the AU and its member states pushes the ASF away from a technically-based continent-wide logistics system.
• The European Union’s (EU) African Peace Facility has been a vital source of funding and has strengthened the relationship between the AU and the EU.
• Some international partners have seized on the ASF concept to a degree that undermines African ownership especially in the East and West regions.
• There is competition between Africa’s international partners for demonstrable impact which they hope will be translated into influence. This has led to insufficient information sharing between them.
• Focus to date has been on the military aspects of the ASF. Civilian policing and other aspects have been neglected.

The standby force concept adopted by the AU is complex and ambitious but very necessary. For peacekeeping to be sustainable in Africa it will be necessary to develop a more integrated concept of security between the UN and the AU. The degree of support from the UN to the ASF has been disappointing. It has become accepted that the AU can and should deploy ahead of the UN. The exit strategy for ASF operations is therefore handover to the UN. This could include redesignation of ASF resources as UN contingents. However, it will be necessary to address the problem of depleting ASF forces needed elsewhere. The review makes a number of policy-relevant points, including:

• A single entry point for international assistance at AU and regional level is needed to enable partners to provide support without duplication of efforts and resources. The UK and Denmark have proposed that the ASF develop an annual plan to do this.
• The UN’s more restrictive entry criteria under Chapter VII of the UN Charter make it likely that the AU will face capacity and political will challenges in executing robust missions. This is also a challenge for operational handover to the UN.
• Emerging trends suggest that low intensity rather than large-scale conflicts will become the norm in Africa. Effective early response systems and preventive deployment will need to be developed.
• There is a need for targeted attention on the policing and non-military aspects of the ASF.

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