A one-day high-level policy dialogue, hosted by the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, in partnership with Sweden’s Nordic Africa Institute, on 24 October 2022, sought to evaluate the impact of the United Nations (UN) Security Council on conflict management efforts in Africa. The Security Council’s primary responsibility is the maintenance of international peace and security, in which it is guided in its decisions by representatives of 15 member countries.

The title of the policy dialogue, “Fifteen diplomats on a powder keg: Africa and the UN Security Council” relates to the five permanent and 10 non-permanent members of the Council. Only three of the non-permanent members of the Council represent countries on the African continent, while only two represent countries in Latin America. This has led to calls supported by US President Joe Biden to expand the Security Council to include more permanent membership from Africa and Latin America.

The policy dialogue had three key aims: to craft ideas to ensure an effective division of labour between the UN and African regional organisations and civil society actors; to consider how strengthening the effectiveness of the Security Council’s 10 non-permanent members could promote positive peacekeeping outcomes in African cases; and to reflect on the meaningful participation of women, human rights priorities and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the continent. It sought to bridge the gap between theory and policy making.

Held on the 77th anniversary of the day the UN Charter entered into force, it was attended by about 20 diplomatic missions, including 10 ambassadors, as well as members of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, the Department of Defence, the heads of UN agencies based in South Africa, civil society and scholars.

The delegates of the policy dialogue hosted by the University of Pretoria in partnership with Sweden’s Nordic Africa Institute.

Prof Adekeye Adebajo, a senior research fellow in the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, explains that the focus of the policy dialogue’s deliberations was the African continent, where 85% of 72 000 UN peacekeepers are currently deployed. “We planned to assess how the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council can work with the five permanent members (China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States) to capacitate African regional bodies to strengthen Africa’s security architecture.” A shortcoming that has been identified is that the Council is still functioning according to a structure that was created when it was established in 1945, at the end of World War II. “An important element of our deliberations was therefore to make recommendations to reform the Security Council so that it is more representative of the world of 2022.”

Ten recommendations to reform the Security Council emerged from the policy dialogue:

• The Security Council must be urgently expanded to include countries from the Global South such as South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil and India to make the Council more democratic and representative of the contemporary world.
• The inclusion of a non-aligned bloc within the Security Council can play an important role in balancing the overwhelming dominance of the five veto-wielding permanent members, while building coalitions with other non-permanent Council members.
• One of the three African rotating seats on the Security Council should be reserved for regional powers such as South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Ethiopia to ensure a consistently strong African representation on the Council.
• The working methods of the Security Council must continue to be revised to ensure greater transparency and participation, particularly when it comes to drafting Council decisions.
• The Security Council should establish early warning systems based on best practices over the last three post-Cold War decades, and institutionalise them effectively into the mechanisms of the UN and African regional bodies.
• Regarding the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, the Security Council must address gender hierarchies, values and attitudes. As such, UN agencies should contribute more effectively to a protective, gender-sensitive environment.
• Protection measures by the UN should become more holistic. Mandates to prevent armed actors from committing sexual violence must go beyond advisory services and securitised tactical patrols, armed actors must receive socialisation training, and survivors of rape and abuse must be supported with psycho-social therapy and livelihood development.
• African research institutions, who are closer to conflict situations on the continent, must be given the opportunity to provide more research and information to enrich reports relating to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.
• The link between security and development should continue to be made by implementing the United Nations’ SDGs and strengthening the UN Peacebuilding Commission.
• Debt relief must be provided urgently, particularly to the 22 debt-distressed countries in Africa, by suspending onerous debt payments so that these countries can recover from the triple plagues of conflicts, climate change and COVID-19. Multilateral funds should also be leveraged to ensure the long-term resilience of societies in distress.

According to Prof Adekeye Adebajo, these recommendations will be disseminated to key actors who can influence policy on matters related to conflict management, as well as women, peace and security, including the ambassadors of countries with a presence in Africa, to give them a more informed sense of what is needed to strengthen security on the continent.