HARARE, Jul 20 (NewsDay Live) - Zimbabwe has called on African Union member states to fully fund the continental body from their own resources, arguing that dependence on external funders compromises the continent's ability to make sovereign decisions.
Foreign Affairs minister Amon Murwira made the call this Monday during a virtual sitting of the AU Joint Ministerial Committee on the Scale of Assessment and Contributions and the Committee of Fifteen Ministers of Finance, known as the F15. The meeting was convened to address the AU's persistent financing shortfalls and to consider a new scale of contributions for the 2027 to 2029 period.
"We must fund our union. Ideally, we must fund it fully by ourselves so that we can make sovereign decisions," Murwira suggested.
The AU faces a structural funding crisis that has long undermined its operational capacity. On average, only 67% of assessed contributions are collected annually from member states, with about 30 member states defaulting either partially or completely each year.
Zimbabwe is among the 22 member states that have consistently paid their annual contributions.
The AU's high representative on financing, Donald Kaberuka, has also been calling for the organisation to rely on internal financing mechanisms and African financial institutions rather than external partners.
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