Our Mission Statement

The United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) serves as a key instrument for the United Nations (UN) – African Union (AU) strategic partnership, representing a robust pillar of multilateralism, for achieving the AU’s objective of a peaceful, safe, united, and more prosperous Africa.

As the representative office of the UN to the AU on issues of peace and security on the African continent, UNOAU’s core mission is to further a more systematic, streamlined and structured partnership between the AU and the UN, through implementation of the Joint UN-AU Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security; according to a holistic approach consistent with the quadruple peace and security, development, human rights and humanitarian nexus.

To this end, UNOAU seeks continuous alignment with the AU in advancing this mutually beneficial partnership, which is continuously reviewed and enhanced, as well as to build adequate capacity, with a particular emphasis on: preventing and mediating conflict and sustaining peace; responding to conflict; addressing root causes; promoting the Women and Youth Peace and Security Agendas; and harnessing these efforts towards “Silencing the Guns in Africa”, and realization of Agenda 2063, “The Africa We Want”, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 
 

Our Mandate 

UNOAU, an integrated Office, was created to (a) enhance the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union in the area of peace and security; (b) to provide coordinated and consistent United Nations advice to the African Union on long-term capacity-building and short-term operational support matters; and (c) to streamline the United Nations presence in Addis Ababa to make it cost-effective and efficient in delivering UN assistance to the AU. Read more about the mandate in Resolution 64/288 and the Secretary-General's Report on the budget of the UNOAU A/64/762 (30 April 2010).

19 April 2017, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General and Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission signed the Joint UN-AU Framework for Enhanced  Partnership in Peace and Security, during the first United Nations-African Union Annual Conference, at UN headquarters in New York. This Framework further guides implementation of joint efforts towards peace and security in Africa.

Every year, the Report of the Secretary-General on strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union on issues of peace and security in Africa, including the work of the United Nations Office to the African Union is released. See the latest report (S/2022/643) of 25 August 2022. A full list of relevant documents on implementation of the UN-AU partnership in peace and security in Africa can be found here.