Building on the Secretary-General’s commitment to strengthen cooperation between the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU), Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission, H.E. Dr. Monique Nsanzabaganwa, and UN Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support, Mr. Atul Khare, signed two agreements to further deepen their operational support partnership. 

The agreements, which were the result of collaborative efforts between UNOAU and the AUC, were signed during a ceremony held at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, include a Memorandum of Intent Concerning Cooperation in Operational Support and a Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Implementation of the Knowledge and Expertise Exchange Programme (KEEP).

Dr. Nsanzabaganwa and Mr. Khare welcomed the finalization of these two agreements and expressed their appreciation for the extensive collaboration between experts from the two organizations that led to this milestone. During the ceremony, Dr. Nsanzabaganwa stated that “The motivation for this undertaking continues to be the institutional reforms at the UN and the AU. To attain our shared goals and vision as embodied in the AU’s Agenda 2063 and UN’s Agenda 2030, an active platform for sharing lessons and building on our comparative advantages remains a fundamental aspect to strengthen our complementarity on operational support matters.”

On his part, Mr. Khare noted that “The finalization of these agreements is testimony to our joint commitment to strengthen our collaboration in pursuit of common objectives on operational support matters and to deepen expertise in areas of mutual interest. Our collective hard work has culminated in these framework agreements that support our institutional collaboration and build on our operational experience in contexts such as Somalia.”

The objective of these agreements, which were developed by the Department of Operational Support (DOS) Support Partnerships Service in collaboration with the AU Commission, is to deepen operational collaboration between both Organizations in areas such as supply chain management; communication and information technology; and environmental management, and to position the UN to serve as both a partner and a service provider to the AU.