From 21 to 22 June, SRSG to the African Union and Head of UNOAU, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, participated in the 2022 Aswan Forum, under the theme “Africa in an Era of Cascading Risks and Climate Vulnerability: Pathways for a Peaceful, Resilient, and Sustainable Continent”, convened in Cairo under the auspices of the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCC-PA), where the Aswan Forum Secretariat is located. The opening keynote was delivered by the President of Egypt, H.E. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, with the Egyptian Foreign Minister Samey Shoukry in attendance, who, in turn, addressed the Forum’s opening plenary on the theme of ‘cascading challenges’, that are putting to test national capacities, as well as regional and global frameworks, in an unprecedented manner.

Welcome messages were delivered by UN Secretary-General, António Guterres; the President of the Republic of Senegal and AU Chairperson, H.E. Macky Sall; and the Chairperson of the AU Commission (AUC), H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat. The Forum’s panel discussion which focused on “UN-AU Partnership in Peace Operations” was opened by Under Secretary-General (USG) for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who shared his remarks via video message. UNOAU SRSG Parfait Onanga-Anyanga in his intervention as a panelist, underscored the crucial nature of UN-AU cooperation, emphasizing the multiplicity of challenges shaping our times, and engaged with Ambassador William Azumah Awinador-Kanyrige, Senior Advisor on Governance and Peacebuilding, Office of the Commissioner/PAPS on current areas of ongoing UN-AU cooperation on peace support operations across the continent. The attention of all participants focused on Chapter VIII mechanisms and assessed contributions – namely: the question of sustainable financing, with ATMIS up and running in Somalia, while details of financing are still being discussed.

The Forum also focused, among other matters, on “strengthening the climate adaptation and peacebuilding nexus”, noting that “adaptation and development build peace in conflict-prone regions by addressing both the drivers of grievances that lead to conflict and vulnerability to climate change” (6th IPCC, 2022), and on “empowering African Youth voices for a peaceful and climate-resilient future”. “Strengthening the climate adaptation and peacebuilding nexus” will be a core focus of CCC-PA moving toward and beyond the UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) CoP27, scheduled to take place from 6 to 18 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The Aswan Forum sought to bring a broader message on adaptation financing to CoP27, as an African counterweight to an emphasis on mitigation among UNFCCC ‘developed country parties’. UNOAU SRSG Onanga-Anyanga co-hosted along with Ambassador William Azumah Awinador-Kanyrige, a meeting of the participating Africa Youth Ambassadors.