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The Organisation of African Unity: A Progress Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

John Markakis
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Extract

The Organisation of African Unity is now three years old. In view of the nature of both its scope and its goals, it would obviously be premature to attempt an evaluation of this organisation at such an early stage. On the other hand, the O.A.U. has grown precociously since its birth in May 1963, and the time is ripe for a description of its rapidly multiplying organs, and for some preliminary observations of the multifarious activity in which they have been engaged. To state that the O.A.U. is still in the cradle stage of its development is to emphasise the obvious. It is hardly surprising also that it should suffer the pains of growth, which are likely to be rather severe in the case of a scheme so ambitiously conceived. These facts must be kept in mind while reviewing the O.A.U. at its present state of development.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , October 1966 , pp. 135 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

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References

Page 136 note 1 The O.A.U. Council of Ministers—Nairobi, February 1965—approved an increase in the budget of the Secretariat providing for a staff of 250, two-thirds of whom are to be employed at the headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Page 136 note 2 ‘Functions and Regulations of the General Secretariat’, adopted by the Council of Ministers at its First Session, held in Dakar, Senegal, from 2 to 11 August 1963. Basic Documents of the Organisation of African Unity (Addis Ababa, 05 1963), pp. 51–8.Google Scholar

Page 137 note 1 The budget is submitted for the approval of the Council, and then communicated by the Secretary-General to the member states. The Secretary-General, who is also the Accounting Officer of the O.A.U., is responsible for the administration of the budget and all financial affairs of the Organisation.

Page 138 note 1 Diallo Telli of Guinea was appointed Administrative Secretary-General of the O.A.U. in July 1964. Until that time he had served provisionally in the same capacity.

Page 139 note 1 The Commissions' rules of procedure, resolutions, and a summary of the discussions during their first session, are printed by the O.A.U. Secretariat under the title Proceedings and Report of the… Commission (Addis Ababa, 01 1964)Google Scholar. Each Commission report is separately bound.

Page 139 note 2 For example, the Economic and Social Commission included among its future concerns the following topics: a free trade area in Africa; a joint external tariff; a common fund for the stabilisation of prices of primary products; the restructuring of international trade; the development of intra-African trade; the co-ordination of the means of transportation; an African payments and clearing union; an all-African monetary area; the harmonisation of national development schemes; the study of social and labour problems; the improvement of social conditions; exchanges in the field of social and labour legislation; the setting up of an African youth organisation, an African trade union movement, and an African telecommunications union.

Page 140 note 1 These included the following: to provide facilities for all African trade union organisations to attend a joint meeting under O.A.U. auspices, to carry out a survey of existing technical and vocational training institutions in Africa, and to arrange for the exchange of specialists and technicians in the field of vocational training; to arrange for missions to be sent to different parts of Africa to study the various systems of vocational training; to carry out a survey of social and labour legislation; to exchange such information with the member states, and make arrangements for African experts to study measures aimed at African economic integration; to complete studies already under way with regard to the co-ordination of national plans on economic development; and to collect all information relevant to the manner in which O.A.U. members observe the trade boycott against South Africa.

Page 145 note 1 The O.A.U. Charter states that the Council of Ministers (a) shall be responsible to the Assembly, and (b) shall take cognisance of any matter referred to it by the Assembly, and shall be entrusted with the implementation of the decisions of the Assembly. (Article 13.) The functions of the Council, as defined in its rules of procedure, are the following: (a) it is charged with the preparation of the Assembly; (b) it takes cognisance of any question referred to it by the Assembly; (c) it implements inter-African co-operation, in accordance with the directives of the Assembly; (d) the budget of the Organisation prepared by the Secretary-General shall be submitted, for scrutiny and approval, by the Council; and (e) the functions of the Specialised Commissions shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Charter and of the regulations approved by the Council.

Page 149 note 1 The Ethiopian Herald (Addis Ababa), 19 12 1965.Google Scholar

Page 149 note 2 The functions of the Assembly are defined as follows: (a) to discuss matters of common concern; (b) to co-ordinate and harmonise the general policy of the organisation; (c) to review the structure, functions, and acts of all other organs of the organisation; (d) to establish any specialised agencies that may be deemed necessary as provided by the Charter; and (e) to interpret and amend the Charter.

Page 150 note 1 These included the adoption of its rules of procedure, the election of the Secretary-General and Assistant Secretaries-General, the choice of site for the organisation's headquarters, and the approval of the budget. The Council heard (a) reports from the Specialised Commissions, the Liberation Committee, and the ad hoc Commission on the Algerian-Moroccan border dispute; (b) reports from the Ethiopian, Kenyan, and Somali Governments on their own border troubles; and (c) the report of the Secretary-General. The recommendations and resolutions of all the preceding meetings of the Council of Ministers were reviewed and adopted; and the Council established the two new Commissions—of Jurists, and Transport and Communications—in addition to adopting the protocol of the Commission of Mediation, Conciliation, and Arbitration.