GCSD: S.W.O.T analysis of security funding policy in Africa and its impacts in the Sahel

The European Union has recently introduced European Peace Facility, partially replacing African Peace Facility and restructuring its peace and security operations funding policy in Africa for the past sixteen years. Before the European Peace Facility, the European Union had financially supported CSDP-related initiatives in the Sahel by using African Peace Facility as a distributing tool to allocate funds to the African Union. The latter then managed the allocation in the Sahel. The recent European Peace Facility enables the European Union to bypass the African Union and allocate its funds directly to national or regional security initiatives in the Sahel. The European Peace Facility also allows the European Union to provide national armies in the Sahel with the necessary funding to purchase adequate weaponry. The new initiative grants the European Union more agility. However, given the previous military experience in the Sahel and the current unstable security context, including two coups in Mali and Burkina-Faso and terrorism-related threats in the Lake Chad Basin, Niger, and Nigeria, a concise political plan is a must to build the resilience of these vulnerable countries. The following paper supports the oversight function of the African Union, which can give the European Union additional safeguards to make sure the resources are efficiently-spent. S.W.O.T analysis of the new funding policy advocates maintaining the African Union’s oversight role, conducting regular risk assessments, and developing monitoring protocols to prevent regimes that suffer from terrorism and violent extremism from gaining access to deadly weaponry.