The importance and role of the media to correct injustices and advance human rights cannot be underestimated. At AU Watch we use the power of the media to monitor and report on the activities of the African Union and hold it accountable to the standard of the Constitutive Act and the high ideals it has set for itself.

In the process, we seek to advance a wider understanding of what the AU is, what it does and how it does it. Through our comprehensive media, outreach, education programs and activities, we raise awareness, expand and disseminate information and understanding of AU affairs.

A free and independent media are central to the AU 2063 project. Promoting them is AU Watch’s mission. We think ten years is just about the right amount of time needed to educate all of us on the implications of Agenda 2063 project, and how we can all be part of the dream.

AU Watch ‘2063 Ten-Year Media, Communication and Outreach Project’ is part of the organisation’s Media, Outreach and Education Program (MOEP).  The MOEP has some of the following functions:

• The MOEP is responsible for the coordination of media, outreach and communication activities for the organization. It supervises AU Watch News; AU Watch Online Radio; AU Watch TV; AU Watch Podcast; The Journal of African Studies on the African Union; The State of the Union: Human Rights: The State of the Union: Development; AU Watch Regional Corruption Index Magazine and AU Watch Regional Insecurity Index Magazine.

• To transform AU Watch into a portal or a gateway for information about the AU.. We also provide live streaming and live broadcast for all AU meetings and events. The goal is simple: if you have internet access, you can watch an AU event and follow our expert commentary and analysis, or even take part in our interactive debates.

 KEY OBJECTIVES OF AU WATCH ‘2063 TEN-YEAR MEDIA, COMMUNICATION AND OUTREACH PROJECT’

• The purpose of our Media, Communication and Outreach Directorate’ is just that – to reach out to you. We use the power of media and communication to help individuals and communities understand what the AU is doing and supporting them in understanding and claiming their rights. Our goal is to inform and empower Africans by providing them with current information on just about everything they should know about the AU and its Members. In other words, it’s about raising awareness and educating all of us about the AU, its institutions and its programs.

• To Help the AU and AUMS Deliver Agenda 2063: 2063 marks the centennial anniversary of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), a pan-African organization, replaced in 2002 by the African Union (AU). As plans emerged for the celebration of this seismic event questions remain over the management, competence, efficiency, and integrity of the AU. Its human rights record is not particularly impressive. Its achievements are debatable. But what will Africa look like in 2063? According to the “Email from the future”, the Confederation of African States will have been established in 2051, with integration driven by the African youth. Inter-African trade would have grown to nearly 50% by 2045 (from 12% in 2013) and business would be dominated by Pan-African commercial giants in finance, mining, food and beverages, tourism, pharmaceuticals, fisheries and ICT. In short, Africa would resemble the fabled land of milk and honey so vividly and richly depicted in Judeo-Christian traditions of the Promised Land. That vision is outlined by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, former Chairperson of theAU Commission, in an “an email from the future”, written to a fictional Kwame.

• We offer technical and policy advice and assistance to the AU and AUMS on publicising Agenda 2063, and a host of 2063 projects lined up by the AU and AUMS. We offer the AU a space to engage in public and private dialogue with some of Africa’s most vulnerable communities – people who are often excluded from the decision-making process.

Is it realistic? The last 53 years have seen patchy progress in terms of the promotion and protection of human rights. Should the next ten years be business as usual? Can the next ten years, as a precursor to 2063, be different? Beginning 2020 as a Special Year, let’s make the next ten years special.

Together with you, let’s help to deliver Agenda 2063.

• We use radio, TV, films, social media, newspapers, advertisements, blogs, news and academic journals, web features, op-eds, conferences, workshops, research reports, speaking engagements, and books, to assist the AU and its Member States to deliver Agenda 2063.

• To work with the in-country CSOs and journalists and their professional unions to raise awareness of Agenda 2063.

• To work in partnerships with AUMS, national, regional and international news and media organizations to raise awareness of the issues of Agenda 2063.