The African Union celebrated its 20th anniversary this month at a gathering in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where the heads of most of the 55 member states patted themselves on the back for the organization’s “achievements.”

The AU was formed in 2002 to replace the Organisation of African Unity, a body that had abysmally failed to uphold its founding principles and meet its objectives, notably the promotion of democracy, peace and security on the continent.

In fairness, the AU got off on the right note. Unlike its predecessor, it did not hesitate to send in forcesassembled from its member states’ militaries to resolve civil wars and other conflicts. Its first notable intervention was in 2004, when AU troops went into Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur — perhaps the first time in Africa’s modern history that a regional force had stopped a civil war. It followed up with another mission to end jihadist violence in Somalia. Its robust policy against coups also meant that, after a long time, Africa was almost entirely free of any transfer of power through force.

Thus, in its early years, the AU did manage to bring a semblance of peace and calm to the continent, which allowed leaders to focus on other challenges, notably economic development, health and climate change. One of the AU’s most notable achievements was the African Continental Free Trade Area, which came into effect in 2021 and envisages the formation of the world’s largest free trade area, encompassing 1.2 billion people in 55 countries. It was inspired by the EU model, and African leaders rightly hope that allowing free movement of goods, services and people across national borders will ramp up their economic growth and collective might.

True integration along EU lines has begun to make so much more sense for Africa in the post-pandemic word, as many of its countries were among the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, in areas from the economy to health, malnutrition and poverty. On top of that, Africa has been facing some of the worst effects of climate change, even though almost all African nations are low down on the global list of per capita carbon emitters. Some of the worst consequences are severe droughts from the Sahel to the southern tip of the continent, Cape Town in South Africa. Over 100 million Africans already face a severe food crisis, and this number will only rise.