The United States of America’s (US) retreat from multilateralism has put the financing of multinational peacekeeping to the test. This is most vivid in the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2719 – a hard-won measure meant to address chronic funding shortfalls for African missions. It remains unimplemented two years after adoption.

With terrorism and other forms of armed conflict ravaging populations, economies and infrastructure in Africa, this implementation bottleneck must be cleared urgently.

UNSCR 2719, passed unanimously in December 2023, created a hybrid funding model for African Union (AU)-led peace support operations (PSOs). It permits up to 75% of costs to come from UN-assessed contributions on a case-by-case basis, with the remainder to be mobilised jointly by the AU and UN. This set-up demands joint planning, adherence to international humanitarian law and human rights standards, and Security Council authorisation.

It builds on decades of lessons learnt from experiences of African peace missions and policy advocacy for reliable funding. The AU and sub-regional actors have deployed 38 PSOs. The lack of reliable funding cuts across all its missions – from earlier Organisation of African Unity attempts to more recent AU missions.

Various policy efforts have been underway to address this chronic challenge. In 2008, the report of the AU-UN panel on modalities for support to AU peacekeeping operations recommended two new financial mechanisms for AU-led PSOs. The first was based on UN-assessed funding and the second on a voluntary-funded multi-donor trust fund.

This was reaffirmed, including in the 2017 UN-AU Joint Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security, where the organisations expressed willingness to consider options to secure predictable funding for AU-led PSOs, easing reliance on ad hoc donor support.

The UN Secretary-General’s report on financing AU PSOs and the AU’s consensus paper on financing AU peace and security activities both reasserted the need for predictable, adequate and sustainable funding for AU PSOs through UN-assessed contributions.

However, three main obstacles persist in blocking its implementation: UNSC internal political barriers, the UN’s liquidity crisis caused by member states failing to pay their mandatory assessed contributions in full and on time, and delays in implementing the AU-UN roadmap for operationalising the resolution.

The lack of US political backing is the biggest challenge, evident in the failed attempt to apply the resolution to the AU Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM). Near-universal support among council members to activate the resolution to the already struggling mission collapsed against US opposition.

The US stated that the proposed ‘hybrid model’ to fund both the UN Support Office in Somalia and AUSSOM would mean UN contributions exceeding 75%. This shows that the resolution is vulnerable to the interests and political will of key UNSC members.

The UN’s current financial strains add another layer of difficulty. Entering 2025, the organisation faced a US$135 million shortfall in peacekeeping assessments, with arrears topping US$760-million – primarily from major contributors like the US.

By late 2025, unpaid dues had climbed to nearly US$1.6-billion, prompting Secretary-General António Guterres to propose a 15% cut to the 2026 peacekeeping budget in November, which would eliminate over 18% of jobs.