- IGAD Treaty Clears Ratification Threshold as Bloc Moves on AI, Red Sea Security and Funding Reform
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development has crossed the ratification threshold required for its new founding treaty, opening the way for a broader institutional overhaul as the Horn of Africa bloc simultaneously moves to strengthen artificial intelligence capabilities, Red Sea maritime security and its strained financing model.
Foreign ministers and senior representatives meeting at IGAD’s 74th Extraordinary Council of Ministers session in Djibouti on September 15 endorsed the formal entry into force of the 2023 Treaty after five member states, Djibouti, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia, ratified and deposited their instruments, meeting the two-thirds threshold identified in the Council communiqué.
The Council directed the Secretariat to proceed with the institutional, legal and administrative measures required to operationalise the treaty, including formally notifying member states of its effective date, transmitting certified copies and completing registration with the United Nations and communication to the African Union.
The development is the most significant institutional change at IGAD since the 1996 agreement establishing the organisation. The new treaty was adopted by heads of state in 2023 as part of an effort to create a more rule-based and predictable regional body with a wider legal foundation for cooperation in peace, security, trade and development.
IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu told ministers that five of the bloc’s seven member states had secured the ratifications required, describing the treaty as the organisation’s constitutional foundation as it enters a new institutional phase.
But the Council’s decisions also showed that stronger legal architecture alone will not resolve the region’s increasingly interconnected economic and security challenges.
One of the most forward-looking decisions was the endorsement, in principle, of an IGAD Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence, which ministers described as a flagship initiative intended to promote African ownership of the region’s technological future.
Member states interested in hosting the proposed centre are expected to express their interest at the next Ordinary Session of the Council. The decision remains preliminary, with the centre still requiring further consideration before establishment.
The proposal follows wider IGAD work on a regional AI framework and strategy and reflects growing concern that African economies risk becoming consumers rather than developers of technologies increasingly shaping agriculture, public administration, financial services, healthcare and security. IGAD began stakeholder consultations on a regional AI framework earlier this month.
For East and Horn of Africa economies, the challenge will extend beyond establishing a centre. Building meaningful AI capacity will require computing infrastructure, reliable electricity, connectivity, data governance, specialised skills and investment capable of turning research into commercially useful applications.
The institutional overhaul is unfolding alongside sharper concern over the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, where conflict, strategic competition, piracy and threats to commercial shipping have raised the economic stakes for countries heavily dependent on maritime trade.
IGAD said geopolitical and security shifts along the corridor, including increased external military engagement and instability along the littoral, directly affect the security and economic interests of its member states. Ministers instructed the Secretariat to strengthen maritime governance, cooperation and coordination to protect the safety and freedom of navigation.
The economic consequences extend beyond the coastal states. IGAD said wars and conflicts outside the region, including those in Ukraine, Gaza and the wider Middle East, were already being transmitted through disrupted shipping, higher fuel and food prices and declining humanitarian financing.
Any sustained disruption through the Red Sea can raise freight and insurance costs and lengthen supply chains, feeding into inflation and foreign-exchange pressures across import-dependent economies.
The Council also confronted weaknesses in IGAD’s own finances. Member states with outstanding assessed contributions were given one year to clear their arrears through quarterly payments, while continuing to honour commitments towards construction of the organisation’s new headquarters. Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya were identified as carrying no arrears.
The headquarters itself has become a test of collective financial responsibility. An earlier decision required each member state to contribute US$2 million towards construction, while the Secretariat was authorised to mobilise additional financing, including bank loans. The Council has now confirmed collective responsibility for servicing obligations contracted for the project according to the scale of assessed contributions.
Ministers also instructed the Secretariat to diversify IGAD’s funding sources beyond member-state contributions and development-partner support, subject to approval by its policy organs.
The financial pressure comes as the organisation faces a worsening humanitarian burden.
IGAD estimates that around 49 million people across the region face acute food insecurity and more than 19 million are internally displaced. Sudan remains the most severe case, with almost 19.5 million people facing crisis levels of hunger, around nine million displaced and an estimated 825,000 children under five expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition in 2026.
The Council again called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sudan and backed a Sudanese-led political process, while supporting continued engagement in South Sudan ahead of elections scheduled for December 2026.
It also ordered preparations for a high-level regional El Niño meeting, after IGAD’s climate centre forecast wetter-than-normal conditions for October to December and identified flooding as one of the region’s major looming hazards.
The significance of the new treaty will therefore ultimately depend on implementation.
IGAD now has a stronger legal foundation, an ambition to develop regional AI capacity and fresh mandates covering maritime security and institutional financing. But those ambitions arrive as conflict, climate shocks, fiscal constraints and declining humanitarian resources place increasingly heavy demands on the organisation.
Crossing the treaty’s ratification threshold gives the Horn of Africa bloc a new institutional framework. The harder test will be whether stronger regional rules can translate into collective action and whether member states are prepared to provide the political and financial resources required to make the new framework work.
