BEHIND the improved front of house, hard work lies ahead at the African Union (AU).
When it came to front-of-house matters, the first AU summit held under Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was being declared a qualified success in Addis Ababa on Sunday.
Words such as punctuality, presentation and professionalism were on numerous lips inside the glass-sided, Chinese-built headquarters of the pan-African body. There was a critical and chronic shortage of food and drinks, as there had been in the preceding days of preparatory talks between ministers, but other logistics were running pretty well, delegates said.
Speeches, briefings, press conferences and the internet — all vital to the declared commitment to greater transparency in the AU — all got pass marks.
They are the sort of areas where Ms Dlamini-Zuma and her team have placed emphasis since she took over as chairwoman of the AU Commission — the organisation’s 700-strong back office — in mid-October.
"The new administration has invigorated the commission," said Irungu Houghton, Pan-Africa director of Oxfam, speaking at his 16th summit.
"The staff seem more motivated and are clear about the mandate of the commission. These are all good things."
Ms Dlamini-Zuma passed the 100-day mark in office just before the January 27-28 summit but there was no fanfare, and in fact the minor milestone did not seem to have been officially recorded at all.
Perhaps there was concern not to pick at old sores — her election in July was a bloody one, splitting the AU’s 54 members virtually in two.
The man the former home affairs minister ousted, Gabon’s Jean Ping, was absent from the conference on Sunday when awards for services rendered to Africa were being handed out.
There was some sniping from President Boni Yayi of Benin, the outgoing chairman of the AU.
In his farewell speech at the opening of the summit he decried the institutional relationship between the AU, its commission and its Peace and Security Council as "dysfunctional".
He did not elaborate but diplomats thought he was referring to the tricky power balance between the head of the large commission and the rotating chair of the AU; if the latter position is held by the president of a small, weak or undemocratic country — as has been the case for the past few years — the person in charge of the commission can push around his or her titular boss. Mr Yayi suggested that it was time to review these arrangements.
Ethiopia, the next AU chair, for the 50th anniversary year of the pan-African body, will be a different proposition. Even though Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is new in his job, having succeeded the late Meles Zenawi in August, he heads one of Africa’s most populous nations with large and efficient armed forces.
Ms Dlamini-Zuma set out her stall as soon as she took over.
"She certainly has set out her priorities and those appear to be very much oriented towards developmental orientation and internally towards rebuilding the operation," said Jakkie Cilliers, executive director of the Institute for Security Studies.
"She seems to be sticking to her guns there, trying to re-balance the AU away from a pure focus on peace and security issues," said the head of the Pretoria-based think-tank, which has an expanding branch in the Ethiopian capital because of the AU’s presence.
But conflict is showing no sign of receding in several parts of Africa despite economic progress in most countries. The crisis in Mali, rebellions in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, and military tension in Sudan were almost dominating talk at the summit, mainly because the international community will have to pay most of the prodigious cost of bringing them under control.
France has already had to deploy its military strength to halt the advance of Islamic rebels in Mali, its former colony, because Africa’s military response has been so slow.
Ms Dlamini-Zuma, an African National Congress activist since she was a teenager, certainly has no desire for former colonial powers to wield their power on the continent Africa. But she finally expressed the AU’s gratitude to France this week.
In his speech, the Beninese president went much further, expressing his "profound gratitude" to French President Francois Hollande for his "leadership and vision" about Mali and saying he was speaking for the whole of Africa. The episode has highlighted one of the differences between English and French-speaking African states.
Like it or not, military matters will take up much of Ms Dlamini-Zuma’s time. "As Africa develops … instability is going to remain with us and we have a real challenge in the Sahel and West Africa with the whole al-Qaeda type issue. She’s going to struggle but that is what a leader is all about," Mr Cilliers said.
Mr Houghton had some advice for Ms Dlamini-Zuma.
"Oxfam would encourage her to focus on strengthening outreach to the African public. In one survey, only 30% of African people thought that the AU was helpful to their countries."
Some things never change at AU summits. The number of presidents and heads of government in attendance in Addis Ababa was not announced. It never is, as though the figure was of no importance when it is probably more relevant than most.
And, as usual, the price of hotel rooms in the capital during summit week was dramatically increased — by 250%, in some cases. No one in the AU leadership or the Ethiopian government thinks that is worth mentioning.
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