Despite all the impressive plans and fine-sounding resolutions, the African Union's long-awaited multi-country rapid-reaction force remains a great idea waiting to be implemented.
The rationale behind such a force - to enable the AU to quickly find African solutions to conflicts and humanitarian crises on the continent - is sound and enjoys broad support.
It must have been galling for Africa's leaders to be reduced to mere spectators as Western powers intervened militarily in Libya to support advancing rebels battling to unseat the hated old dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The continent was again forced to watch as France intervened in Mali, which was in danger of being overrun by militants, some linked to the global terror network al-Qaeda.
It was reported last month that AU commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma confirmed that nine nations - among them South Africa, Chad, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda - had promised to contribute troops to the rapid deployment force, which was ''set up in principle" at a summit last year as a precursor to a permanent standby peacekeeping force.
But imagine what could have been achieved had the unit been established on schedule - a proposed African standby force was initially due to become operational in 2008.
Surely we would not be having to contend today with the fallout of a devastating religious conflict in the Central African Republic or virtual civil war in the world's newest nation, South Sudan. And surely France would not once again be holding the line in the CAR while the UN and AU devise plans to beef up a (mainly African) peacekeeping force there.
Make no mistake, peacekeeping costs a fortune - tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of rands a year would be required to finance the rapid-response force and powerful UN member states would have to be tapped for the funding.
But, as Dlamini-Zuma noted last month, in responding to crises "it costs us much more the longer we wait ... If there could be a quick response maybe we could save lives."
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