Human rights, expanded agriculture and the inclusion of young people in governance are some of the priorities laid out as the Africa Union Commission (AUC) prepares for a change of guard.

Five candidates are vying for the post of AU Commission chair that will be vacated by South African politician and academic, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Senegal’s Abdoulaye Bathily, former UN special envoy for Central Africa, Botswana’s Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, Chad’s Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat, Equatorial Guinea’s Foreign Minister Agapito Mba Mokuy, and Kenya’s Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed are the candidates.

Initially, the position of AUC chairperson was supposed to be contested in Kigali in June last year, but none of the candidates garnered the required votes to be elected.

As a result Dlamini-Zuma, who declined a second four-year term, agreed to stay on until January. The elections will now be held during the ongoing 28th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Bathabile Dlamini, the president of the African National Congress Women’s League, praised Dlamini-Zuma for “making South Africa proud”. She said Dlamini-Zuma would be welcomed back in South Africa, where she should play an “active role”.

Dlamini-Zuma was the first woman to lead the AUC, which is the administrative body of the African Union. She took over from Jean Ping of Gabon in October 2012.

Amnesty International’s Africa Director for Research and Advocacy, Netsanet Belay, this week said: “The incoming chairperson must make the promotion and protection of human rights not just a convenient afterthought, but an essential and sustainable element of the African Union’s conflict prevention strategy.”

The other priorities, including agriculture expansion, empowerment of women, investment in young people and their participation in governance were set by relevant commissions at the AUC.