diff --git a/source/configure.ac b/source/configure.ac
index d194c6d..33fcb2f 100644
--- a/source/configure.ac
+++ b/source/configure.ac
@@ -208,6 +208,8 @@ fi
 #AC_CHECK_PROG(AUTOCONF, autoconf, autoconf, true)
 #AC_CHECK_PROG(STRIP, strip, strip, true)
 
+m4_ifndef([AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG], [AC_MSG_ERROR(['autoconf-archive' is missing])])
+
 # TODO(ICU-20301): Remove fallback to Python 2.
 AC_CHECK_PROGS(PYTHON, python3 "py -3" python "py")
 AC_SUBST(PYTHON)