Why a new global order resonates with Africans

THE 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN) in New York highlighted the extent of global insecurity and fractures in the international system.

- GIDEON CHITANGA

Leaders of African nations seized the moment to register their discontent with the skewed international system.

There was a broad consensus on the legitimacy and relevance of the UN, except for the President of the US, Donald Trump, whose speech largely dismissed the significant role of the UN in international affairs. However, African leaders strongly support the reform of the UN, demanding inclusivity, equal representation, and participation.

President Ruto of Kenya unambiguously led the African case for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC), demanding at least two permanent seats with full rights - including the power to veto, to ensure the voice of Africa is heard. Africa dominates much of the Security Council's agenda and provides some of the largest peacekeeping contingents. Africa bears the heaviest costs of instability, yet remains the only continent without a permanent seat at the main table."

The UN, as with many of the postWorld War II power arrangements, must reflect today's realities if they are to remain relevant in this century, or it will be rendered dead. China, France, the Russian Federation, the UK, and the US, the five countries with permanent seats at the UNSC, all agree that it is time to include the African countries, but the process has been excruciatingly slow.

But it's not only the UN where Africa has been totally marginalised, and its agency undermined, if not ignored. Successive leaders from the continent have consistently called for the reform, even rethinking of a multilateral system that has been historically skewed in favour of the West. This includes such institutions as the World Bank (WB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are structurally exclusionary and often quite oblivious to the historical sociopolitical conditions facing the African continent.