Making multilateralism work for Africa

The argument for a greater African role in global governance is gaining ground. Growing receptivity to the need to address imbalances in the post-1945 multilateral order is driven by challenges to that order and successful advocacy from Africa. But current geopolitical tensions make the signature initiative (temporarily) inaccessible: an African UNSC Seat(s).

In this era of increasing global scale crisis, indeed poly-crisis – crisis that cascade and build on one other – the crisis response we need requires multilateral institutions to work together in new ways.

For example, the Food Security Crisis touches upon Debt (IMF, G20, Private Sector and China), the UN’s humanitarian agencies (WFP), the UN’s good offices in the Black Sea Grain Negotiation, and then individual Member State and Regional Multilateral initiative such as France’s FARM, and the EU’s efforts.

Complex humanitarian emergencies demanding cross-cutting approaches are not new. But what is new is the global scale of poly-crisis. The implication, for one, is that rather than crafting a multi-pronged UN led intervention responding to complex emergency in country X, the response now requires a multi-pronged approach at the global level. Second, the Bretton Woods institutions required, such as the IMF, are not under the UN’s coordination. Meaning the UN is not the natural supranational coordinator but rather is one of multiple actors.

Given the geopolitical constraints, but also urgency to address the imbalance in Multilateral Governance, Africa and the UNSC as well as networking the wider Multilateral System merit exploration in the short term.

This event takes place in the context of the 10th Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa (tanaforum.org).