Africa continues to advance and demands investment at scale, justice in global systems, and partnerships grounded in respect, UN Secretary-General Ant¨®nio Guterres said on Tuesday.
The UN chief was speaking at the opening of the Africa Forward Summit, co-hosted in Nairobi by Kenyan President William Ruto and French President Emmanuel Macron.
¡°The name of this Summit captures the moment ¨C and the mission,¡± he said. ¡°Africa is not waiting. Africa is moving. Africa is leading.¡±
Driving debate, finding solutions
Mr. Guterres highlighted how Africa is driving the debate around reforming global financial institutions that were ¡°designed in 1945 for a world that no longer exists.¡±
He credited the continent¡¯s leading role in other areas, including getting the Pact for the Future approved, building new tools for debt negotiations, and challenging credit ratings systems.
African leadership also helped to secure the on expanding lending by multilateral development banks, and alongside small island States, put the climate emergency ¡°at the centre of the global agenda,¡± he added.
¡°This is not a continent waiting for solutions. This is a continent producing them,¡± he said. ¡°But let us be honest about what stands in Africa¡¯s way.¡±
Old injustices persist
The Secretary-General pointed to ¡°a global system designed without Africa ¨C and still largely operating without Africa, perpetuating century-old injustices.¡±
Despite being home to more than 1.5 billion people, Africa has no permanent seats on the UN Security Council and limited decision-making power within the international financial institutions that shape its economy.
¡°It is not Africa that loses. It is the world that loses by the fact that the voice of Africa is not conveniently taken into account,¡± he said.
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