Fresh push for changes in multilateral system
NDAMU SANDU IN DAKAR, SENEGAL
The African Union has called on Africa’s development partners to agree to a renegotiation of the terms of the current multilateral system in light of shocks dealt to the global economy by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The call by AU chairman and Senegal President Macky Sall comes as Africa has taken a battering from the twin evils amid fears its recovery will take time.
A recent report by the Economic Commission for Africa showed that the Covid-19 pandemic pushed 55m Africans into poverty and reversed more than two decades of poverty reduction on the continent.
Speaking at a high-level Ministerial Dialogue at the 54th Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Dakar, Senegal, Sall said the effects of the war is forcing Africa to speak with one voice.
“Although the war affects the globe, it has unique consequences for Africa. We are now forced as a continent to speak up and call for changes in the global system. Thankfully, these days, everybody seems to concur that the international system needs restructuring,” he said.
Sall said it was in the global interest that low-income countries become resilient to shocks, thus financing Africa’s recovery should be seen in this vein.
UNCTAD secretary general Rebeca Grynspan said the AU should have a permanent seat in the G20
“because we need the voice of Africa to really change the things we are in right now”.
She said the world had gone through shocks with the Ukraine war compounding the crisis.
“Those are shocks that don’t derive from bad behaviour from the countries. There’s nothing we have done wrong but it is something that is affecting our economies very badly,” Grynspan.
She said the prices of food and energy have done up due to the war in Ukraine calling for international support.
“The international financial system is built around country by country. It is built by the IMF, World Bank to help countries in a specific situation. But this is not a country by country problem,” Grynspan said.
“This is a global problem, we need global instruments to be able to tackle this crisis.”
“That is why the secretary general of the. United Nations secretary general [Antonio Guterres] has put a global crisis group to tackle the problems countries are facing.
“The good news is that we can do it, the world has the instruments, has an emergency window which it can use to give liquidity without conditions to help on the debt relief and restructuring.”
ECA’s Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, expressed hope that in restructuring of the multilateral system, Africa “becomes a continent that actively contributes in designing global solutions.”
The annual Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is the ECA’s largest annual event and provides an opportunity for participants to debate key issues on Africa’s development, and to discuss the think tank’s performance in delivering on its mandate.
