Africa must demand action, not promises, during UN General Assembly

President William Ruto going through his speech that will be read at the 81st General Assembly.[ PCS]

As African heads of state join world leaders in New York for the high-level debate of the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly, citizens across Africa share a familiar scepticism.

From Cairo to Cape Town, Dakar to Nairobi, Africans have watched decades of global summitry turn into exercises in high-minded rhetoric. Foreign leaders repeatedly praise our vibrant demographic potential, our vast youth energy, and our critical mineral reserves powering the global energy transition.

Yet, once motorcades at the summit disperse, these grand declarations dissolve into unfulfilled pledges. Africa remains perpetually over-discussed on international platforms yet severely excluded from the tables where binding economic and political decisions are made.

​The historical gap between foreign promises and African reality is starkly visible across our communities. On climate change, despite contributing less than four per cent of the overall global greenhouse gas emissions, our farmers, pastoralists, and urban centres bear the heaviest burdens of unpredictable weather, from devastating floods in West Africa to severe droughts in the Horn of Africa.

Long-promised climate finance pledges remain unfulfilled, often arriving as high-interest loans that push our governments deeper into debt rather than non-repayable grants. Meanwhile, the outdated international financial architecture imposes an unjust poverty premium, forcing African nations to pay exorbitant interest rates compared to Western economies. On security, while the UN Security Council devotes nearly half its agenda to African conflicts, not a single African nation holds a permanent seat with veto authority.

​To ensure UNGA 81 marks a true structural turning point, African delegations must abandon passive diplomacy and present a unified, uncompromising agenda centered on critical priorities. First, our leaders must demand an immediate overhaul of the multilateral financial architecture, insisting on the direct re-channeling of IMF Special Drawing Rights through the African Development Bank to unlock affordable capital for infrastructure without crushing debt.

Second, Africa must enforce genuine governance reform in global institutions, demanding at least two permanent security seats based on the Ezulwini Consensus. Third, our governments must leverage critical minerals, such as cobalt, lithium, and platinum, to rewrite trade terms by mandating local in-continent processing and technology transfer before export.

​Ultimately, breaking this cycle of broken promises requires deep solidarity. By leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area as a single bloc of 1.4 billion people, our continent can negotiate from collective leverage and claim its rightful place in global decision-making.