“Being systematically invited is no longer enough… First, a seat allocated to a collective organization would not be incongruous, the G20 being in fact made up of nineteen countries plus the European Union. Secondly, it would be less a favor than a geopolitical evidence providing legitimacy and authority.” It is in these terms that Macky Sall, former president of the African Union, pleaded Africa's cause for an official seat in the G20. With more than 15% of the 8 billion people who make up the world's population, Africa could hardly be satisfied with this status of “eternal guest” and the only South Africa in the G20. Now that membership is in place, what will change? “The entry of the African Union into the G20 will give a voice and visibility to Africa, the continent which today shows the fastest growth,
But this membership comes in a global context marked by the harmful effects of climate change which imposes a radical change in the use of energy.
Reviewing the global financial system
If for the industrialized countries the question is less complicated, for the countries which bet enormously on the exploitation of hydrocarbons, the shift is more difficult to initiate. A complex subject that the participation of the African Union in the G20 should help to better put on the table. Today, to finance this energy transition, developing countries seem left to their own devices. For good reason, to support them, developed countries had pledged to provide 100 billion dollars a year in climate finance. An envelope which is slow to be disbursed, while the climate issue becomes more and more pressing.
Beyond issues related to food insecurity, climate change, energy transition… this membership should allow Africa to ask crucial questions related in particular to the financing of economies. The Indian Prime Minister did not fail to emphasize this and challenge the Bretton Woods institutions. For Narendra Modi, this integration should enable the continent to be better represented, but above all to influence the evolution of the global financial system, of which he is calling for urgent reforms, in particular from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which still obliges African countries to pay more than others to borrow money, thus worsening their debt.
Today, even if there is still a way to go, an important step has been taken, at least in advocacy. On his Twitter account, the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat indicated that “this membership for which we have mobilized will provide a favorable framework to amplify advocacy in favor of the continent and for its effective contribution to meeting the World challenges”. Even if progress is real, Africa will still have to wait on several equally crucial issues. The crisis between Russia and Ukraine has only been weakly adopted while it continues to have real impacts on African economies, given their dependence on cereals from these two countries. South African President Ramaphosa did not fail to recall that “developing economies are the first to be affected by climate change, while they are the least responsible for this crisis”. So many challenges and issues which, in one way or another, will have to be put on the table. And Africa will be able to rely on its own voice.
Source: Africa News Agency