By 2050, one person in four on the planet will live in Africa. President Macky Sall's candidacy for UN Secretary-General draws a question of proportion from that projection. A continent of that weight cannot remain an occasional guest at the tables where the world's order is decided.
The African Union's seat at the G20. In 2023 the African Union became a permanent member of the G20. That place, set in motion during Senegal's chairmanship of the Union in 2022, was won through patient work, file by file, capital by capital. Refused for decades, representation for the continent gave way once it spoke with a single voice.
Africa's weight against its share of decisions. Africa supplies a large share of peacekeepers, accounts for a large share of the Security Council's files, and will soon be home to a quarter of humanity. Its share in the decisions bears no relation to those figures. Without redistributing the seats, the Secretary-General can recall that gap each time a decision is being shaped.
Representation that adds to the others. Better represented, Africa joins the voices already at the table. It brings to shared decisions the vantage of the region that will carry a growing share of the century's population, of its labour as of its resources. The institutions that include it gain in legitimacy.
From the African Union chair to the Secretariat. These commitments on Africa's representation rest on twelve years as head of state and on the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022, the same chairmanship that set the G20 bid in motion. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames them as obligations, among them a renewed multilateralism.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The admission of the African Union to the G20 and the demographic projections of the United Nations are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net