The African Development Bank (AfDB), which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, intends to play its part in advancing the cause of reforming the global financial architecture so that Africa’s needs are taken more fully into account. At the heart of the African financial institution’s recent Annual Meetings held in Nairobi in May 2024, a crucial theme emerged: the urgent need to reform the global financial architecture. The passionate discussions and debates among global financial players highlighted the pressing challenges that require concerted action.
The recent global economic and financial crisis has highlighted the inadequacies and inconsistencies of the current financial structure. Systemic weaknesses, market volatility and growing disparities between developed and developing economies have underlined the urgent need for far-reaching and balanced reform. At the AfDB conference, experts and policymakers gathered in Nairobi, Kenya , agreed on the need for immediate action to reform the global financial architecture.
“It seems to me to be more urgent to work on a far-reaching reform of international governance in order to propose and adopt relevant solutions for countries faced with the problems of sovereign ratings, excessive debt, the effects of climate change, tax evasion and illicit flows, the strengthening of multilateral banks, and so on. To defend Africa’s interests in these areas, it seems logical to me to invite all the African financial institutions present here today, and even those that are not present, to support the African Union in these shifts in global economic and financial balance.”
Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission – Chad
Faced simultaneously with an unprecedented increase in poverty and inequality, historic debt and climatic and health disasters, African countries have a right to expect their voices to be heard and their needs to be met.
‘We see that there are enormous resources in this world, but they are fairly distributed, so Africa needs to rethink its approach. We know that in this global context, countries work for their own interests. Africa’s interests and those of the countries on our continent must be taken into account, starting with ourselves. We often speak with one voice, but that voice has to be strong, clear and effective for that to happen. ‘
Paul Kagame, President of the Republic – Rwanda
Calls were made for greater financial transparency, more effective regulatory mechanisms and closer cooperation between international financial institutions.
‘I am thinking in particular of the thorny issue of reforming the Bretton Woods institutions, reforming debt mechanisms, financing climate change and the international tax system, particularly with regard to the developments underway to adopt a United Nations framework convention on international tax cooperation.“
Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairman of the African Union Commission – Chad
Faced with all the challenges of a continent that should achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and for which the annual financing needs amount to 194 billion dollars per year according to the OECD, the AfDB is committed to playing a leading role in this reform process. Concrete initiatives, such as strategic partnerships with other regional and international financial institutions, have been announced to strengthen the global financial architecture and promote global economic stability.
