Global institutions must give Africa a greater role in shaping international decisions if they are to restore public confidence in multilateralism, a senior United Nations official said today, as falling development aid and demands for reform intensify pressure on the international system.
Ahunna Eziakonwa, United Nations under-secretary-general and special adviser to the secretary-general, made the remarks at a leadership meeting in Nairobi ahead of the inaugural Trust Summit, scheduled for October 21-23.
She called for international institutions to treat African countries as partners in designing global policies rather than recipients of decisions made elsewhere, while urging African governments to improve accountability and deliver on commitments to their citizens.
“Africa is not asking for a seat at someone else’s table anymore. Africa is a co-architect of a system that is renewed, and not only repaired,” Eziakonwa said. “The starting point for trust is to treat Africa as a shaper of our common future, and not as a recipient of global change.”
The appeal comes as developing countries face mounting pressure over access to finance, debt-servicing costs and their influence over institutions that shape international economic and political rules.
Official development assistance from members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee fell 23.1% in 2025 to $174.3 billion, its largest annual contraction on record, according to the OECD. Aid to sub-Saharan Africa fell 26.3%, while contributions to the United Nations system declined 27%.
The reductions have sharpened concerns about the reliability of international financing commitments at a time when many developing countries face significant demands for investment in healthcare, education, infrastructure and climate resilience.
African governments have also pressed for changes to the United Nations Security Council, where the continent has no permanent seat despite its 54 member states in the United Nations. The African Union has called for at least two permanent African seats with full privileges, including veto rights, as part of broader Security Council reform discussions.
Eziakonwa said restoring confidence required institutions to demonstrate that their decisions reflected the interests of the people affected by them. She also called on African leaders to strengthen domestic accountability and show measurable progress in areas such as agriculture, education and public services.
“Trust is not rebuilt by grand declaration. It’s rebuilt by commitment, one commitment after another, each with a named owner, a timeline, and a date on which we report back,” she said. “That is what the Nairobi Call to Action and its framework for action are designed to do.”
The Nairobi meeting aims to translate those principles into commitments that can be tracked across governments, international organisations, civil society and the private sector.
Abraham Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya’s principal secretary for foreign affairs, said international institutions needed to widen participation beyond governments if they were to rebuild credibility.
“If we are serious about rebuilding trust, states must open the door to greater engagement with society, and large institutions must make room for non-state actors,” Sing’Oei said. “That is what the Trust Summit is designed to be: a space where we are co-creators and co-equals in building a more trustworthy future.”
The debate also comes amid concerns about the financial constraints facing developing economies. Sub-Saharan African governments spent 18.7% of their revenues servicing external public and publicly guaranteed debt in 2024, three times the proportion recorded in 2014, according to UN Trade and Development.
High debt-servicing costs can restrict governments’ ability to fund public services and development priorities, increasing the importance of predictable external financing and reforms that give developing countries a greater voice in global economic governance.
Young people must also have a greater role in decisions affecting their economic prospects and political participation, participants said.
Deborah Ndanu Nzomo, secretary-general of Kenya Model United Nations, said institutions needed to demonstrate that young people could contribute meaningfully to their work.
“The future of multilateralism depends not only on whether young people believe in its institutions, but also on whether those institutions demonstrate that they believe in young people,” Nzomo said. “Trust must be mutual.”
The Trust Summit is expected to produce a Nairobi Statement on Global Trust, an outcome report, a Trust Barometer dashboard, a joint task force to monitor implementation and an assessment of Africa’s trust landscape.
The proposed mechanisms are intended to improve transparency and accountability by tracking whether governments and institutions fulfil their commitments. Their effectiveness will depend on how clearly responsibilities are assigned, how progress is measured and whether participants are willing to disclose failures to meet targets.
The summit is convened by Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, the Executive Office of the President, the Open Government Partnership, Strathmore University, the United Nations Development Programme in Kenya, the Ford Foundation and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, in partnership with the Institute of Public Finance.
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