Is Africa charting its own destiny?
Is Africa charting its own destiny?Date | 21 November 2025
By Mr. Parfait Onanga-Anyanga
Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the
African Union and Head of UNOAU
Delivered during the High-Level Seminar on Charting Africa’s Agency in Uncertainty and Transforming Global Order, Sheraton Hotel, Lalibela Conference Room, Addis Ababa, 21 November 2025
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
Many thanks Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, and Ambassador Stian Christensen, Permanent Representative of Norway to the African Union, for your kind invitation to UNOAU to join you today in this timely High-Level Public Seminar under the theme ‘Charting Africa’s Agency in Uncertainty and Transforming Global Order’.
Looking at today’s theme, ‘Is Africa charting its own destiny?’ is the first question that comes to mind. My answer is yes. But if not, which are the forces at work, both internal and external, that are obstructing the continent’s agency. In other words, what would it take for Africa to be the sole or the main agent of its own future?
And if non-African agents are still at work in influencing or even dictating the continent’s trajectory, what forces, means or kind of power are they applying to determine Africa’s fate?
If, as it may be the case, such forces are jostling for global power, is Africa equipped to take advantage of their conflicting interests or would the continent continue to be just a battle ground, the grass trampled by fighting pachyderms?
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
I will not attempt to answer these and other questions as we are truly gifted to have such an eminent panel of scholars doubled with unquestionable panafrican credentials.
Suffice for me to stress that for a continent that was ‘absent’ at the creation of this passing world order, Africa cannot afford to leave it to others to redraw the emerging new distribution of power and roles.
I said ‘absent’, because those representing the continent, including our host country, were lacking the critical mass to influence for Africa’s own benefit the policies and normative frames that have been serving for over 80 years as the basis for the global political, economic, financial, military, and technological trajectory of world affairs.
Yet, as we all agree that the world is indeed in flux and more fragmented, mainly because what I have come to call the ‘San Francisco Consensus’ no longer serves its intended purpose in the eyes of dominant powers, we should guard from believing that the fundamentals of the new ‘power equilibrium’ that is in the making will be drastically different from the prevailing ones.
The emerging new world is likely to be a measure of the capacity of major blocs, states, and other entities, including major corporations, to ascertain their agency in the evolving global power redistribution. The question before us today may therefore be ‘will Africa be ready or what would it take for the continent to influence and count in the emerging global order’?
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I dared raising these questions because I know Africa is not coming to this conversation void of any options.
The news of the ‘end’ of global justice and the ‘end’ of sustainable development is a forewarning of emerging global challenges. But have the universalism, the democratic and the development ideals of the AU, the AU Constitutive Act, and the AU Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance been defeated?
Are AU injunctions against unconstitutional changes of government, or AU imperatives for good democratic governance suddenly passé? Or are African aspirations for unity, promising a global role for African agency?
Have we sacrificed the values of continental unity on the altar of global power-privilege? Or do enlightened collective ideals, or universal rights of recognition and redistribution enshrined in the UN Charter still have a seat at the global table?
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
Today, thanks to its forward leaning and ambitious normative frameworks, currently under review, the AU is unquestionably a bastion of multilateralism and a home to universalist and democratic ambitions. APSA and AGA present a vision not only for a just African order, but also a just world order. However, Africa alone and/or Africa divided, cannot achieve its ambitions. The fact that implementation remains a daunting challenge should not be a reason for despair but rather a reminder of the imperative to forge ahead with greater impetus.
The UN-AU Joint Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security, the UN-AU Strategic Partnership for the Implementation of UN Agenda 2030 and AU Agenda 2063, and the UN-AU Human Rights Framework exemplify democratic and development values and present a model for a networked multilateralist system called for by Secretary-General Guterres and Chairperson Youssouf.
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
Whether as a matter of ‘polarization’, ‘particularism’, or ‘pluralism’, global competition is heightening not lowering, as evinced by this year’s convention of the G7 in Canada, or the International Conference on Financing for Development in Spain, to mention just a few intergovernmental processes.
Likewise, global competition is currently on display in Belém and will certainly be palpable during the upcoming G20 meeting in South Africa, where the African Union will take its seat for the first time (22-23 November).
The question we need to address in these circumstances is: Will Africa position itself to negotiate collective interests amidst this prolific and plural competition, or will African countries get picked off one by one?
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
With a proliferation of external actors in increasingly protracted African conflicts and a proliferation of external actors in their resolution, there is admittedly ground for concern.
However, the agenda for sustainable development, including AU Agenda 2063, with a focus on international economic and financial reforms, the agenda for global social justice and a just green transition, and the agenda for multilateral cooperation, where small and big states share decision-making powers, remain alive in AU and UN relations. Indeed, with the support of the AU, the UN member States endorsed such a vision in the ‘Pact for the Future’ (September 2024).
These values were reaffirmed recently at the UN HQ during the 9th Annual Conference of the UN Secretary-General and the AU Commission Chairperson.
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
We are certainly witnessing the move towards a ‘multi-polar world’, and consequently need a more robust multi-lateral framework to address emerging challenges. The Pact for the Future offers a path to strengthen multilateral approaches to peace and security, and represents a key step toward more effective, inclusive and networked multilateralism.
In this context of networked multilateralism, the AU and UN partnership is by no means the only venue for African agency, alongside the G20, the AU can look to other global blocs, including ASEAN, the League of Arab States and the Organisation of American States.
And, if united around key strategic interests as outlined in Agenda 2063 and related Moonshots, the AU can enter into mutually beneficial partnerships with other major players such as the US, China, the Russian Federation or the EU, but also mid-level powers using capital to leverage power in the world today.
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
Power and prestige continue to play an oversized role in international relations. Africa’s power resides in African unity, its vibrant people, particularly its dynamic youth and, of course, its immense endowments in strategic minerals. African prestige relies on Africa’s ability to discriminate its interests from those of its partners and competitors.
For Africa, by virtue of the many tragedies that marked its history over the past several centuries, unity and regional integration should not be treated as optional rather an existential and strategic imperative.
And, as history has shown since immemorial times, nations that have invested in their human capital and mastered science and technology have often been better equipped to create wealth and amass capital, which in turn have enabled them to establish strong institutions underpinned by respect for the rule of law and human rights.
To succeed, Africa’s renaissance, as enshrined in Agenda 2063, will be no exception.
While the Secretary-General stresses the need for a global order that works for everyone, Africa can seize this moment to truly own African values, and to assert African interests.
The time has come for Africa to decide, and Africa can count on the UN to always stand by its side.
I thank you for your kind attention.