The so-called rules-based international order that began operating immediately after the end of World War II has not brought the necessary development to Africa. Rather, advanced hierarchical orders have taken over international multilateral organizations and used them to systematically perpetuate hegemonic relations between the richest Western countries and the poorest African countries.
Africa needs a new world order in which its people can live lives of dignity. Such a mandate should enable African people to properly utilize their resources to lift them out of dire poverty, and ensure that the continent’s precious and useful youth invest their labor, labor, and resources for the benefit of society. It should facilitate finding suitable niches to invest skills and knowledge. Countless young Africans desperately traverse the world’s dangerous migration routes, often exposing themselves to robbery, beatings, and other inhumane treatment at the hands of brutal human traffickers. Organ traffickers also perform horrific plays on helpless migrants. Not to mention the scorching temperatures and death that await migrants in the Mediterranean. The International Organization for Migration has called this year the deadliest year since 2016.
Wealthy countries sometimes close their borders and sometimes call the countries that immigrants are coming from “shitholes.” Economic and political migrants and asylum seekers are considered subhuman in some destinations.
The existing Western-dominated, exploitative world order is tailored to the West and intentionally made incompatible with the Global South and Global East. The current system serves to make poor countries even poorer. The 2020 World Social Report shows that unequal societies are less effective at reducing poverty, grow slower and make it harder for people to break out of chains of poverty. These economic disparities did not suddenly surface. These are the result of a biased development approach.
Africa’s structural adjustment in the 1980s provides a good example in this regard. As schools and health services were liberalized, families could no longer afford to pay for medical and school fees. Such conditions impose constraints on each country’s choice of development course.
Developed countries impose their will on developing countries. It is clear that the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations Security Council function according to the wishes of several countries. African countries are at the mercy of the decisions of these few countries. Unless African countries are allowed equal participation in policy-making and international issues that affect them, their underdevelopment will certainly worsen.
Some countries that have climbed the wealth ladder through hard work have been labeled with derogatory terms such as "dictatorship," “undemocratic,” and “tyranny.”
The existing world order is nothing but the institutionalization of exploitation.
This is embodied in rosy words such as “protection of human rights,” “expansion of democracy,” and “development.” Countries and governments that follow the orders of the richest nations rank top in human rights treatment, democracy, and development, and are sometimes referred to as “favorite dictators.” Countries and groups that fall outside of that box, no matter how good their record, are “undemocratic,” “brutal,” “authoritarian,” and the list goes on. Visionary leaders are demonized and glorified as puppets by Western-controlled media.
Although world-renowned academics John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs agreed in a recent discussion at the 2024 All-In Summit that the United States has sought to create world nations in its own image, , Sachs called it “delusion.” His view is that he doesn’t care whether a country is ruled by a military or a democracy. All that matters is projecting power.
Towards a new era
A pan-African vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its people and representing a dynamic force on the world stage” is at hand.
This doesn’t happen because we want it to happen. It is our duty to work hard and smart. It requires making the necessary sacrifices. This requires a 21st century mindset that puts Africa’s interests first. Old ways cannot and will not lead Africa to achieve its vision. Opinion leaders in African countries must put Africa’s interests first and must silence the gunshots.
You need a partner that supports rapid transfer of skill sets and knowledge. We need friends to help us expand our critical development infrastructure. Practical support to drive development is critically needed. For example, China’s proposed Belt and Road Initiative is being applied to projects such as port, road, and rail connections. East Africa is now increasingly connected to the maritime trade routes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Recently, Ethiopia used rail wagons to export livestock. Rail transport connections also help improve understanding between the region’s diverse cultures. It’s time to put an end to rose-tinted words and fake friendships and start a real partnership.
“Modernization is the inalienable right of all countries,” Chinese President Xi Jinping rightly stated in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2024 China-Africa Cooperation Forum Summit in Beijing on September 5. .
Our needs are clearly articulated in the African Development Blueprint Agenda 2063. Africans widely agree that Agenda 2063 is a relevant development discourse, and this is stated in the introduction to the Agenda’s 20 Years of Implementation. Its ambition is to lift all African countries, including islands, well above the poverty line.
Africa envisions becoming a middle-income continent by 2033. Knowledge and skills need to be transferred. We need to be good competitors in the technology world. And this requires directing resources to investments that accelerate its growth and development. First and foremost, superpowers who want to play proxy games should stay away. Good partners should continue to invest in areas of mutual benefit.
No nation of babysitters feeds the mouths of Africans. African countries and governments need to clearly recognize their respective interests. They must work hard and smartly to align their plans with a shared vision. If Africa is divided within its own borders, it is assumed that all companies will try to fish in rough waters. So who is responsible?
The current generation of Africans in sectors including academia, the media, power circles and other positions of influence should work seriously to protect Africa’s interests. In 1619 and before, our ancestors made a grave mistake. Powerful and influential people traded strong Africans for things like tobacco, cloth, sugar, and rifles, raiding villages and taking the colonialists deep into Africa. We must be careful when short-term profits supersede the noble cause expressed in Agenda 2063.
The author is the editor-in-chief of Ethiopia’s national newspaper, the Ethiopian Herald.
