The Economist: Is the continent paying the price for marginalization in international institutions?

Sixteen African presidents will attend the financing for development conference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss pressing global issues, including World Bank reform, climate finance and debt distress in some countries.

The conference, which will be held in Paris on June 22 and will include a new global financial agreement, will also be attended by Chinese Premier Li Qiang and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

The large presence of African leaders at the conference reflects their fear of declining international interest in supporting the continent as priorities shift towards helping Ukraine and dealing with the climate change dilemma.

The Economist said those concerns were fuelling deeper anger that the continent had little say in global institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations, and that some of the proposed reforms would negatively affect Africa.

Angolan Finance Minister Vera Davis was quoted as saying, "When decision-makers are completely out of the country's reality, empathizing with it is difficult, so it is very important for us (Africans) to be more present in international institutions."

African leaders will push hard for change during this week's Paris conference.

Alarming retreat

He pointed out that much of the work carried out by these international institutions is done in Africa, where they try to reduce poverty on the continent where more than half of the world's poor are located, and seek to end civil conflicts and help refugees.

But African leaders are concerned about the imminent decline in the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) funding for the continent, which stood at $37 billion last year and is expected to fall by about $10 billion a year over the next two years.

The problem is that the decline in funding is happening at a time when African countries are under pressure from rising food and fuel prices as a result of the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates globally.

Ukraine and climate are the top new priorities that are Africa's competitor for international financing. The World Bank hopes to raise $12 billion for IDA, but half of that amount will go to Ukraine and Moldova, which were not eligible for IDA loans before the war because there are poorer countries.

The Economist said many Africans see the disbursement of half of that funding to the two European countries as proof that international institutions are dealing with double standards and changing the rules they have set for disbursing aid to non-African countries.

With regard to climate change, many parties are expected to push during the Paris summit to do more in this regard, especially by rich countries and countries threatened by the climate crisis, which raises the concern of the leaders of the African continent that this will be at the expense of the poor in their countries.