As world leaders gather in New York for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Africa is renewing its call for a greater role in the institutions that shape global security, finance, trade and development.

The demand is not simply for more African participation in international meetings. At the centre of the continent’s position is a push to change the structure of global decision-making bodies, particularly the United Nations Security Council, which still reflects a balance of power established shortly after the Second World War.

The high-level week of the 81st General Assembly began on September 22 and runs through September 28, with nearly 130 heads of state and government expected to attend in person. The theme of the session is “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all.”

For African countries, the question of representation is particularly significant because the continent has no permanent seat on the Security Council, despite accounting for 54 of the UN’s 193 member states and frequently being the subject of the Council’s discussions on peace and security.

The Security Council has 15 members: five permanent members China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — and 10 non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.

The five permanent members also possess veto powers, allowing any one of them to block a substantive Council resolution.

Africa currently has no permanent member and therefore no permanent veto-holding seat.

The African Union has maintained a common position on reform under the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration.

Under the African position, the continent is seeking at least two permanent seats with the same prerogatives, including veto rights if the veto continues to exist, as well as five non-permanent seats on an expanded Security Council.

African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said in May that Africa was seeking to correct what the AU regards as a historical imbalance in the international system.

The issue has also received support from UN Secretary-General António Guterres. In an address to African leaders earlier this year, Guterres described the absence of permanent African representation on the Security Council as “indefensible” and argued that today’s global institutions should reflect the world of 2026 rather than that of 1946.

Africa’s campaign comes against the background of growing disagreements over the effectiveness and representativeness of the multilateral system.

The UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa identified reform of global governance and transformation of the international financial architecture among the continent’s priorities ahead of UNGA 81.

The office noted that Africa, with about 1.4 billion people and the largest regional bloc at the United Nations, continues to press for a more representative global governance system.

The argument extends beyond the Security Council.

African governments have also been calling for reforms to international financial institutions, including arrangements governing development finance, debt and access to capital.

Many African countries face high borrowing costs and significant development-financing needs, while decisions affecting the international financial system are often made through institutions whose governance structures were established under very different global economic conditions.

The broader African position is that countries representing a large share of the world’s population should have greater influence over decisions that directly affect their economies and development prospects.

For African countries, Security Council representation has a direct connection to the continent’s peace and security challenges.

Conflicts, coups, terrorism, displacement and humanitarian crises in Africa frequently appear on the international agenda. Yet the continent does not have a permanent member with veto power when the Council considers resolutions relating to international peace and security.

The African Union therefore wants the continent not merely to participate in discussions but to have a permanent institutional role in decisions.

South Africa, one of Africa’s current voices in the UN reform debate, is using the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations to advance the AU’s position on permanent representation.

However, changing the Security Council is not straightforward.

The UN General Assembly has been conducting intergovernmental negotiations on Council reform for years, covering questions including the number of members, regional representation, categories of membership and the veto.

The negotiations have continued through successive General Assembly sessions without producing an agreed restructuring of the Council.

One of the most difficult issues is the veto.

Africa’s common position calls for any new permanent African members to have the same rights as existing permanent members, including veto powers for as long as the veto remains part of the Council’s structure.

That position creates a difficult negotiating question because expanding the number of countries with veto power could significantly alter the Council’s decision-making system.

There are also wider disagreements among UN member states over how many additional permanent and elected seats should be created, which regions should receive them and whether new permanent members should have veto rights.

Consequently, achieving African permanent representation would require broad agreement among UN member states and, ultimately, an amendment to the UN Charter.

The push for greater representation also reflects changes in Africa’s economic and geopolitical importance.

The continent has significant natural resources, a rapidly growing population and an increasingly important role in debates over energy, climate change, food security, migration and critical minerals.

African countries are also seeking greater influence in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, digital governance and the global energy transition.

The argument is that decisions in these areas will increasingly affect Africa’s economies and societies, making representation in global institutions more consequential.

The African Union’s permanent membership in the G20 is one example of a recent change in global representation. The AU Commission has cited that membership as evidence that international institutions can evolve to include Africa more formally in global economic governance.

Greater representation could give African governments a stronger institutional role in negotiating international responses to conflicts, climate change, development financing and other global challenges.

But representation alone would not resolve the continent’s domestic challenges.

African governments would still need to coordinate their positions, strengthen diplomatic capacity and determine how the interests of individual countries can be reconciled with continent-wide positions.

The Security Council campaign itself demonstrates the importance of that coordination. The AU has maintained a common position calling for two permanent seats, but the question of which countries would occupy those seats would eventually have to be resolved within Africa if reform were to advance.

There is also the broader question of whether a larger African presence in international institutions would translate into concrete economic and political benefits for ordinary citizens.

Africa’s demand for a greater voice at the United Nations is therefore part of a much wider debate about the future of the international system.

The continent is seeking permanent representation on the Security Council, greater influence over international financial institutions and stronger participation in emerging global governance frameworks.

The 81st General Assembly provides another platform for African leaders to make that case.

Whether the current session produces a breakthrough remains dependent on negotiations among the UN’s wider membership. For now, however, the message from African institutions is clear: the continent wants the structures making decisions about global peace, security and development to better reflect the political and demographic realities of the 21st century.

The central question is no longer simply whether Africa should have a bigger voice, but how that voice should be structured — and whether the rest of the international community is prepared to support a reform of institutions whose basic architecture dates back more than eight decades.