Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

The race is on to succeed Ban Ki-moon as UN Secretary-General when he vacates office at the end of this year. The corridors of the UN General Assembly have been abuzz this week with heated speculation about who will take charge of the most important international body, charged with maintaining peace and security.

What is particularly disappointing is that none of the declared candidates vying for the post consider Africa a priority. This is despite the fact that many of the refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe come from Africa, and the highest number of civil conflicts are taking place on the African continent.

Africa is the promise of tomorrow, where bulging youth populations will set the trajectory of our future, and where abundant resources will supply the world with strategic raw materials. But while Africa has enormous potential and a lot to offer, it is also in dire need of assistance from the UN in terms of peacekeeping, peace building, humanitarian aid, protection for increasing numbers of refugees, and assistance in attaining the Millennium Development Goals.

No other continent is more in need of the UN and its agencies, and so it is inexplicable that Africa hardly featured in the answers the candidates for UN Secretary-General gave to questions UN member states posed to them in open hearings recently. The hearings were held over three days, with 800 questions being posed to the candidates over 18 hours.

This is the first time that the UN has engaged in an open process in an attempt to bring a measure of transparency to the vetting of secretary general candidates. Previously the process of choosing one was shrouded in secrecy among the permanent five members of the UN Security Council, which alone would decide on the leadership of the world body. Often the identities of the candidates were not widely known.

It is progress that the political positions of the various candidates are now laid bare, but the choice of who will succeed Ban Ki-moon still lies entirely up to the permanent five. According to the UN Charter, the secretary-general is to be chosen by the assembly on the recommendation of the five. In practice, however, the Security Council chooses the secretary-general in private, and the General Assembly merely rubber-stamps their choice. Despite this year's efforts at transparency, the victors of World War II will still be the ones to determine who will steer the helm of the world body.

The big powers have already intimated their preferences, but of concern to us should be the fact that the issue of the African agenda does not seem to feature on anyone's priority list.

Knowing that the AU exists to deal with African conflicts and development needs is heartening, except for the fact that the the body has not managed to resolve or prevent many conflicts to date, and in some cases has turned a blind eye to human rights abuses. It also lacks the resources to mobilise peace-enforcement missions in a timely manner, although it is hoped this can be achieved in the coming years.

For as long as the AU lacks the necessary capacity to fulfil its dreams of African solutions to African problems, it is imperative that the continent can rely on the commitment of the UN, and the perspective of the UN Secretary-General towards the continent is particularly important.

The declared candidates to date are primarily from Eastern Europe, which has not had a turn in terms of the informal tradition of geographic rotation. There have so far been eight secretaries-general, three from Western Europe, one from Latin America, two from Africa, and two from Asia. There has never been a woman secretary-
general, and one of the leading candidates is Bulgaria's Irina Bokova, the Unesco director-general, who is Russia's candidate of choice.

The UK has been against her candidature, while Germany supports Bulgaria's Kristalina Georgieva, vice-president of the European Commission. The US has supported Susanna Makorra, the former foreign minister of Argentina, and Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff.

The candidate who topped the UN Security Council's fifth straw poll on Monday was António Guterres, the former Portuguese PM who headed UNHCR from 2005 to 2015, and who is considered charismatic and liked by many on the UN Security Council.

The council's final vote on Wednesday may see Guterres securing the job.

All the politicking may be high stakes for the Europeans, but for Africa it has underlined the continent will have to strive harder to be self-reliant as its challenges are likely to take a back seat to that of refugees and migrants flocking to Europe.

Ebrahim is group foreign editor.