Africa must move from merely participating in global development systems to taking control of the decisions, resources and institutions that determine its future, United Kingdom Member of Parliament Bell Ribeiro-Addy has said.
She said the continent’s development had for decades been shaped by priorities established outside Africa, leaving African governments and communities to implement programmes they often had little influence in designing.
Ms Ribeiro-Addy made the remarks at the opening of the three-day “Africa at the Centre: Leading Change, Shifting Power” convening in Accra.
She said the growing international emphasis on localisation, partnership and community-led development had not necessarily translated into a meaningful transfer of power to African institutions.
“The vocabulary evolves beautifully. The decision-making power, however, stays exactly where it always was,” she said.
According to her, putting Africa at the centre of development must therefore go beyond rhetoric and involve a fundamental redistribution of decision-making authority, financial resources and leadership.
She said development priorities should be determined by Africans based on the continent’s own realities rather than by external institutions that ultimately define what constitutes progress and how success is measured.
Ms Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on African Reparations, said greater African ownership was essential if development interventions were to produce lasting results.
The call was echoed by Ghana’s Presidential Special Envoy for Reparations, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, who said Africa must seek to influence the design of global systems rather than simply demand greater representation within them.
“Africa must therefore move beyond simply seeking a larger seat at the table towards helping to design the table itself,” he said.
Dr Spio-Garbrah said Africa’s development challenges could not be fully addressed without confronting the historical structures that had shaped the continent’s relationship with the rest of the world.
He said reparations should consequently extend beyond financial compensation for historical injustices to include acknowledgement, apology, cultural restoration, institutional reform, economic justice and psychological healing.
He noted that the legacies of slavery, colonial exploitation and unequal international relationships continued to influence some of Africa’s contemporary economic and development challenges.
Dr Spio-Garbrah urged African countries to use the growing global recognition of reparatory justice to secure concrete policy commitments and measurable outcomes.
“The moment for action is now. We must convert moral recognition into political commitment, political commitment into institutional action, and institutional action into measurable outcomes,” he said.
He also called for the development of an African-led development architecture supported by stronger institutions, innovative financing mechanisms and policies rooted in the continent’s priorities.
He identified the African diaspora as an important partner in that process, citing its potential contribution through investment, expertise, innovation and international influence.
For Dr Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute, the question should no longer be whether Africa would be given a central role in its own development.
“Africa does not need to be invited to the centre of its own development. Africa belongs at the centre,” she said.
Dr Afadzinu said shrinking donor resources, geopolitical uncertainty and changing global power dynamics had created an urgent need for African countries and institutions to rethink who sets development priorities and controls resources.
She said genuine power was not simply about representation at decision-making platforms but also about determining the agenda, controlling resources and deciding whose knowledge and definition of success mattered.
The convening is bringing together civil society leaders, policymakers, development practitioners and members of the African diaspora to explore practical ways of shifting leadership, resources and decision-making authority towards African institutions and communities.
