The UN and diplomacy

At the General Assembly in September, many leaders said Africa should have a permanent seat on the Security Council. The Secretary-General, António Guterres, called Africa's exclusion unjust and indefensible. The President of the General Assembly said Africa needs a seat at the table. Kenya's President William Ruto said Africa's 54 nations are "permanently discussed, yet permanently excluded". Yet the reform talks, renewed in July, still have no end date and no single text. The speeches did not change who holds power in the Council.

The more urgent contest was the race to succeed Guterres, whose term ends on 31 December. The Council tests support through straw polls, in which each member marks each candidate "encourage", "discourage" or "no opinion". In the third poll on 18 September, Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica led with nine encouragements. Macky Sall of Senegal drew five encouragements and nine discouragements. Olara Otunnu of Uganda drew five and seven. Michelle Bachelet of Chile withdrew the next day.

On 25 September, Senegal's President Bassirou Diomaye Faye asked the Assembly to back Sall. Four days later, the fourth poll left Grynspan further ahead, with ten encouragements and three discouragements. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana and Rafael Grossi of Argentina followed with eight encouragements each. The Council now moves to colour-coded ballots, which show how the five permanent members vote. A winner needs nine votes and no veto, so an African Secretary-General this time is unlikely.

The UN is running out of money. In December 2025 the General Assembly approved a regular budget of $3.45 billion for 2026. That is about 7% less than in 2025, and 2,900 posts were cut. The Secretary-General had asked for a deeper cut of 15%. His reform plan, UN80, expects resources across the whole UN system to fall by a quarter in 2026. Fewer staff and programmes means less UN work in the countries that depend on it.

The cuts follow unpaid bills. By 1 July only 56% of what members owed for 2026 had been paid. The United States had paid $160 million of the $767 million it owed for the year. In all, it owed about $2 billion to the regular budget and $1.8 billion for peacekeeping. China's $428 million was due later in the year. In June the Assembly agreed to stop returning unspent money to members for a four-year trial. That keeps about $1.2 billion over twelve months.

Africa has its own late payers. By 21 September, 33 of Africa's 54 states had paid their 2026 share in full. Nigeria, Uganda and Liberia were among the 21 that had not. A continent that asks for a fairer UN argues from a weaker position when its own members owe money.

Peacekeeping carries the heaviest cost. Its budget for 2026 to 2027 is $5.1 billion, 10% less than the year before. The missions began 2026 with no cash reserve and a gap of about $2 billion. Late payment by members delays what the UN pays back to the countries that send troops. The Council has kept the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) until 20 December 2026, with up to 11,500 troops.

Missions led by the African Union are worse off. The AU mission in Somalia needs about $196 million a year. By late September 2025 only $24.6 million had been promised, and troops had gone about 15 months without their allowances. On 18 September 2026 the United States agreed that the UN office that supplies this mission will shrink over 12 months from January 2027, and then close. The AU will then have to feed, fuel and move its troops itself, or find another payer.

One reform moves jobs towards Africa. UN Women is moving about 190 posts from New York to Nairobi and Bonn, and expects to save at least $8 million a year. A post in Nairobi costs on average $32,000 a year less than one in New York. Yet the African share of the UN's central staff fell from 37.9% in 2020 to 34.1% in 2024. Cheaper jobs in Africa have so far come with a smaller African share of the staff.

Burundi, which chairs the AU this year, nominated Macky Sall on 2 March. On 27 March, 14 African states objected to the AU backing him, among them Algeria, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria and Rwanda. Six more, including Egypt, asked for more time. Senegal's own government kept its distance from its former president until July, when it told its embassies to campaign for him. Uganda nominated Olara Otunnu on 24 July. Africa ended up with two candidates competing for the same small pool of support.

The DRC, Liberia and Somalia hold Africa's three Council seats in 2026. Somalia leaves at the end of the year. Zimbabwe, the only African candidate, won 182 votes in the Assembly and joins on 1 January 2027. The DRC paid its 2026 UN share within the 30 days allowed. Liberia sits on the Council, yet it had not paid in full by 21 September. Its arrears give other members an easy answer when it speaks for Africa.

Kenya gains most from the move of UN jobs. Nairobi already hosts about 6,500 UN staff. The UN children's agency UNICEF, the UN Population Fund and UN Women are all setting up global offices there. The United States has left 66 international bodies, including 31 parts of the UN. It stayed in the UN Environment Programme and UN-Habitat, which are both based in Nairobi. Kenya paid its 2026 UN share on 9 February.

Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt and Kenya are among the countries that send the roughly 12,000 troops in the AU mission in Somalia. When Washington said it would stop backing the UN supply office, Uganda called these countries to a summit in Kampala. The AU's own Peace Fund covers only a small part of the cost. These governments carry the risk if the money runs out.

A candidate for Secretary-General needs nine of the Council's 15 votes. Africa's three members hold a third of that number, so they can decide whether a front-runner gets there. October is therefore the moment to ask for written promises. Africa should ask for senior posts in peace operations and development, and for real decision-making power in the UN offices in Nairobi. The African Group, the 54 African states that coordinate at the UN, has no Council vote, so the three members must carry the request.

The fight over UN80 cuts, mergers and moves takes place in the Assembly's budget committee. African missions in New York have the fewest technical staff there. The UN Charter says staff should be recruited "on as wide a geographical basis as possible". That gives Africa a legal basis to ask for a fair share of senior posts. The closure of the UN supply office in Somalia in 2027 will then show whether the AU can pay for its own missions.

In 1972 Nairobi won the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme by an Assembly vote of 128 to none. Kenya had argued that every other UN headquarters was in North America or Western Europe. Fifty years later the UN is moving work again, this time to save money. Executive boards and hiring decisions still sit in New York. If only the staff move, Nairobi gains rent and jobs and little say over what the UN does in Africa.