PODCAST | “Why UN is Unfit for Twenty-First Century Purpose,” Tim Murithi

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In this maiden episode of our African Development Podcast, we host Prof. Tim Murithi, Co-Convener of the UN Charter Reform Coalition, who argues for Africa’s full membership on the UN Security Council, decrying the continent’s being “a mere spectator” in the affairs of the Bretton Woods institutions (BWI).

An esteemed academic cum practitioner with over three decades’ experience in governance, peacebuilding and transitional justice in Africa, Murithi is currently an Extraordinary Professor at both the University of Stellenbosch and University of Free State, South Africa and had previously held advisory roles at the UN, African Union, the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), among others.

In this podcast, Murithi, who heads the peacebuilding interventions programme at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in Cape Town, bares his mind about the outcome of the recently held 69th United Nations Civil Society Conference (UNCSC) in Nairobi, Kenya, a precursor to the Summit of the Future (SOTF). He described conversations at the conference as “robust, strong and fruitful” as well as addressing critical issues from global governance and human rights to gender equality and climate change.

A passionate advocate for UN reforms, Murithi argues from an African perspective, why the UN must become more “inclusive and fit for purpose” for the twenty-first century, including Africa’s full membership on the UN Security Council, since African conflicts – from the Sahel to Sudan – constitute 60% of UNSC’s agenda. He decries the fact that Africa is a mere spectator when it comes to decision-making at the Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs) i.e World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) even as such decisions directly affect the livelihoods of the continent’s almost one and a half billion people.