As African countries seek to revitalize global partnerships for sustainable development (Sustainable Development Goal 17), major global financial architecture reform can often seem like a lofty goal—especially when African leaders and finance ministers are having to fire-fight management of currency fluctuations, interest rate increases on external debt, and other monetary shocks. Often, the inclination is to focus less on structural reforms of the system and more on immediate, short-term debt relief or actions African governments can take themselves, such as providing better data or transparency of debt finance. None are mutually exclusive, and all have merits, but the big prize is reform and African agency.

It might sound contradictory, but focusing on short-term solutions such as debt relief or “capacity building” can be detrimental to Africa’s agency and the case for reform. For example, countries cannot claim to be responsible and therefore require less conditionality when borrowing yet call for debt relief for borrowing that their parliaments and citizens have already approved transparently—a situation that has occurred often. These kinds of actions seem attractive and easier in the short term, but in the long term serve to exacerbate perceptions of “African risk.”

2024 presented exactly this kind of conundrum and demonstrated why, in 2025, the major goal should be structural reform.

2024 marked the 80-year anniversary of the Bretton Woods institutions, as well as the first full year the African Union (AU) served as a permanent member of the G20, the world’s economic version of the United Nations Security Council. The AU’s involvement created movement toward reforms with the emergence of the “Africa Club” or Alliance of African Multilateral Financial Institutions and the African Credit Ratings Agency inching closer to being a reality.

Additionally, in August, the IMF announced the addition of a third African seat on its board (out of a total 25 seats). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also reduced lending costs by cutting surcharges, benefitting African borrowers. Despite these recent achievements, major shifts in how the Bretton Woods institutions, credit rating agencies, and foreign investors do business with respect to the continent remained elusive.

Read the full article about African agency by Hannah Ryder at Brookings.