Dr. Paa Kwesi Heto, a political economist and Visiting Professor at Soka University of America, has stated that the African multilateral agenda is facing serious challenges precisely when it is needed most, and the root causes lie at the rulemaking level, not just program delivery.

Speaking to students at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), University of Ghana, on the topic “African Multilateralism in the Evolving World Order,” Dr. Heto argued that current debates miss the point by focusing only on implementation failures.

“A lot of the conversations going on right now only focus on the problem at the program delivery level — the implementation challenges,” he said. “But we ignore the problems at the rulemaking stages.”

According to him, once attention shifts to how rules are made, it becomes clear that the challenges confronting African multilateralism are both human and structural in nature. “Until we address those human and structural challenges, we may not be able to realize the fruits of multilateralism on the continent,” he stressed.

Dr. Heto described multilateralism as one of the key mechanisms Africa can develop to gain strategic autonomy in the global order. However, he noted that some of the continent’s most pressing problems cannot be solved by nation states acting alone.

“We have problems like terrorism that need coalition partners to solve. Problems like deforestation or climate change — we can’t solve that in only one country,” he said. “We need coalitions to be able to solve them.”

He emphasized that Africa must therefore combine multilateral engagement with strong bilateral partnerships. This includes working with traditional and non-traditional partners, as well as coalitions of the willing, to tackle shared challenges.

Commending Ghana’s current foreign policy approach, Dr. Heto said the government is “striking a good balance” by staying engaged at the multilateral level while developing new bilateral relationships with non-traditional partners.

“I think a mixture of both approaches is important,” he noted. “If this strategy is coupled with an export-led economic strategy, we as a nation are going to benefit a lot from that.”

Report by Bernard K Dadzie Greater Accra Region