Fairness key as Ruto takes Africa’s voice to G7 table in France

President William Ruto will carry Africa's voice and the resolutions made at the Africa Forward summit, starting in Nairobi next Monday, to the G7 meeting in Évian, France.

The invitation, extended by French President Emmanuel Macron, who currently holds the G7 presidency, positions Kenya at the heart of efforts to bridge advanced economies and the developing world amid mounting global uncertainty.

Economic Planning PS Boniface Makokha, who is representing Kenya at the G7 Development Ministers' Meeting ahead of the presidential summit in June, said Ruto will be advocating for a new, equitable "partnership of favour" rather than a donor-recipient relationship.

He added that as Africa's voice, Ruto is expected to push for structural reforms in global financial systems, increased climate action, and Africa-led solutions to infrastructure and health security.

‎“Kenya’s invitation to the G7 Leaders’ Summit is a clear recognition of our country’s growing role in shaping international economic discourse,” Makokha said.

“We are committed to advancing proposals that reflect the priorities of developing economies, particularly in areas such as financing, climate resilience, and inclusive growth.”

Kenya will attend the June summit alongside other invited countries, including Korea, Brazil, and India, signalling her elevation into a select group of emerging economies engaged in high-level discussions with the world’s largest industrialised nations.

The G7 brings together some of the world’s richest countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, the US, and the UK.

A joint communication issued last Thursday by ministers responsible for development and international partnership from the G7 countries addressed the current global development architecture, noting that it leaves many partner countries exposed to repeated shocks, structural vulnerabilities, and long-term dependency.

They raised concerns of rising debt burden, poverty levels, food insecurity and humanitarian needs, committing to stepping up coordinated efforts to address those challenges and their immediate short- and long-term impacts.

Led by France’s Minister Delegate for Francophone, International Partnerships, and French Nationals Abroad, Éléonore Caroit, the ministers resolved to reaffirm solidarity with the most vulnerable countries to strengthen their resilience and help them anticipate food and public health crises and natural disasters.

The G7 agreed to strengthen the capacities of partner countries to finance essential sectors for sustainable development, such as childhood, education, health, food security and nutrition.

They also resolved to improve the effectiveness of development assistance and promote a new approach to development, as well as develop and update the framework for international partnerships, to better take into account all of the flows contributing to development.

Ruto will be taking Africa’s voice to the G7 table at a time the continent is fully focused on African Renaissance, a comprehensive movement aimed at cultural, scientific, and economic renewal of the continent. It promotes self-determination, democratic governance, and sustainable development.

Africa is calling for overcoming colonial legacies, poverty, and conflict to foster a unified, prosperous Africa, often aligned with the African Union's Agenda 2063.

Under this agenda, the continent is rooting for a unified market under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to deliver tangible benefits to 1.4 billion residents.

Ruto chaired the Inaugural Committee Meeting of Heads of State and Government on the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February.

He believes that the AfCFTA lays the foundation for structural economic transformation, accelerating industrialisation, deepening value addition, and driving broad-based growth at a continental scale.

“Its potential is immense. Projections indicate that it could increase intra-African trade by up to $3 trillion and raise Africa’s cumulative GDP by about $1.4 trillion between 2021 and 2045.”

Ruto insists that this promise can only be realised through disciplined execution and sustained political leadership.

France agrees with Africa on this, with the country’s Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness minister, Nicolas Forissier, saying they will be seeking a new trade order with the continent anchored on mutual respect and shared opportunities during the Africa Forward Summit.

Launched in the late 2010s as part of France’s broader strategy to modernise its economic diplomacy with Africa, the summit has evolved into a multi-stakeholder platform, bringing together governments, investors, development financiers, and private sector leaders.

“It is focused on promoting sustainable investment and industrialisation and expanding trade beyond raw materials. It is also supporting African-led development priorities and strengthening public-private partnerships,’’ Forissier told the Star.

The  G7 Summit is also coming at a time when development aid from historical donor countries is declining amid calls for an urgent re-examination of the weight of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa.

While the extent of USAID cuts and waning traditional donor commitments seems unexpected, they are signalling a broader trend long in the making,’’ a forum by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) noted in Paris ahead of the G7 Ministerial Summit.

Africa is the highest recipient of foreign aid at more than 35 per cent.

Latest data shows that ODA by Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members and associates amounted to $174.3 billion in 2025, a 23.1 per cent decrease over 2024.

It is the largest annual contraction on record and a second consecutive year of decline, bringing ODA to where it stood at the start of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Bilateral ODA fell by 26.4 per cent to $126.4 billion, while multilateral ODA declined by 12.7 per cent to $47.9 billion.

Within bilateral ODA, grants recorded a much sharper decrease (29.1 per cent) than loans (10.3 per cent).

For multilateral ODA, which fell for the second year in a row, declines were concentrated in core contributions to the UN system at 27 per cent, the largest annual drop on record.

In contrast, contributions to the World Bank and regional development banks increased.

At the G7, France will be pushing for a more efficient and effective international development architecture that is less fragmented, relies on a broader base of donors and development providers.

“We support ambitious outcomes to the ongoing reform efforts, including the review of the OECD DAC, the UN80 initiative, multilateral development bank reforms and vertical funds reviews,’’ Éléonore Caroit told journalists at a press briefing in Paris.

Ruto will also advocate for comprehensive reforms of the global financial architecture to address Africa's development financing challenges and unlock investment for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 2025 Sustainable Development Report, released in June 2025, shows that progress toward achieving the SDGs has fallen far short of expectations, with less than 20 per cent of indicators on track.

The global financing gap has widened considerably and now stands at approximately $4 trillion annually, with Africa's structural transformation gap estimated at $402.2 billion by the bank.

Ruto will be presenting Africa's desire for low-cost, long-term development financing, faster debt resolution mechanisms, and inclusive participation in decision-making to influence global resource allocation.

Achieving these will require close cooperation between the World Bank, IMF, and regional development banks, more innovative use of risk capital to mobilise private capital, and urgent reform of the global financial architecture.

Last week, a special event organised by Finance in Common (FiCS), which gathers more than 550 Public Development Banks (PDBs) worldwide, met at the request of the French G7 Presidency to deliberate on the future of the global financial architecture.

The agency is advancing a pragmatic multilateralism of solutions by reinforcing national ownership, with national and local PDBs acting as strategic actors with their international partners.

It is also rooting for reduced fragmentation by fostering a more coordinated whole-of-PDB system that better connects multilateral, regional, national, and local institutions into a more coherent and efficient architecture, while increasing mutual reliance and enhancing interoperability.

A key issue Africa is expected to raise at the G7 is the cost of borrowing. Many African governments argue that global credit rating agencies such as Moody's, Fitch Ratings, and S&P Global Ratings often assign lower ratings than justified by economic fundamentals.

This leads to higher borrowing costs in international markets, effectively penalising African countries. For example, some African nations pay interest rates several percentage points higher than advanced economies with similar or worse debt indicators.

Kenya’s role at both the Africa Forward Summit and the G7 signals its emergence as a key bridge between Africa and the developed world.

For Nairobi, the moment presents an opportunity to influence global policy while advancing Africa’s push for fairer, more inclusive economic systems.