Vice President Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has called for urgent reforms to global governance institutions, arguing that they must better reflect contemporary realities and the interests of developing nations if they are to retain legitimacy in an increasingly unequal world, during a keynote address at the University of Oxford on May 16.
Speaking at the Oxford Africa Conference 2026, organised by the Oxford University Africa Society (AfriSoc), the Vice President pointed to Africa’s limited representation in key global decision-making bodies, particularly the United Nations (UN) Security Council, as a persistent structural imbalance in how global power is distributed and exercised.
She described this as “one of the defining governance challenges of the era.”
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang argued that legitimacy in governance is measured not only by who sits at the table but by whether outcomes reach and benefit ordinary citizens, especially those in developing countries. She pointed to high borrowing costs, rising debt burdens, and unequal access to international finance as structural constraints that continue to undermine growth, stability, and economic opportunity across the continent.
On Ghana specifically, the Vice President acknowledged encouraging signs of economic recovery, citing improved macroeconomic indicators and rising investor confidence as positive developments. She was careful, however, to temper that optimism, warning that strong results must not breed complacency at a moment when institutional reforms are still underway.
The Oxford Africa Conference is a student-led forum convened by AfriSoc that brings together policymakers, scholars, entrepreneurs, and global leaders to advance dialogue on Africa’s development and its place in the global order.
