Africans are winning top jobs at international institutions
Until recently, the continent had been largely sidelined
THE WORLD’S big multilateral institutions are always keen to trumpet their global outlook. Art from far-flung corners of the world adorns their headquarters—and should a visitor ever need to consult a massive map of the world, one is rarely far away. Yet in one area their global credentials have not always matched up: leadership. Most of the bosses of multilateral institutions have been white men. Sub-Saharan Africans, especially, have been overlooked. Until 2017 only one had led a big multilateral organisation: Kofi Annan, who ran the UN, which rotates its top job by region, from 1997 to 2006.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Africans at the top”
From the December 11th 2021 edition
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