Barcelona: Ghana's Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has renewed calls for greater African representation on the United Nations Security Council, warning that the continent's continued exclusion undermines the credibility and effectiveness of the global body. Speaking at the fourth high-level meeting of the 'In Defence of Democracy' Summit in Barcelona on Saturday, April 19, 2026, she stressed that reforms to global governance institutions can no longer be delayed.
According to Ghana Web, the Vice President emphasized the need for urgent reforms, stating that if the global community is serious about defending democracy, changes to these institutions cannot be postponed. She highlighted Ghana's long-standing concern regarding the necessity to make the United Nations system, particularly the Security Council, more representative of contemporary realities. The absence of adequate African representation, she argued, affects both the credibility and efficiency of the UN.
Beyond governance reforms, Professor Opoku-Agyemang called for urgent changes to the global financial architecture to ensure fair and equitable access to resources for developing countries. She noted that structural inequalities within the international economic system, along with rising debt burdens, continue to limit governments' ability to meet development goals and sustain democratic progress.
The Vice President pointed out that democratic legitimacy is also shaped by outcomes, and across much of the developing world, governments' ability to deliver is constrained by structural factors, including limited access to affordable finance, debt burdens, and unequal terms of participation in the global economy. She stressed that addressing these systemic challenges is essential to strengthening democratic institutions and restoring public confidence in governance, particularly across developing economies.