Kenya Fm Amina Mohamed calls for reformed UN, World Trade Organisation

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has called for the reform of the World Trade Organisation, the United Nations and other institutions of international cooperation to improve their legitimacy, accountability and effectiveness.

Speaking during the Athens Democracy Forum in Greece, Ms Mohamed said the reforms could help reverse the emerging trend in which national interests override the need for international solidarity, becoming a recipe for chaos and conflict.

Ms Mohamed said the institutions are core to global peace, order and development.

GLOBAL CHALLENGES

“Many of the challenges we face today – from climate change, migration and terrorism to trade and health – are global in nature and can only be effectively tackled within the framework of international institutions of cooperation,” said Ms Mohamed.

She blamed the growing opposition to institutions of global governance on their rigidity and failure to adjust to the changing global landscape.

“To be relevant in the 21st century, the WTO must adjust to the modern economic environment which is today vastly different from what obtained when the WTO was established in 1995,” she said.

Other participants included Swedish foreign minister, Ms Margot Wallstrom, Ukraine foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin, the executive head of UN Democracy Fund, Ms Annika Kaminis, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.