By Ernest Nutsugah
Accra, Nov. 16, GNA – Dr Abdul-Jalilu Ateku, a lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana, has called for concerted efforts towards addressing challenges in multilateral institutions.
He noted that issues of mistrust tended to undermine the implementation of certain policies and agreements initiated by multilateral organisations and said until they were addressed the Organisations could not function effectively.
Multilateral organisations are formed by three or more countries with common interest of global priority.
These organisations may fund various projects using funds from multiple governments.
Examples include multilateral development banks or international financial institutions whose objective is to promote economic and social development in specific countries or regions.
Dr Ateku, speaking to GNA on the sidelines of a public lecture at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra, said nations could not work in insolation hence the need for multilateral cooperation.
He said though there were some “inherent problems”, the concept of multilateral cooperation or organisation was not “a threat to the sovereignty of nations” and underscored the need for stakeholders to fix challenges bedeviling the sector for Africa’s rapid growth.
The Political Scientist said this after his presentation on the subject: “Crisis of Multilateralism: Populism, Nationalism and the Rule based Changing International Order”.
“There are challenges that we face globally-terrorism, pandemic, climate change. These problems transcend territorial boundaries so, individual states cannot comprehensively deal with this, therefore, cooporative efforts are very important,” he stated.
Dr. Ateku, however, noted that due to the seeming mistrust among member states of international organisations, some states had become “more inward looking” or pushing their personal interest because of the challenges of multilateral cooperation.
He, therefore, called for “reforms” and urged nations to tackle factors that accounted for mistrust between multilateral institutions so that their agreements could be implemented effectively.
“States cannot work in isolation. It is important that they work together to address the challenges of multilateral. All the issues have to be addressed so citizen can have confidence in activities of these institutions. There should be reforms so that their activities can address the needs of citizens,” he said.
GNA