On the Security Council, a continent of more than one billion four hundred million people deliberates without a permanent seat. President Macky Sall's candidacy for UN Secretary-General starts from that fact and from one constant: the institutions of 1945 must answer for the world of 2026. The body where peace is decided still carries the geography of a war that ended eighty years ago.

A map of power fixed in 1945. The Council has five permanent members holding a veto, in a composition that mirrors the order of San Francisco. Africa supplies a large share of peacekeeping personnel and accounts for a large share of the files on the Council's agenda. On the decisions that concern it most, it carries little weight.

The Ezulwini Consensus, a long-standing African position. In 2005 the African Union settled a precise demand at Ezulwini: two permanent seats with the corresponding prerogatives and five non-permanent seats. That position has held ever since. President Macky Sall defended it as chair of the African Union in 2022 and would carry it into the Secretariat, where the office-holder has no vote and shapes the debate through analysis and good offices.

Pressure from the Secretariat on reform. Amending the Charter belongs to the states, and the Secretariat does not stand in for them. What it can do is keep the question open, put a figure on the cost of inertia, and recall that an institution judged unjust by a growing share of its members eventually loses their allegiance.

Representation and the authority of resolutions. A Council that durably shuts Africa out of permanent decisions weakens the authority of its own resolutions. Reform is the condition of a word that binds every member of the Organization.

A position defended at the head of the African Union. These commitments on Council reform rest on twelve years as head of state and on the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames them as obligations, among them a renewed multilateralism.

Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.

The Ezulwini Consensus is a public document of the African Union. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net