In 2024, the Joint Namibia–Amani Africa High-Level Panel of Experts released a landmark report on Africa’s role in the reform of the multilateral system. At a time when calls for greater equity and inclusion in global governance are intensifying, the report offers a critical African perspective on transforming international institutions and priorities, including the UN Security Council reform, digital technology, climate emergency, and global financial structures. Dr. Solomon Dersso, Founding Director of Amani Africa and former Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, will present the report’s key findings. The briefing will explore Africa’s strategic priorities, the role of the African Union, and the implications of multilateral reform for the continent’s position in global affairs.
Solomon A. Dersso
Dr Solomon Dersso is the Founding Director of Amani Africa, an independent pan-African policy research, training and consulting think tank with expertise on the African Union system and with a specialization on the AU Peace and Security Council. Amani Africa aims to advance evidence-based and policy-oriented knowledge on the AU, African regional bodies and current African policy issues, with a particular focus on multilateral processes on peace and security, governance and regional integration in Africa.
A leading legal scholar and analyst of peace and security and current African and African Union (AU) affairs, Dr Solomon Dersso served as the Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights during 2019-2021. Formerly, he worked as Head of the Peace and Security Council Report Program of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) after serving as a senior researcher, which he assumed upon joining the ISS in 2008.
He was also a research fellow at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional Law (SAIFAC). Apart from documenting and publishing on AU policy issues and processes, Dr Dersso has delivered high-level policy briefings and presentations for governmental and inter-governmental representatives and policy-making bodies including the AU Peace and Security Council, IGAD, the Panel of the Wise and the AU High-Level Panel on Egypt. His legal scholarship that covers teaching of human rights and academic and policy research includes a non-faculty professorship at the College of Law and Governance, Addis Ababa University.