With the new millennium still young, Africa, the UN and the rest of the international community are struggling to meet what Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called “the challenges of a changing world.” In his report In Larger Freedom, Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All, released in March 2005, Mr. Annan called on world leaders to recognize three fundamental freedoms; the freedom from want, the freedom from fear and the freedom to live in dignity, and to transform the UN to meet the demands of the new century. It was an ambitious agenda for change, and important results were achieved when world leaders met at the UN World Summit, held in New York, 14-16 September 2005. Africa, the region bearing the heaviest burden of poverty and conflict, has much at stake and will continue to shape the reform process as negotiations among countries continue in the General Assembly at least until June 2006

Ernest Schutz