The United Nations is hosting world leaders for its annual General Assembly at its headquarters in New York.
The event, which is the 78th session of the General Assembly, is slated to take place from September 18 to 22, with heads of state and government from at least 145 countries expected to be in attendance.
This year’s event is themed "Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress, and sustainability for all."
African leaders are expected to speak on global and continental issues as well as situations in their countries.
The current Chairperson of the African Union (AU) who is also the President of the Union of Comoros Azali Assoumani is among African leaders expected to give an address.
His speech, along with those of other African heads of state, is expected to reflect what the continent expects from the world.
Climate change
African leaders are expected to once again remind western nations that the continent continues to bear the brunt of climate change despite emitting less greenhouse gasses compared with developed economies.
Leaders might draw examples from the recent happenings in Libya, which saw Storm Daniel batter the region causing floods that killed over 11,000 people.
African heads of state are expected to call on the international community to honour previous commitments to provide $100 billion in annual climate finance, phase out fossil fuels, and establish a loss and damage facility.
These positions will be drummed even louder at the Climate Ambition Summit which takes place on 20 September on the sidelines of the general assembly.
Global justice
Another issue likely to be highlighted once again is the need for fairer playing ground on the global stage especially in multilateral institutions including the UN itself.
Africa has been pushing for a seat at the UN Security Council for years with the calls getting louder recently. African leaders might stress this in their speeches.
The issue of global financing systems might also be spoken about as African countries often say they are unfairly treated leading them to being in what some called 'debt traps.'
Food security
The Russia-Ukraine war will most likely come to light once again, with leaders stressing the impact it is having on food security on the continent.
Leaders are expected to call for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and also ask Russia to rejoin the Black Sea grain deal, which Türkiye brokered in July 2022 with the United Nations support.
The deal had helped to move more than 32 million metric tonnes of Ukrainian agricultural exports via the Black Sea, of which nearly 19 million metric tonnes went to developing countries in Africa.
Coups d’etats
In his speech, Nigeria’s President and head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Bola Tinubu, is expected to touch the issue of coups that have taken place in the region as well as efforts to promote democracy.
Five coups have so far occurred in the region: Burkina Faso (January 2022) Guinea (September 2021) Chad (April 2021) Mali (August 2020) and Sudan (October 2021)
In Niger’s case, ECOWAS initially threatened military action to reinstate the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum but later preferred dialogue as a way of resolving the situation.
Tension has heightened further as Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, three West African Sahel nations ruled by military juntas, have signed a security pact promising to come to the aid of each other in case of any rebellion or external aggression.
The protocol
Each president is expected to speak between 5 and 15 minutes, raising matters that concern them, including ending world hunger and poverty, improving incomes and education around the world, and increasing access to clean water and sanitation.
During the event, every country's leader, or their representative, will address the assembly. They can use any of the UN's six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
Speakers are asked to keep their statements to under 15 minutes, although this is regularly ignored.
Cuba's Fidel Castro had the longest General Assembly speech in history: speaking for four and a-half hours, in 1960.
Other key global speakers
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend, and is expected make a speech to the UN Security Council about the war in his country.
However, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, China's President Xi Jinping and France's President Emmanuel Macron have indicated they will not be attending.
The most significant outcomes from the UNGA often come from meetings between national leaders held on the sidelines.
The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation which was formed in 1945 after the end of World War Two with the aim of maintaining international peace.
It now includes 193 countries that are full members, and two non-member states - the Holy See (an area of Rome under the Pope's jurisdiction) and the State of Palestine.
The UN's General Assembly (UNGA) is the main meeting which decides what the organisation should do. It is the only meeting at which all of the 193 UN members are represented.
The General Assembly takes place every September, at the UN's headquarters in New York.
