Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, former Head of the UN Office for West Africa, is urging African leaders to enact strong political finance rules to ensure transparency in how monies are sourced for campaigns.

“The adoption of the Accra Declaration will be meaningless unless it is linked to the liberation of African politics from the tyranny of money,” he noted.

Dr Ibn Chambas was delivering the keynote address after the Accra Declaration on Regulating Financing of Politics in Africa was adopted by delegates at the High-Level Convening, hosted in Ghana.

The Declaration is aimed at advancing democratic integrity in Africa.

Among other things, it seeks to improve transparency, accountability and integrity on a continent considered to have the lowest share of countries with a high level of political finance regulation of any region globally.

The Declaration calls for continued collaboration among African institutions, research organisations and development partners to advance political finance reforms and monitor progress on agreed commitments.

Dr Ibn Chambas, the African Union High Representative for Silencing the Guns, pointed out that “nothing tests statesmanship more severely than legislating transparency into the very system that brought you to power”.

Drawing on decades of experience in peacebuilding across the continent, he said failures in political governance often fuelled instability.

While congratulating delegates on the milestone, the diplomat said effective implementation of the Accra Declaration would determine its success.

“I congratulate you most warmly. But permit me, gently, a caution at the outset: on our continent, adopting declarations is the easy part. Africa’s archives are heavy with eloquent commitments.

What will distinguish Accra is not what we proclaimed at midday on the sixteenth of July, but what we can prove by the eleventh of July next year, when the first continental scorecard falls due,” he emphasised.

Emerging from the Dakar Roundtable and UNCAC Resolution 11/7, the High-Level Convening brought together researchers, electoral bodies, Members of Parliament (MPs), government officials, and civil society actors from across Africa.

The African Union Advisory Board Against Corruption (AUABC), the Community of Practice on Political Finance in Africa, CDD-Ghana, Open Society Foundations, and Transparency International jointly organised the programme.

Building on three days of dialogue, evidence sharing, and collaboration, the delegates translated key insights into reform commitments, agreeing on a collective step towards advancing political finance reforms.

To sustain implementation, delegates committed to strengthening the Community of Practice as the continent’s platform for dialogue, peer learning, civic education, knowledge exchange and advocacy.