António Guterres chose his words carefully.

“Our world is in turmoil,” he said at the close of a high-level meeting between the United Nations and the African Union (AU).

“The impacts are felt deeply across Africa.”

His counterpart, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, nodded gravely beside him.

The symbolism was deliberate: a public reaffirmation of a partnership that, while long on rhetoric, has rarely been more necessary.

The two organisations are struggling to keep pace with a continent that is simultaneously young, dynamic and crisis ridden.

Coups and conflicts have flared from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa; climate shocks and debt burdens have compounded the misery.

“We need to adapt our programmes to the new realities,” Youssouf conceded.

At the heart of this week’s discussion in New York was the call for long-delayed reform of the UN Security Council, specifically, the inclusion of permanent African seats.

“It would correct an intolerable injustice,” said Guterres, invoking the Pact for the Future, the reform blueprint adopted last year.

The two bodies have aligned their development agendas and reaffirmed support for the AU’s flagship “Silencing the Guns” initiative.

Yet face fiscal drought.

The Secretary-General will press the G20 summit in Johannesburg to overhaul the global financial system, arguing that “Africa’s progress is being stifled by outdated rules.”

He also warned of worsening conflicts, in Sudan, the Sahel, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, urging greater investment in peace operations.

“The world cannot turn its back on Africa,” he said.

“Its potential is vast, and the cost of neglect, incalculable”