From the broad-based issues addressed at the just-ended Kinshasa summit, the Francophonie is better positioning itself in world governance.

The 14th summit of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, OIF, ended in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo last Sunday with a 60-point declaration addressing issues as wide apart as climate change and human rights. Many observers note that this summit did not only reveal the Francophonie as an organization to henceforth count on, but presented a face of the DREC very different from the cartoon presentations the vast continent-nation has often suffered from.

Cameroon as a country and member of the organization had many achievements to count during this summit.

First of all, the participation of President Paul Biya was in itself an event within the event, as attested by the importance attributed to his presence by many francophone media organizations. As the Doyen of Heads of State of the Francophone realm, he was given a choice place. The fact that he arrived last at the summit grounds and that it was after his arrival that business effectively started, is telling of the respect he enjoys within the organization.

This respect is far from honorary. In fact, a proposal mooted by the President of the Republic concerning the setting up of an Emergency Aid Fund to address catastrophes and other emergency situations. That proposal was made by President Biya at the Montreux summit of the Francophonie in 2010. At the time of the Kinshasa summit, not only had it taken form, funding had begun to flow, thus making the fund effective. This is an important gain of the Organization and credit must goo to Cameroon for this innovative proposal which could go a long way to make the Francophonie a veritable force in the prevention and management of calamities. Incidentally, the Fund was taking form at the Kinshasa summit the capital of a country which is victim to a number of difficulties many of which are man-made and which require urgent humanitarian attention.

An important outcome of the summit, though not very much highlighted, is the physical contact made between the new French President François Hollande and a number of African countries. Before the Kinshasa Summit, the air was full of rumour and misunderstanding over the real intentions of France, wont on breaking with the type of relations entertained with its former colonies.

The Kinshasa summit also takes credit for providing a forum from which there was a unanimous condemnation of the M23, a movement purportedly supported by Rwanda which has invaded parts of North-Kivin in the DRC with the aim of installation of an independent administration. Many see the M23 as a Rwanda-inspired Trojan horse set up with the aim of exploiting the mineral wealth of the DRC.

In the same light, paragraph 21 of the Kinshasa Declaration, for instance, “strongly condemns organized terrorist and criminal acts which are developing in the Sahel and acts of piracy in the Indian Ocean, the Golf of Aden and the Gulf of Guinea and express our solidarity with the countries concerned while calling on the international community to work for the eradication of these threats in conformity with the resolution adopted in Montreux.”

The place of Africa within the Francophonie was very much highlighted during the summit and by President Paul Biya’s reckoning, the fact that the two top officials of the body, since its founding, have been African, is sufficiently telling of this African influence.

The fact that Senegal, another African country, will be the next host in 2014 also testifies to this choice place.

Moreover, never has a Francophonie Summit mobilized a people as it did in Kinshasa with its 10 million people, to the extent that President Paul Biya, in thanking President Kabila for his warm welcome, made some undertones about the legendary Congolese warmth. Such that was witnessed in Kinshasa all through the summit.