Seychelles Calls for Multidimensional Vulnerability Index at African Union Summit
📷 Photo: African Union Commission
Seychelles has urged the African Union to embed the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, or MVI, in the way the continent measures economic resilience, warning that small island developing states are bearing the brunt of global shocks that GDP per capita alone fails to capture.
Speaking on the opening day of the 49th Ordinary Session of the African Union Executive Council in Addis Ababa on Monday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Ambassador Barry Faure, told foreign ministers and AU leaders that the war in the Middle East had cut Seychelles’ tourism arrivals by 40 percent in the first week of the conflict at the height of the disruptions. Several months on, arrivals remain down by 12.5 percent compared with the same period the previous year, a pressure compounded by rising commodity and shipping costs.
While the World Bank ranks Seychelles as having the highest GDP per capita in Africa, Minister Faure urged the Council not to measure resilience by wealth alone. With a population of just 100,000, he said, the country has a far narrower margin to absorb global shocks, and called for greater recognition of the particular vulnerabilities faced by small island states through the implementation of the MVI in any assessment of economic resilience. The Republic of Mauritius, also a small developing island state facing similar challenges from the conflict, registered its support for the MVI as a measure of the solidarity between the two countries.
According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora press release, Seychelles is also using the Council to press for diversified trade routes and stronger partnerships to insulate small economies from single-route disruptions. Minister Faure is being accompanied in Addis Ababa by Conrad Mederic, Ambassador of Seychelles to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union, Trisha Hoareau, Second Secretary in the Embassy, and Nisha Chengo, Second Secretary in the Ministry.
The Executive Council opened under the chairmanship of Ambassador Édouard Bizimana, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burundi, with Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, setting the tone by noting that the Council was meeting at a time of heightened global uncertainty. Both leaders stressed the need for African member states to accelerate ratification of outstanding AU legal instruments and to speak with one voice on the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, as reported by the African Union.
Seychelles’ advocacy at the Council builds on work carried out at the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum in Cairo in December 2025, where Minister Faure pushed for the MVI to be adopted as a practical tool to streamline access to climate financing for developing nations, as recorded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Seychelles Government also approved national measures last week to support the effective operationalisation and uptake of the MVI, including strengthened international advocacy, enhanced data and institutional capacity, and alignment of national planning and budgeting frameworks, as detailed in the Cabinet Business summary of 23 July 2026.
The Executive Council ends on Tuesday 29 July 2026 with the adoption of the decisions of the 49th Ordinary Session, ahead of the 8th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting between the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and the Regional Mechanisms later this year.
Sources cited: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora (Seychelles), 49th Ordinary Session of the African Union Executive Council, 28 July 2026 (https://mfa.gov.sc/news/49th-ordinary-session-of-the-african-union-executive-council/); African Union, 49th Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council Opens in Addis Ababa, 28 July 2026 (https://au.int/en/pressrelease/49th-ordinary-session-executive-council-african-union-opens-addis-ababa); State House Seychelles, Cabinet Business – Thursday 23rd July 2026, 23 July 2026 (https://www.statehouse.gov.sc/news/7151/cabinet-business-thursday-23rd-july-2026); Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora (Seychelles), Minister Barry Faure Calls for a Russia-Africa Partnership, 20 December 2025 (https://mfa.gov.sc/news/minister-barry-faure-calls-for-a-russia-africa-partnership-that-translate-into-measurable-outcomes-for-resilience-sustainable-development-and-prosperity/).
