Kenya Summit Closes with Sweeping Trust Reforms, New Global Institutions

By John Toris 
NAIROBI, Kenya — The inaugural Trust Summit 2026 closed Friday with the adoption of the Nairobi Declaration on Trust and Call to Action, a framework committing governments, multilateral institutions and civil society to concrete measures to rebuild trust in global governance.
Held from 21 to 23 October under the theme "Weaving Trust: Binding Strands for a Stronger Global Order," the summit declared that "mutual trust is the foundation for human progress, reciprocity, solidarity and inter-state cooperation and that its erosion is a systemic risk with damaging consequences for peace, security, democracy, governance, social cohesion, equitable economic prosperity, climate action and global public health."

Delegates expressed concern that "longstanding inequalities in global governance, international financial architecture and unfair multilateral trading regimes are exerting disproportionate economic and social burdens on developing and least-developed countries, undermining poverty alleviation, sustainable development, debt sustainability and financing for development thereby weakening trust in these global institutions."

The declaration commits participants to move "beyond diagnosis towards practical, testable, measurable, verifiable, and context-sensitive pathways for rebuilding trust." To deliver on these commitments, it establishes a Coalition on Global Trust comprising state and non-state actors, and an inclusive Nairobi Trust Council to be hosted by Kenya, made up of eminent persons from the public, private and philanthropic sectors, to follow up and review progress.

It also champions the establishment of a Global Trust Facility by the United Nations, resourced from voluntary funds from both state and non-state actors over the next four years and administered by UNDP, to finance trust infrastructure including national accreditation bodies, regulatory trust indices, data protection, cyber security authorities and judicial cooperation mechanisms.

The Summit Secretariat is tasked with developing a Framework for Action with a robust mechanism for monitoring, tracking and reporting on implementation biennially, while UNCTAD is requested to undertake a biennial study on global hedging costs of distrust to quantify the "trust tax."

The declaration urges "expeditious reforms of the multilateral institutions and the global financial architecture, including international financial and development arrangements, to make them more representative, transparent, responsive and accountable," and calls for the invocation of Article 109 of the Charter of the United Nations to hold a review conference on the Charter.
It cites the International Court of Justice's dictum in the Nuclear Tests cases of 1974 that "Trust and confidence are inherent in international co-operation, in particular in an age when this co-operation in many fields is becoming increasingly essential," and affirms that "African countries, regional organisations, national institutions and communities are equal contributors to building global trust."

Recognising that 70 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa's population is under 30, participants affirmed that young people are "critical partners in rebuilding trust." The summit agreed to convene biennially and closed by thanking the Government and People of Kenya "for successfully hosting the inaugural Trust Summit, and the warm hospitality accorded to all participants."

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