UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for a sweeping reform of global governance structures.
Today's structures "reflect yesterday's world", Mr Guterres told the Brics summit in Johannesburg on Thursday.
He said, for multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group to be universal, they must be rethought.
Global governance structures "were largely created in the aftermath of the Second World War, when many African countries were still ruled by colonial powers and were not even at the table", Mr Guterres said on the final day of the summit.
"This is particularly true of the Security Council of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions," he said of the World Bank and IMF.
The UN chief called for "a strengthened and reformed multilateral architecture based on the UN charter and international law".
"Fragmentation is inevitable if multilateral institutions do not reflect today’s power and economic realities," he said.
“In a fracturing world overwhelmed by crises, there is simply no alternative to co-operation.
"Redesigning today's outdated, dysfunctional and unfair global financial architecture is necessary, but it won't happen overnight."
At the summit, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and Argentina were invited to join the bloc.
Debate over expanding membership beyond current members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa topped the agenda.
"Brics has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is fair, a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous," said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the summit's final day.
Mr Guterres also told the three-day summit that world leaders must drastically step-up climate action and climate justice.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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