What if tomorrow morning you woke up and discovered that you could no longer trust your bank, your government, the news you consume, the medicines prescribed by your doctor, or even the international agreements designed to prevent war? Society would not simply become inconvenient; it would become unworkable.

That is because trust is not a luxury. It is the invisible infrastructure upon which economies function, institutions govern, markets operate, and nations cooperate. We rarely notice its presence because it quietly underpins almost every decision we make. We board airplanes trusting that aviation regulators have done their job. We eat food believing that someone has verified its safety. We save money in banks because we trust financial systems to protect it. We vote because we believe institutions will honour the outcome. At the international level, countries sign treaties, trade goods, exchange intelligence, and cooperate on climate change because they trust that others will uphold agreed rules.

Trust, in other words, is the world’s most valuable currency. Yet it is a currency we are rapidly spending without replenishing.

Across the globe, confidence in governments, institutions, businesses, media, and even international organizations is declining. Recent global surveys paint a sobering picture. Half of the world’s population expresses little or no trust in government, while only a small minority believes life will improve in the years ahead. These statistics are often interpreted as evidence of domestic political dissatisfaction. They reveal a global crisis of confidence that increasingly defines international relations, governance, and development.

We are living through what many scholars describe as an age of suspicion. Information travels faster than ever before, yet confidence in information is weakening. Governments have unprecedented technological capabilities, yet citizens increasingly question their intentions. International institutions possess more experience than at any other point in history, yet multilateral cooperation has become more fragile. While our world has become more interconnected, it has also become more distrustful.

Trust is far more than a social virtue. It is a strategic asset. Without trust, investors hesitate, businesses delay decisions, citizens withdraw their participation, and international negotiations stall. Even the strongest legal frameworks become difficult to implement when people no longer believe in the institutions responsible for enforcing them.

The international system functions because countries agree to operate within a common framework of laws, norms, and institutions. Since the adoption of the United Nations Charter in 1945, this rules-based order has provided the predictability that allows states to trade, negotiate, resolve disputes, and cooperate across borders. When confidence in that system weakens, the consequences extend far beyond diplomacy. Investors become cautious, development partnerships weaken, and collective responses to shared challenges become increasingly fragmented.

For Africa, trust is also an economic resource. Countries whose institutions are viewed as credible attract greater investment, facilitate international trade more effectively, and strengthen their influence on the global stage. The continent cannot afford a persistent trust deficit because perceptions of institutional weakness carry real economic costs.

Regulatory institutions, therefore, deserve far greater attention than they often receive. Every licence issued, every inspection conducted, every product certified, and every standard enforced represents more than an administrative exercise. It is a promise to society that institutions are working in the public interest. When regulators act with integrity, transparency, consistency, and fairness, they build confidence not only domestically but internationally.

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and data-driven governance makes trust even more important. Technology alone cannot create trust. Citizens are unlikely to embrace digital innovation if they fear their information will be misused or that automated decisions lack transparency and accountability. The future belongs not simply to digital governments, but to trusted digital governments.

Rebuilding trust requires much more than communication campaigns. It is earned through competence, honesty, transparency, accountability, and consistent leadership. Trust grows slowly through repeated positive experiences and can disappear almost overnight when integrity is compromised.

As Kenya prepares to host the Global Trust Summit 2026, the conversation could not be more timely. The Summit recognizes that trust is no longer a peripheral governance issue. It has become one of the defining policy challenges of our generation. Governments, regulators, businesses, academia, civil society, the media, and citizens all have a role to play in rebuilding confidence and strengthening cooperation.

History teaches us that societies rarely collapse because they run out of resources. More often, they falter because they lose confidence in one another and in the institutions that bind society together.

The defining question before us is no longer whether trust matters. We already know it does. The real question is whether we are prepared to invest in rebuilding it before the costs of distrust become irreversible. Trust cannot be legislated into existence, borrowed during a crisis, or manufactured through rhetoric. It must be earned patiently, consistently, and deliberately.
Trust remains the world’s most valuable currency. The challenge before us is that we are spending it faster than we are rebuilding it.

Article written by Dr. Anne Maureen Syallow, a Senior Lecturer at Strathmore University and a Research Fellow at the Strathmore Institute of Public Policy and Governance (IPPG). Her scholarship focuses on international relations, governance, migration, media, gender, peacebuilding, and institutional trust. She contributes to the Global Trust Summit 2026 Knowledge Series, examining how trust shapes governance, diplomacy, and international cooperation.