About us

Africa Global Emergence Center
The Africa Global Emergence Center (AGEC) is registered in Ghana as a non-profit independent policy, research, advocacy and advisory services non-profit organisation, which is committed to promoting an enhanced position and role for Africa at the world stage. We seek to be a key partner in actualizing Africa’s narrative as the newest and last frontier of growth and prosperity.

Background and Context
There is no doubt that Africa has suffered growth deficit from the late 1970s through to the early 1990s. The performance of the continent on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has not been too impressive, as many of the key goals were not met. Today the story is quite different. From the economy through social, political to human development index the continent is presenting an impressive narrative of itself. New development targets are emerging and require the attention of the continent to build on in continuity of its growth and success story. In September 2015, member states and governments of the United Nations adopted a new set of development goals the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to succeed the MDGs. At the regional level, the Africa Union Commission has adopted the Addis Ababa Action Agenda 2063. The Africa Global Emergence Center programme is informed and shaped by the new and emerging narratives of the continent in solidarity with partners within and outside Africa, in particular Africans in the diaspora.

The key policy and programme objective of Africa Global Emergence Center is to advocate in support of the impressive “Africa rising” narratives of the continent through research and knowledge mobilisation, effective communication and partnership. The effective advocacy for these positives narratives has the greatest potential for inspiring speedy growth and economic transformation through creativity and innovation.

Historically Africa has been given negative development labels-a continent of underdevelopment, poverty, malnutrition, poor health and stagnated growth. The poor balance sheet of growth in the late 1960s through to early 1990s seeks to affirm the negative perception of Africa. Indeed, this negative portrayal of the continent has been perpetuated by the mass media that consistently capture and disseminate dark images of the continent leaving behind numerous bright spots that have been deliberately painted through dint of hard work, creativity and innovation. One of the most prominent objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 was to have member States halve their levels of absolute poverty by 2015. Halfway through to the target year, data on poverty shows that sub-Saharan Africa has been successful in reducing the absolute number of poor people from 47 per cent to 41 per cent of the total population between 1999 and 2004 (Chen and Ravaillon, 2007).  Despite this record, reports of the media and research tend to highlight the inability of Sub-Saharan Africa to make progress towards achieving the MDGs.