Africa is experiencing numerous successes, yet these achievements go unnoticed as the positive stories of the continent’s progress are not being told. This lack of a positive narrative perpetuates negative stereotypes.

“This continent has suffered from being viewed through a negative lens,” said Ahunna Eziakonwa, Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She was speaking during a fireside chat on Global Geopolitical Complexities and Africa’s Development Pathway, moderated by Gogontlejang Phaladi-Morokotso, Founder and Executive Director of the Pillar of Hope Project.

“There is always this sense that Africa is this place where donors have to dump their charitable acts. Because we are going to Africa with aid we have people there with no strength and brains,”  Eziakonwa said during the 2024 African Economic Conference in Gaborone, Botswana.

“This is one of the burdens of the continent. It is very important to change that narrative. It will have to come from Africans to tell their story of the dynamism of the continent and its diversity”.