Time to flip the script on Africa

In 2022, the UN Global Compact launched the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) in New York, to position Africa as a destination for business, trade and investment, with an emphasis on the role of the private sector. With the tagline ‘Unstoppable Africa’, the organisation seeks to amplify Africa’s potential through tailored, private-sector-led engagements across the globe. It holds its annual flagship event each September in New York. Omar Ben Yedder is in conversation with Global Compact’s Executive Director, Sanda Ojiambo.

In 2022, the UN Global Compact launched the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) in New York, to position Africa as a destination for business, trade and investment, with an emphasis on the role of the private sector.

With the tagline ‘Unstoppable Africa’, the organisation seeks to amplify Africa’s potential through tailored, private-sector-led engagements across the globe. It holds its annual flagship event each September in New York. Omar Ben Yedder is in conversation with Global Compact’s Executive Director, Sanda Ojiambo.

Discussing the Unstoppable Africa flagship event, Sanda Ojiambo says the plan was to make it an annual occasion right from the start. “Africa is too big, too complex and there’s too much opportunity for this to be a one-off.” It is important for Africa to be shown through a private sector lens and as a place of opportunity in contrast with the images of crisis, conflict and poor governance that often define it. 

“African leaders as well as private sector leaders have themselves said that we need to reshape Africa’s narrative. We need to see Africa for the opportunities that it presents. But there just wasn’t a unique enough multi-stakeholder, multilateral