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By Michael Dewornu |Broadcast Journalist | AU Media Fellow | Foreign Affairs Correspondent
For decades, the world has been explained through a familiar lens: the “developed” versus the “developing,” the “Global North” versus the “Global South,” the powerful and the dependent. It is a worldview deeply rooted in the idea of the “Great Divergence”, the theory that, from around the 15th century onward, Western Europe and later North America surged ahead economically, politically and technologically while much of the rest of the world fell behind.
But what if that era is ending?
What if the story of the 21st century is no longer divergence, but reconvergence?
That is the bold proposition behind the emerging movement known as the Great Global Reconvergence Council, GGRC, an international initiative arguing that the economic and intellectual balance of the world is gradually shifting again, not through conflict or conquest, but through growth, technology, demographics, connectivity and renewed confidence across large parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
The argument is both provocative and hopeful, that the “Great Divergence” may ultimately prove to be a historical episode rather than humanity’s permanent condition.
Long before Europe’s rise, powerful civilizations flourished across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. From Timbuktu to Samarkand, from ancient China to the Islamic Golden Age, prosperity and innovation were never exclusive to one part of the world. The GGRC contends that the current global transition is therefore less a new phenomenon and more a return to a reconvergence of human development across regions and
there are already visible numbers supporting this.
According to projections highlighted during the GGRC’s first six-monthly World Economic Outlook reveal, the International Monetary Fund projects “advanced economies” to grow at around 1.7 percent in 2027, while reconverging economies are projected to average about 4.2 percent.
Across Africa, Asia and parts of Latin America, growth rates are increasingly outpacing many Western economies.
Uganda is projected to grow at 8.2 percent. Ethiopia at 7.9 percent. Rwanda at 7.6 percent. Vietnam at 6.7 percent. Niger at 6.5 percent. Even countries long associated with crisis are showing signs of recovery. Haiti, for example, is projected to return to positive growth for the first time in nearly a decade.
For GGRC founder Michael Benson-Colpi, these are not isolated statistics. They are evidence of a deeper global transformation already underway.
The movement rejects the increasingly popular “Global North versus Global South” framing, describing it as psychologically limiting and economically outdated. Instead, it promotes the language of “reconverging countries,” nations narrowing historical economic gaps through growth, innovation, urbanization and demographic expansion.
At the center of the GGRC vision is youth. The initiative seeks to build networks of young professionals, academics, communicators and innovators across more than 100 countries. Rather than encouraging migration and brain drain, it emphasizes building influence, opportunity and confidence within countries themselves.
Its structure is unusually ambitious. National teams are expected to include specialists in academic liaison, statistics, documentary storytelling, networking and diplomatic engagement. Plans are underway for academic journals, workshops, international conferences and even a 15-module undergraduate course on “Accelerating Reconvergence.”
Already, the movement has seen strong interest in nearly 30 countries, with more than 1,800 expressions of interest.
The proposed first major international gathering is expected in Tashkent in 2027, including a symbolic visit to Samarkand, a reminder that centers of wealth, scholarship and civilization existed far beyond Europe centuries before modern globalization.
The GGRC’s message also carries a critique of global power structures.
It argues that Western dominance extends beyond economics into media, education and cultural influence. Global university rankings, major international broadcasters, academic publishing systems and dominant political narratives are still largely filtered through Western institutions and perspectives.
This, the movement says, shapes aspirations and migration patterns in ways that reinforce dependency and inequality.
GGRC goal is not anti-Westernism. rather reconvergence is beneficial for everyone.
The objective is not for one region to decline so another can rise, but for prosperity to become more broadly distributed across humanity. In this vision, migration pressures reduce not because borders harden, but because more countries become places where people can build meaningful futures. It is a strikingly optimistic worldview at a time when global discourse is often dominated by war, polarization, protectionism and fear of decline.
The movement’s slogan perhaps captures its ambition best,
“Accessible. Authentic. Autonomous. Your story. Your voice. Your stage.”
Whether the GGRC evolves into a lasting institution or remains an intellectual movement is still uncertain. But its central question is increasingly difficult to ignore, If the world’s fastest growth, youngest populations and expanding markets are increasingly outside the traditional centers of power, are we witnessing the beginning of a new global era?
The GGRC believes the answer is yes. And for many across the reconverging world, that answer carries something increasingly rare in international affairs today.
