VANK announced that it will host a global digital forum on “Improving Perceptions of Africa” through its global policy proposal platform, WeForm. The event carries particular significance as it expands and systematizes VANK’s long-standing efforts to enhance awareness of Africa into a citizen-participatory global platform. Through this initiative, VANK seeks to correct distorted perceptions and prejudices about Africa while presenting a new model of “digital citizen diplomacy” led by the public.
WeForm is an online platform designed to allow youth and young adults to go beyond being passive listeners in global policy discussions and instead directly propose agendas and share their opinions. The agenda for this forum is available on its sub-platform, I’mpart, where participants can freely contribute comments on specific topics. VANK plans to compile and analyze these public opinions and work toward having them reflected in future international conferences and global governance discussions. In doing so, the organization aims to empower individual citizens to act as active participants (“Parts”) in global policy discourse.
The forum’s first core agenda, “Improving Perceptions of Africa,” serves as an open venue for identifying stereotypes and misconceptions both domestically and internationally, and for sharing ideas on how to address them. Africa, a vast and dynamic continent made up of 54 nations and home to the roots of human civilization, is still often portrayed through a single, negative lens. VANK has identified four key factors behind this bias: the continent’s reduced scale on world maps, fragmented and negative depictions in school textbooks, biased information in dictionaries and encyclopedias, and distorted representations embedded in artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Through this agenda, VANK poses the question, “Does our perception of Africa truly reflect its diversity and reality?” and calls for broad societal reflection and change. Participants are encouraged to freely share their views on perceptions of Africa in their own societies, examples of prejudice or misrepresentation they have encountered, and the broader implications for the international community and its role.
Policy proposals collected through the Global Digital Forum on Improving Perceptions of Africa will be delivered to relevant institutions, including the African Union (AU) and Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to be considered in future international discussions and policymaking processes.
Lee Sei-yeon, a youth researcher who organized the forum, remarked, “Today’s perceptions of Africa stem from structural biases accumulated across media, education, and technology,” adding that, “by identifying distorted examples and suggesting new perspectives, this agenda will help our society view the world with a more balanced perspective.” She also expressed hope that WeForm will become “more than just an online discussion space, evolving into a living diplomatic platform where citizens’ voices reach the international community.”
VANK Director Park Ki-tae emphasized, “With more than 200 million fans of the Korean Wave worldwide, Korea is already deeply connected with the global community. Now is the time to move beyond cultural consumption and take the lead in driving changes in values and perceptions.” He added that the “Improving Perceptions of Africa” agenda marks “the starting point of this transformation, providing an important foundation for Korean citizens to grow into ‘citizen diplomats’ who promote unbiased perspectives within the international community.” Park also reaffirmed VANK’s commitment to fostering “a deeper understanding and solidarity with Africa so that Korea can serve as a model nation for genuine global partnership.”
VANK has long been dedicated to improving public understanding of Africa. In March, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Yonhap News Agency for the “Know Africa Better” campaign, aimed at correcting distorted expressions in media and educational materials. The organization has also undertaken numerous initiatives, including training “Global Ubuntu” youth ambassadors, leading a campaign to rename “African swine fever,” revising inappropriate portrayals of Africa in school textbooks, correcting discriminatory terms in encyclopedias and dictionaries, and promoting world maps that reflect the continent’s true scale.
Moving forward, VANK plans to use WeForm to collect diverse public opinions, convey them to the global community, and develop them into actionable policy proposals. Currently, WeForm allows anyone to freely propose ideas and join discussions on international issues and social agendas.
Beyond the Africa initiative, VANK also operates a range of other global agendas, including joint responses to AI-related historical and cultural errors and leveraging the influence of the Korean Wave to address social issues. Through these efforts, the organization continues to build a citizen-centered model of global governance.