Category: Policy

Policy

African-American Diaspora Engagement at the Core of U.S.-African Relations in Multipolar World

By Kester Kenn Klomegah | Modern Diplomacy

The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington has placed African-American diaspora at the core for strengthening multifaceted  relations with Africa. The White House and African leaders have also stressed the importance of Africa’s voices, advocated for incorporating professional Africans distinctively within the institutional structures to deal with various bilateral issues and for making further inroads into Africa.

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Policy

The Good and Bad Continuity of Biden’s New Africa Strategy

The Biden strategy document fails to take a “whole of Africa” approach that Africans themselves embrace and instead reverts to the Obama-era billing of a “Sub-Saharan Africa” focus.

by J. Peter Pham Samuel B. Millner

The Biden administration’s new U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa, unveiled during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent swing through the continent, reflects little more than a commitment to the status quo. Despite the White House’s attempt to spin it as a “new vision for a 21st Century U.S.-African Partnership,” Africa watchers on and off the continent will note that much remains unchanged, both for good and for ill.

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Policy

Why Biden Should Upgrade U.S. Africa Policy

BY AUBREY HRUBY | Foreign Policy

U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy toward Africa will be remembered by its tone of disrespect, from his calling African nations “shithole countries” to canceled cabinet-level trips to the region. But while he needs to restore civility to U.S. foreign policy, President-elect Joe Biden shouldn’t fully reject Trump-era Africa policy when he takes office. In part, that’s because Africa policy is unique. It has historically been uncontroversially bipartisan, and U.S. presidents from Bill Clinton to Trump have continued their predecessors’ Africa programs.

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Policy

US foreign policy toward Africa: An African citizen perspective

E. Gyimah-Boadi, Landry Signé, and Josephine Appiah-Nyamekye Sanny | Brookings Institution

Despite the Trump administration’s announced December 2018 Africa strategy, a significant gap between the lofty blueprint and the concrete actions needed to turn it into reality remains. U.S. interests in the region are being increasingly undermined as China, Russia, and other powers move to fill the policy spaces left vacant by the United States and other Western nations.

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Policy

A look at Biden-Harris ‘Agenda for African Diaspora’

By Gerren Keith Gaynor | TheGrio

A few days before the November 3rd election, the campaign for then President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President elect Kamala Harris released an agenda to support the African diaspora. The comprehensive plan aims to address the inequities and bolster the socio-economic conditions for citizens and immigrants of African descent living in the United States.

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Policy

There’s a lot riding on the outcome of the US presidential election in terms of Africa’s relations with China

A Trump victory in the 3 November US elections is likely to see the US intensify its attempts to roll back China’s successful Africa policy. A Biden administration will find areas in which its US-Africa policy will converge with that of China. The US and China will be more likely to cooperate within multilateral forums and will actively seek a multilateral approach to global challenges, such as peacekeeping and health matters.

By David Monyae | Daily Maverick

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Policy

The US government makes its big push for investment in Africa

by David A. Wemer | Atlantic Council

Buoyed by bipartisan commitment and a new government agency, the United States has taken new and significant steps to help drive investment in Africa, strengthen the region’s dynamic economies, create lucrative opportunities for US and African businesses, and advance US foreign-policy goals in the region.

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Policy

US/Africa policy must have voices of ordinary people from across the continent

By Naunihal Singh | Africa Report

Regardless of who wins the US elections in November, analysts have argued that a process of updating and revitalising US policy towards Africa is overdue. New data from Afrobarometer’s latest round of public attitude surveys conducted across 18 African countries during 2019/2020 provide several guideposts for US policy makers.

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Policy

US-Africa trade relations: Why is AGOA better than a bilateral free trade agreement?

By Gracelin Baskaran | Brookings Institution

In recent months, the U.S. began negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement with Kenya. These negotiations are aligned with the current administration’s vision for trade reciprocity rather than unilateral trade preference programs. Although these negotiations could produce the first bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and a sub-Saharan African country, a shift from regional preferential trade agreements to bilateral free trade agreements could undermine the growth of smaller countries, who may not be of enough economic interest to the United States.

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Policy

‘Green New Deal in Africa’ on Trump’s list of foreign aid cuts

By Dave Boyer

Money for a “Green New Deal in Africa” and a solar panel project for Central Asia are among the targets for the Trump White House as it aims to slash what it sees as a bloated U.S. foreign aid budget.

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Policy

Ethiopia’s financial reforms hold promise for its diaspora business community

By Haleluya Hadero

Ethiopia’s parliament this week passed a bill to allow members of the Ethiopian diaspora, who have taken up nationalities in other countries, to invest, buy shares, and set up lending businesses in the country’s state-dominated financial sector.

It’s the latest step in a general push to liberalize the country’s economy. The government has previously said it will privatize Ethio Telecom, the state-owned telecommunication monopoly.

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Policy

More than Just Investment: Why America Was Once So Popular in Africa

Nick J. Danby

After two nefarious scrambles for Africa during the colonialism of the nineteenth-century and the Cold War in the twentieth century, another surge in foreign activity—another scramble—has affected Africa. With its exponential population and economic potential, governments and corporations from outside Africa have strengthened their relationships on the continent.

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Policy

How bonds aimed at the diaspora can raise crucial funds for Africa

By Jay Benson

Nigeria’s first diaspora bond, issued in 2017, was a resounding success. It raised $300 million for investment in infrastructure from Nigerians overseas and was oversubscribed by 130%. The government is now reportedly planning a second similar offering.

As many African countries attempt to raise development finance, diaspora bonds – which resemble other kinds of bonds but are targeted at citizens abroad – are highly appealing.

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Policy

America pledges an ‘unwavering’ commitment to higher education in Africa

By Edwin Naidu

Senior United States diplomat Tibor Nagy, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said his country is committed to strengthening ties on the African continent through stronger trade links and investment in higher education.

Nagy, the former vice-provost for international affairs at Texas Tech University in the US, spoke glowingly of the “enduring partnership between the United States and South Africa”.

Read more from source

Policy

Economic ‘Game Changer’? African Leaders Launch Free-Trade Zone

By Boureima Balima

African leaders launched a continental free-trade zone on Sunday that if successful would unite 1.3 billion people, create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development.

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Policy

Can Trump’s Prosper Africa make America greater than China and other partners in Africa?

By Landry Signé and Eric Olander

The official launch of the Trump Administration’s Prosper Africa program at the Corporate Council on Africa’s U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Mozambique on June 19 comes after months of policy talk about ramping up trade and investment between the United States and African countries. Prosper Africa aligns with the Trump administration’s Africa strategy, introduced by National Security Adviser John Bolton last December, which aims to promote prosperity, security, and stability in U.S.-Africa relations, and confirms the administration’s prioritization of trade and investment to reach those three objectives.

Read more from source

Policy

The Trump administration’s Africa policy

By Nick Westcott

Does President Donald Trump have a policy on Africa, and if so what? The answer to this question is both interesting and revealing.

President Trump does not seem to pay much attention to Africa. Apart from his well-publicised comments to a group of senators in January 2018 dismissing the whole of Africa as “shithole countries,” he has not said much about the continent.

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Policy

HOW THE BUILD ACT CAN INVIGORATE U.S. ECONOMIC TIES IN AFRICA

By Ed Royce and Robin Renee Sanders

Since the U.S. BUILD Act was signed into law last October, many people across Africa as well as members of the Africa Diaspora have been asking what this global initiative might do to help revitalize American engagement with the continent. The answer is: quite a lot!

The goal of BUILD or the — “Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act” – is exactly what the American private sector has long sought. BUILD does a number of positive things to boost the U.S.-Africa economic, business, and development relationship.

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Policy

4 things discussed during the US land expropriation talks in South Africa

A number of top US officials recently visited South Africa at the request of President Donald Trump as part of an investigation into the country’s land expropriation process.

The delegation, which included US Deputy Foreign Secretary John J. Sullivan, met with AgriSA, Grain SA, and ANC officials on Friday (15 March) to discuss how the land expropriation process may impact property rights in the country.

In a statement released on Monday, AgriSA outlined what was discussed in the meeting and the issues that were raised.

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Policy

Escalation in Somalia Is a Foreign Policy Failure in Progress

U.S. intervention quietly escalates in Somalia.

While the Trump administration has very visibly made and modified plans to reduce U.S. military intervention in Syria and Afghanistan, it has quietly escalated the fight in Somalia. U.S. airstrikes in the North African nation are on the rise, The New York Times reported Sunday, and that higher pace of bombardment has contributed to increased civilian displacement and all the turmoil that comes with it.

This is a foreign policy failure in progress. If the last two decades of missteps in the Middle East and North Africa have demonstrated anything, it is that secretive wars of choice are prone to mission creep and rife with unintended consequences. Rather than expand, U.S. military intervention in Somalia should be shut down before it spirals into another needless generational conflict.

The United States has had some military presence in Somalia for the better part of three decades, and the current campaign began in 2007. But U.S. strikes were few—zero to three per year—until 2015, when former President Barack Obama started an upward trend the Trump team has continued. Last year, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) reported 47 strikes. The first two months of this year put us on track to triple that by December.

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Policy

US INVESTORS TO HELP BUILD AFRICA

By Bolaji Samuel

The tension between the two economic giants in the world, China and the United States (US), might have a silver lining for Africa. The administration of President Donald Trump is set to increase investment into the continent, in a bid to counter the narrative that China’s influence in Africa is rising, while the US falls off with its “America first” approach.

President Trump signed the legislation, the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act, or the BUILD Act, into law in October 2018. It combines the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and other US agencies focusing on international economic development into a newly consolidated agency called the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

It is anticipated that the DFC will be operational in October 2019 and at that time the DFC will begin deploying US equity capital in African private equity.
The DFC expands OPIC’s budget from USD29 billion to USD60 billion and provides the DFC with the authority to make limited equity investments. Previously, OPIC was limited to debt investments.

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Diplomacy, Policy

A New Africa Strategy: Expanding Economic and Security Ties on the Basis of Mutual Respect

The Trump Administration’s new Africa Strategy is based on three tenets.

The first is advancing U.S. trade and commercial ties with nations across the region to the benefit of both the United States and Africa.

The second is countering the threat from radical Islamic terrorism and violent conflict. ISIS, al-Qaeda, and their affiliates all operate and recruit on the African continent, plotting attacks against American citizens and targets.

Third, the U.S. will ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars for aid are used efficiently and effectively. The United States will no longer provide indiscriminate assistance across the entire continent without focus or prioritization.

This was revealed by in a new report by Heritage Foundation after a session with John R. Bolton, the U.S. National Security Advisor at a session at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC.

Read more about the session and the report

Policy

TRUMP MAY BE ABOUT TO UNDERMINE OBAMA’S AFRICA POLICY |

An opinion piece by Herman J. Cohen former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1989-1993), U.S. ambassador to Senegal and The Gambia (1977-1980), a National Security Council member (1987-1989) and a 38-year veteran of the Foreign Service.

President Trump likes to overturn his predecessor’s initiatives, but so far the US-Africa relationship has been defined by policy continuity—a rare bipartisan bright spot among domestic and foreign turmoil. Yet there are clouds on the horizon. Public statements by senior American officials, including President Trump himself, foreshadow potentially troubling moves which threaten to undermine decades of mutually beneficial relations.

The first half of President Trump’s term has been good news for Africa. His first Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, is an expert diplomat and the right man for the job. Work continues apace at President Obama’s two signature programs, Power Africa and Feed the Future; at George W. Bush’s Millennium Challenge Corporation, and at PEPFAR, the hugely successful U.S. initiative to fight HIV/AIDS. Every year, more African nations are taking advantage of unilateral free-trade privileges under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

The military’s U.S. Africa Command continues to provide assistance and advisors to nations fighting Islamist terrorism and other threats to regional stability. These programs are working. But there are a few indications that the Trump administration could pull the rug out from underneath.
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Policy

Bridging the gap: Africa’s science landscape and the African diaspora

As I headed home on the plane, my mind was abuzz. The engines steadily hummed in the background, dulled only by the even louder thoughts that raced through my mind. The plane lights were dim. Snores ebbed and flowed around me, my neighbors nothing but still heaps piled under blankets. Meanwhile, I sat wide awake, staring ahead into space, unable to settle down.

I was on my way back to the US after a 3-week span of conferences and research project work in East Africa. This exercise isn’t new to me, however. I am a penultimate example of the “reverse diaspora,” where a particular area of expertise (my academic research) which is focused in Kenya has landed me there for increasingly more frequent stints every year for the past several years. While I was born in America to Kenyan immigrant parents, I was raised in Kenya from a young age.

I went on to pursue secondary education in America, and now hold a faculty appointment at a US institution. In some shape or form, I knew that I’d return some day.

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Policy

From Wakanda to reality: Building mutual prosperity between African-Americans and Africa

 

By Landry Signé and Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield

This year’s Black History Month is being celebrated with a higher sense of African pride, given the unprecedented enthusiasm generated by Marvel’s “Black Panther” last year and increased conversations about a better representation of minority groups.

“Wakanda”—a fictitious, prosperous, “futuristic, powerful, and proud African nation”—salutes black culture by “shedding light on black excellence.” After the movie’s release, many in black America—and across ethnicities—and around the world are wondering how to turn this fiction into reality.

During the hype of “Black Panther,” we both were giving talks on how to unlock Africa’s potential to African-American professionals, community, and business leaders. Many of them asked us how they could help make Africa as successful as the imaginary Wakanda. In other words, where are the opportunities to develop mutually beneficial relations between Africa, African Americans, and the United States?

We propose strategies focused on three themes: tourism in Africa; trade and investment in and with Africa; and knowledge, innovation, and technology sharing to improve U.S.-Africa relations.

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