Africa UP Close

May has been a busy month for us at the Wilson Center, with a trip to Kenya that served to convene new and original members of our Southern Voices Network, as well as hosting a number of local events. One major conference held here in DC on May 1 was on the subject of technology and innovation as tools to elicit social change amongst women and youth populations in Africa. A report of the whole conference can be found on the Wilson Center website, as well as some related interviews of conference.

This month’s blog posts reflect this theme through the eyes of a practitioner, African scholar, and mentor.   First, you will find a piece from one of our partners in the Southern Voices Network, “Paying It Forward: How to Sustain New Generations of Female and Youth Leaders in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Africa,” by Edith Kirumba of the African Technology Policy Studies Network.  Along with Edith’s piece include a submission by Liz Ngonzi, titled “Mentorship, Coaching, Board Service, Sponsorship…How Will You Pay it Forward TODAY?” and “Transformative Effects of Women, Youth and Technological Innovation” by Gregor Young of Management Systems International.   Our monthly “Lessons from the Field” column was provided by Vivian Lowery Derryck titled, “Mali Matters.”

However, the big news this month, of course, is the President and First Lady’s trip to Africa in June, including a trip by Secretary of State John Kerry.  In a short, precise statement issued last week, the White House announced that he and the First Lady would visit Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania from June 26 – July 3.  The stated purpose of the trip was to “reinforce the importance that the United States places on our deep and growing ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including through expanding economic growth, investment, and trade; strengthening democratic institutions; and investing in the next generation of African leaders.”  It further stated the President would meet leaders from  “government, business, and civil society, including youth, to discuss our strategic partnerships on bilateral and global issues.”   There were no further specifics, just a confirmation of the United States’ desire to cooperate in advancing “regional and global peace and prosperity.”

 April’s Last Word

“Looking Back at AGOA’s History to Inform its Future”

by Steve McDonald, Director, Africa Program and the Project on Leadership and Building State Capacity

Recently, I gave a presentation on Capitol Hill on the development and hopefully continued support for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA (Title I, Trade and Development Act of 2000; P.L. 106–200). AGOA was approved by the U.S. Congress in May 2000 and then signed into law by President Clinton with the purpose to assist the economies of sub-Saharan Africa and to improve economic relations between the United States and the region.   The original language of the bill touted trade and investment as not only promoting economic development, but for encouraging broad participation in a political process in “which freedom can flourish.”  It stated:

“Increased trade and investment flows have the greatest impact in an economic environment in which trading partners eliminate barriers to trade and capital flows and encourage the development of a vibrant private sector that offers individual African citizens the freedom to expand their economic opportunities and provide for their families.”

By Steve McDonald
Director, the Africa Program and the Project on Leadership and Building State Capacity 

This month has seen some remarkable events on the continent, all with wide ranging implications.  They include the death of the “novelist laureate” of Africa, Chinua Achebe, the seizure of Bangui by rebels and flight of the president in the Central African Republic (CAR), the arrest of former Zambian President Rubiah Banda, the constitutional referendum in Zimbabwe, and the first round of the Kenyan elections.

By Steve McDonald
Director, Africa Program and Leadership Project, The Wilson Center

I want to remark this month on the directions of U.S. policy on Africa under the new Administration team in Washington, but I would like to begin by a little self- examination of our blog and an appeal to readers.   A review of the outreach that Africa UP Close has made is revealing.  Since January, we have had a total of 2,025 visits, with 264 new visitors.  That almost doubles our total of 1,081 total visits in the last three months of 2012.  Quantitative measure is an important gauge, so we are very pleased that so many readers are clicking on us.  Just this month, we will undergo another major design and format change, which should make this site an even more useable and useful product.  And you can now follow us on Twitter where we will engage our followers in online discussion and debates.

By Steve McDonald

There has been palpable excitement in Washington, DC since the November election that reached a crescendo as we approached the second inauguration of President Obama, which took place just yesterday, as I write this.  Of course, the question on the minds of all Africans and Africa watchers is, “What does this mean for our continent?” Well, President Obama’s eloquent inauguration address didn’t give any hints.  He dwelled on domestic issues, constitutional construction, and policy deadlock, as he urged all Americans to come together in expanding the economic recovery, putting in place national health care policies, and addressing gun violence.   His only real reference to foreign affairs was to say that a “decade of war” was coming to an end.  Africa did not cross his lips.

Is this good news or bad?  What does it augur for the coming four years?

By Steve McDonald

When I wrote my first “Last Word” column, I promised that Africa Up Close would not become “a personal outlet for my perceived insights on Africa,” nor, I think I said, would it become a platform for pundits from the U.S. and other Western viewpoints to pontificate on all things African.  I said this because it reflects my deep belief that the African “voice” has been left out of most policy debates that occur around the capital cities of Washington, DC, London, Paris and elsewhere.   Our effort to form the Southern Voices Network – further information can be found in this blog or at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/project-leadership-and-building-state-capacity – was in recognition of this fact.

By Steve McDonald

So, here we are.  We have weathered one of the most divisive American election campaigns in recent memory.  What does this mean for Africa?  Current signals coming from high level administration officials are that the President will pay a great deal more attention to Africa in his second term than he did in his first.  The White House is already beginning to plan for a major Africa trip that will most likely be scheduled in the spring of 2013.  While dates and countries are far from being set, a great deal of thought will go into this trip in terms of what the focus will be, and what signals or messages the President wants to impart. Even though the trip alone will be an important statement, the key is going to be in finding the substance behind the rhetoric and fanfare.  No doubt, as Africa welcomes back the first U.S. President of direct African heritage, the ceremony and celebration will be exceptional.  However, if the June 14, 2012 Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) on Sub-Saharan Africa continues to maintain its status as the ruling policy document towards the continent, not much will change.

By Steve McDonald

We have just finished our first two months on line with the Africa UP Close blog.   That month has been eventful, with a number of wonderful postings from our wide and diverse network of friends, associates and colleagues in Africa and with whom we work on Africa.  We have just begun to tap our immense potential for Africa UP Close to bring unique views, unconventional insights, and new “voices” to issues about Africa and US policy towards it.  Postings ranged from a discussion of peace education in Burundi secondary schools, to the dire situation in Mali and the Sahel, to lessons learned on capacity building and training programs, to Africa as a testing ground for US security interests, to a comparison of African and European integration.  We featured other news items, but did not, and will not, regurgitate American and European reporting on Africa.  Rather we will feature African reports from sources such as the Kenyan Standard, South Africa Business Day, and AllAfrica.com.  We will continue this coverage of alternate, Africa based sources for our American readers, sources normally not available to them.   Finally, we list coming events.  For the most part, at this stage, these have been Washington and East Coast based events, but we will continue to research and expand the list, to include other American and international events of interest to our readers.   We would ask you to contribute announcements of events that your organizations are staging, or about which you have heard and feel we may not be aware.