President Obama’s three-day Young African Leaders forum officially kicks off today. The effort aims to facilitate good partnerships with Africa and reinforce Obama’s notion that ‘the future of Africa is up to Africans themselves.’
The forum comes at an important time. This year, 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa will celebrate 50 years of independence.
In order to honor this significant achievement, nearly 115 young leaders from more than 40 African countries have converged in Washington to share and discuss ways to empower the youth demographic, practice good governance and create economic opportunities.
According to AFP, these young leaders will have a chance to participate in a town hall meeting led by the president, meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and talk to other government officials and civil society leaders.
It’s events like these that can help Africans take responsibility for their governments and help promote and support accountability, transparency and stability. Read more about the forum and listen to keynote speeches at the U.S. Department of State website — and make sure to watch Obama’s live town hall discussion at 2 PM on the White House website.
In case you missed it, yesterday was a big day for two of our partners: David Beckmann of Bread for the World and Jo Luck of Heifer International were announced as this year’s World Food Prize winners. This is an enormous honor (some say it’s like winning the Nobel Prize) and we’re excited to congratulate them both.
The World Food Prize has posted some great bios, videos and photos of both winners. Make sure to check them out here.
And we’ve now got some video from yesterday’s ceremony, too. This includes speeches by Secretaries Clinton and Vilsack, along with USAID Administrator Raj Shah who all spoke at the State Department ceremony. The full video is posted below, but here’s a quick excerpt from Secretary Clinton:
After he received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007, Dr. Borlaug [the founder of the World Food Prize] urged our country to increase our stake in the fight against hunger. He said, “World peace will not be built on empty stomachs or human misery. It is within America’s technical and financial power to help end this human tragedy and injustice, if we set our hearts and minds to this task. We have the commitment, we have the technical power, and we intend to make this happen.
Yesterday, the State Department hosted a Diplomacy Briefing on Sub-Saharan Africa. Secretary Clinton spoke extensively on the region touting a relationship with Sub-Saharan Africa based on “partnership, not patronage”. Below is the video of her remarks. You can read some key excerpts here.
There’s obviously quite a lot here– let me know in the comment thread what section(s) of her remarks particularly struck you:
Reuters reports on comments Secretary Hillary Clinton made yesterday on the African Growth and Opportunity Act:
“Most of the work that needs to be done needs to be done in Africa,” Clinton told a forum about U.S. diplomacy on the continent.
“If you look at trade between African countries, it is abysmally minimalistic,” Clinton said. “African countries don’t trade with themselves. They have barriers and tariffs and customs problems that stand in the way of developing their own economies.”
Clinton’s sharp comments were in response to a question about broadening the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a measure passed by Congress in 2000 which gives favorable access to U.S. markets to dozens of African countries.
While many African governments hope the benefits can be made permanent, Clinton signaled Washington was going to look for signs that African countries are serious about improving their own domestic economic policies.
“The United States will do our part, but African countries have to start doing their part and making the changes that will grow the economies in the sub-Saharan region,” she said.
“It means doing things that are going to run afoul of special interests and government bureaucrats and businesses that already have a lock on a market,” Clinton said.
“They’d rather have the biggest piece of a small pie than a smaller piece of a big pie. So if you are going to have that mentality, it is really hard to utilize the incredible tool that AGOA is,” she said.
According to the AFP, Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai met with Secretary Clinton yesterday to “recognize that Zimbawe has made progress toward democracy as he appeared to suggest it ease sanctions”:
But there was no sign US President Barack Obama’s administration would ease sanctions targeted at President Robert Mugabe and his loyalists, the people with whom Tsvangirai has shared power uneasily for more than a year.
The United States — along with the European Union — maintains a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe, his wife and inner circle in protest at controversial elections and alleged human rights abuses by his government.
In an interview with AFP and another journalist, Tsvangirai appeared to make the case for at least an easing of US sanctions when he visited Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
He came “to update her on the latest situation in the country in terms of where the bottlenecks are, where progress has been made, and what the United States should do,” the premier said.
“There should be a recognition (by Washington) that there is progress, but (perception of) that progress may not be sufficient to convince the American government,” Tsvangirai said, referring to efforts to lift the sanctions.
DipNote has a good write-up today marking World Health Day. They included some remarks from Secretary Clinton (brief excerpt below).
The World Health Organization has more background and archives of World Health Days past here.
Secretary Clinton:
The rapid rise in the number of people living in cities will be among the top global health issues of the 21st century. The World Health Organization estimates that six out of every 10 people will be city dwellers by 2030, rising to seven out of 10 by 2050. In many cases, especially in the developing world, the speed of urbanization has outpaced the ability of governments to build and maintain essential health, water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure and provide basic services.
Disease is both a symptom of poverty — with over-crowding, inadequate infrastructure and lack of health care increasing transmission and susceptibility — and also a contributor to poverty. Poor health shreds communities, undermines economic opportunity, and holds back progress. And it denies children around the world the opportunity to live up to their full God-given potential. We have also seen that oceans and borders are no defense against the pandemics that threaten us all. These are global challenges that demand a global response.
The United States and our international partners are committed to improving health and strengthening health systems around the world. We understand that addressing global health challenges is not just a humanitarian imperative — it will also bolster global security, foster political stability and promote economic growth and development.
As we blogged yesterday, there was a Haiti Donors Conference in New York where donors were able to collaborate and strategize about getting the necessary resources to Haiti as it rebuilds.
The State Department produced this video for the conference that I thought was worth sharing:
And here’s video from the Conference itself, with Secretary Clinton’s closing remarks:
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In case you missed it, yesterday was a big day for two of our partners: David Beckmann of Bread for the World and Jo Luck of Heifer International were announced as this year’s World Food Prize winners. This is an enormous honor (some say it’s like winning the Nobel Prize) and we’re excited to congratulate them both.
