Witney W. Schneidman
29 September 2008
(Page 2 of 2)
Africa and the Global Economy
To accelerate Africa's integration into the global economy, and to expand prosperity on the continent, Obama would establish an Add Value to Agriculture Initiative (AVTA) that will spur research and innovation aimed at partnering with land grant institutions, private philanthropies and businesses to promote higher yield seeds, better irrigation methods and affordable and safe fertilizers.
Such an initiative will also address issues related to food security in order to alleviate high food costs in various African countries.
Barack Obama will strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act to ensure that African producers can access the U.S. market and will encourage more American companies to invest in Africa. He will also work with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to develop lending facilities to small and medium businesses, so that those companies under $5 million can become $10 and $20 million companies, creating new jobs, sustainable incomes and partners for American companies.
He will help to enhance the prosperity beginning to reach Africa. The World Bank estimates Africa's middle class will grow fourfold in the next 20 years, from its current levels of 12 million people in countries such as South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Kenya and others. Barack Obama will work to accelerate this process.
China's rapidly expanding influence on the continent holds promise for Africa, especially in the area of infrastructure development. Its growing presence is also generating concerns around saddling new debts on African governments, environmental degradation and worker safety on the part of Chinese extractive companies, and eroding the market share of African producers on the continent and globally.
Barack Obama will engage the Chinese to establish the rules of the road and to ensure that we are working at common purpose to enhance economic development on the continent.
However, it will be important that African governments are part of this effort and part of this dialogue; the days of external powers on their own deciding what is best for Africa needs to come to an end, once and for all.
Deepening Democracy, Ending Poverty
When it comes to engaging with our African partners to deepen democracy, enhance accountability and reduce poverty, Barack Obama will work with Congress to put more resources on the table.
But let's give credit where it is due. The President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with 1.7 million people in Africa on anti-retrovirals, has been an extremely important initiative, as has the Bush administration's program to eradicate malaria and address neglected tropical diseases.
It is often said that this administration's legacy in Africa will revolve around these programs and the tripling in development assistance from $2 billion in 2000 to $6 billion today, and rightly so.
Nevertheless, the picture is incomplete if we stop there. The reality is that the bulk of this increase is due to increased spending on HIV/AIDS, humanitarian assistance and debt relief. In fact, development assistance to the poorest countries in Africa has decreased by half in this time frame. Ironically, the percentage of development going to the best-governed countries has dropped even more, by two-thirds, in this period.
The Millennium Challenge Account may change this latter trend, given the $3.7 billion in commitments to 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
We have seen no increase in development assistance in areas such as democracy building, the rule of law, judicial reform, the strengthening of parliaments, education and enhancing the entrepreneurial skills of men and women.
To redress this, an Obama agenda will work with Congress to increase our investment in foreign assistance. Obama will spearhead an initiative to eliminate the global education deficit by establishing a Global Education Fund to help fill the financing gap for primary education in Africa and the developing world. He will also make the Millennium Development Goals America's goals.
On climate change, an Obama agenda will launch a Global Energy and Environment Initiative (GEE) to bring developing countries into the global effort to develop alternative sources of energy and mitigate the stark consequences of climate change.
Barack Obama's vision of leadership in this new era begins with the recognition of a fundamental reality: the security and well-being of each and every American is tied to the security and well-being of those who live beyond our borders, including in Africa. The United States will provide global leadership grounded in the understanding that the world shares a common security and a common humanity. We must lead not in the spirit of a patron, but in the spirit of a partner. Extending an outstretched hand to others must ultimately be about recognizing the inherent quality, dignity and worth of all people.
This kind of American leadership will also leverage engagement and resources from our traditional allies in the G8 countries, as well as from new actors, including emerging economies such as India, China, Brazil and South Africa, the private sector and global philanthropy.
Yet while America and our friends and our allies can help developing countries build more secure and prosperous societies, we must never forget that only the citizens of these nations can sustain them.
Bipartisan Policy
What all of us who are engaged in Africa have in common is a willingness to put partisanship aside when it comes to advocating for resources for Africa. There is no question that this bipartisan consensus, especially in Congress, needs to be nurtured, deepened and expanded.
The consensus was first forged in 2000, when the Clinton administration advocated for the African Growth and Opportunity Act. It was enhanced during the Bush administration, which extended AGOA three times, created the Millennium Challenge Account and, of course, the $15 billion PEPFAR programme.
This bipartisan consensus was evident several months ago when the Bush administration asked Congress to double to $30 million the amount that the U.S would spend on AIDS relief. In a stirring act of American compassion, Congress funded the program at $48 billion with another $2 million being allocated for programs in the U.S.
Barack Obama knows about bipartisanship through his work as community organizer, a state legislator in Illinois and a U.S. Senator. He understands that hunger is not a partisan issue, he understands that disease is not blue or red but it is very real. He understands that genocide in Darfur is not an issue of Republican or Democrat but one of morality and common humanity, and he worked with Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in 2006.
By every measure, this election is historic. In voting for Barack Obama, you will be voting for genuine change and, when it comes to Africa, a deepening of those partnerships that benefit Africa and benefit America.
Witney W. Schneidman served as deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Clinton administration. This article is excerpted from remarks to the Constituency for Africa 2008 Ronald H. Brown African Affairs Series forum on "U.S.-Africa Policy Agenda and the Next Administration" at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
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As an American Christian who has many friends in Kenya, Uganda and many other African nations I have spent many hours researching Barack Obama. Before I became a Christian over 25 years ago I had been a communist. This background has helped with giving me some insights during my research. I have, also, noticed that those African-Americans most involved in truly helping the poor are those that are most opposed to Obama. What I have found from my research is that Obama is nothing close to what people want to believe who he is. Let me give just a few of many many examples: 1. As a State Senator in Illinois, Obama took the side of the teacher's union against the interests of black children in inner city Chicago. 2. He has taken the most pro-abortion positions of any member of the US Senate including support for live birth abortion (i.e. allowing a baby that survies abortion to be left to die.) 3. Throughout his life he has been closely associated with communists and even American terrorits (Bill Ayers among others). Despite continual denials on behalf of the Obama campaign more and more evidence cames out about his shady associations. 4. He has claimed to be a Christian but in his own words one of his books, he answers his daughter when she asked where she goes when she dies by him saying "I don't know". 5. He is a major supporter for homosexual rights.
With the current financial crisis in America, if Obama is elected President and implements just some of his economic and tax policies the American economy could well go into a depression. This would mean much less US aid for Africa.
As I have said for the last ten years when I have taught in Africa is that it is a big mistake to look to America as Africa's salvation. The nation building principles of early America can provide good insights for nation building in Africa. America today has fallen far away from these self-governing principles.
Listen up John A, It's the American people that will put Barack Obama in the White House not your sorry opinion of him. 25 years is not enough time for a commie to change, still sound like one and a true Christian don't cast that kind of judgement. It is the American Christian who believe in Obama's vision and competence as a President, that means mainstream America, big America,little America, midwest America and rural America. You should research Christianity and what it means,happy hunting!
John, let's take the emotion out of it and make it about facts. The current global financial crisis was triggered by that phony make believe "real estate boom" of 2002-2005 in the US real estate market. John McCain was behind the deregulation of the real estate market. Insanity followed and only the wise ones knew what was coming. Hey, Washington take care of their "boys" first. Deregulation made so much dough $$$$$$ for them + their "boys", what do they care? They layman don't understand, who's looking? You can't Tie Barack Obama to scandal of that magnitude, (the one with rich white boys in power looking out for #1 themselves and their extravagant life styles) end of story.
Oilbaron there are no facts in your post whatsoever. The deregulation was done by Democrats....most of this country realizes this now. Key Democrats opposed the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, which would have established a single, independent regulatory body with jurisdiction over Fannie and Freddie – a move that the Government Accountability Office had recommended in a 2004 report.
Top 3 recipients of campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie: Christopher Dodd (D)- $133,900 John Kerry(D)- $111,000 Barak Obama(D)- $105,849 McCain had regulation bill 3 years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_FZCaKDn9k You can't question the words right from The chairman if the House Financial Services Committee Barny Frank's mouth.
The total lies like this and selective news reporting by the main stream media are the only reason for Obama's SLIGHT lead over McCain right now.
I'm a Christian and Obama's stand on Abortion anytime anywhere at any age paid by taxpayers and voting to allow children born by botched abortions being left to die is the reason NO ONE with belief in the teachings and salvation of Jesus Christ should have anything to do with Obama whatsoever. Can you tell me anything Obama has done to protect the people of Chicago where he worked? More people die there then in Iraq!
Oh yeah...he had a gazebo built.
Heavens, John, do i have to read through all that right-wing Christian rhetoric complete with all the talk-radio talking points... live-birth abortions, commies and terrorists... in this dialogue? How do these lies further the topic?
Obama is enormously popular in Kenya. Yes, he is half Kenyan (half white, too) and provides a sense of pride for many Kenyans. While in Kenya, I found myself in many political conversations with Kenyans from a variety of places and stations. I found myself apologizing for the actions of President Bush, trying to assure them that not all Americans are in support of his failed Presidency. The people I talked to are quite political savvy, more so that many citizens of my town in the U.S. The know what's happening. They are aware that Republican policies over the last twenty years have not served them well. They have much more confidence in Obama than McCain, a Republican. They see no reason to think McCain's attitude toward East Africa will be any different than that of George Bush.
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