Washington, DC — A month after the inauguration, it's not too early for the White House to start thinking about legacies. President Obama will surely want some signature development achievement that will outlive his Administration and help, in the public mind, to solidify the connections between Africa and the American people.
To be worthy of a US President, and especially one with a family connection to the continent, it has to be something great. Bill Clinton has AGOA. George W. Bush has PEPFAR and the MCC. So far, Barack Obama has made a start on food security, but nothing legacy-worthy yet. Electricity is his chance. Here's why:
1. The Energy Poverty gap is huge . Even in a successful country like Tanzania, just 14% of the population has access to basic electricity. The figures are all less than one on five in Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, and Ethiopia ( click here to view table). This should be an outrage.
2. Energy Poverty is deadly . The latest estimates show 3.5 million premature deaths per year--more than AIDS and Malaria combined-- from household air pollution from solid fuels. Many Americans may take electricity for granted, but it's unnecessarily a life-and-death issue for too many people who have no options other than burning wood or other biomass.
3. The United States can do something meaningful to close the Energy Poverty gap without new money . The USG already has the tools, American industry has the expertise, and, crucially, it can be done with no new money . A major new initiative by the Administration to leverage existing policy instruments and use current budget in a smarter way could easily help to bring power to some 20-100 million people. The upcoming negotiations for replenishments to IDA and ADF are also timely opportunities to promote investment in power generation and transmission in Africa.
We will be working closely with our friends at the ONE Campaign to encourage an ambitious new USG initiative to tackle energy poverty.
There's no reason that President Obama's lasting contribution to US Africa policy can't be a world where young girls no longer die needlessly from cooking the family dinner.
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I dont have to read whatever is the overidig reason behind this arguement to respond to it . Obama is an American President and any imposition of foreign job responsibilty in addition to his effort to rule America is not only unfair, but thoughtless and stupid. Dealing with Republicans the way the're being clipped in their own lies by Obama is not only challenging , it's as well engaging to most politicians in American history. It's insulting to call on Obama to fix power problem in a continent where bribery , corruption and brutal insincererity have cost monumental loss of live and irresponsible economic harm to half the global population . Africa is not short of intelligent academicians with all it takes to give power to the people, what is destroying the continent is lack of truth and pathological corruption . Deal with it to correct all economic, political and social problems ravaging the richest continent in the universe.