The Foreign Service Journal, May 2004

F O C U S 48 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 4 new initiatives to provide critical medicines and technical assistance to Africa. The U.S. government not only continues to support the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria but also is providing significant levels of new funding to equip Africa to confront its health system challenges. Among the more promising ideas for helping Africa is the Bush administration’s Millennium Chal- lenge Account. The MCA will pro- vide up to $15 billion in new eco- nomic assistance to Africa to complement existing U.S. government technical assistance programs, especially those addressing trade capacity development. Unlike conventional assistance programs, however, MCA will be directed to those countries that have met high standards for economic gover- nance and will create an opportuni- ty to forge partnerships between U.S. companies and their African counterparts. This will create need- ed leverage to boost foreign direct investment flow and technology transfer to Africa. Some of these projects could also be directed at mitigating risk for projects aimed at improving African infrastructure. Last, and most importantly, African governments and private business persons have begun to rec- ognize that providing a proper enabling environment for business growth is the highest priority on the agenda. For fostering that welcome trend, Rep. McDermott’s decade-old vision of AGOA deserves a share of the credit. The Doha Development Round is an example of United States-Africa cooperation that AGOA’s passage has fostered.