The Foreign Service Journal, June 2023

34 JUNE 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Kehinde Togun is the managing director for public engagement at Humanity United. He previously led HU’s policy and government relations team and has led global democracy and governance programs for 15 years. His writing has appeared in Foreign Policy , New York Daily News , and Just Security . Connect with him on Twitter @KehindeTogun. Maria Kisumbi is the director of policy and govern- ment relations at Humanity United. She co-leads the policy and government relations team that is respon- sible for influencing governments and multilateral institutions in pursuit of policy change and regulatory action that cultivate the conditions for enduring peace and freedom. Connect with her on Twitter @MariaJKisumbi. Civil society organizations, viewed with skepticism in some African countries and slighted at the summit, can play a vital role in development efforts. BY KEH I NDE TOGUN AND MAR I A K I SUMB I I n December 2022, the Biden-Harris administration hosted the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit—the first such convening of African heads of state in the United States since 2014. The summit occurred against the backdrop of the administration’s new Africa strategy, released in August 2022, which seeks to reframe U.S.-Africa rela- tions as a partnership. It also seeks to move away from the perception of Africa as a pawn in the United States’ strategic competition with China. With the strategy and the summit, the administration has been intentional about leaving behind decades of finger-wagging at African leaders and a Western “savior” mindset toward African people. Instead, the summit sought to create opportunities for African leaders to engage on equal footing with U.S. government officials. The administration also made several meaningful commitments ON U.S. & AFRICA: TOWARD PARTNERSHIPS FOCUS A KEY TO SUCCESS ENGAGING CIVIL SOCIETY