The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

32 SEPTEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL American entrepreneurship, technol- ogy, culture and, most especially, values are all highly esteemed. And Africans greatly appreciate two monumental U.S. presidential initia- tives: Bill Clinton’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), allow - ing for the duty-free entry of African goods; and George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), dramatically increasing the number of Africans being treated for HIV/AIDS. President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) has also made a major positive impact. Beyond bringing Mandela Fellows to the United States, the YALI network—an online community of young Africans com- municating with and supporting each other—is now at 700,000 members and growing. But Africa needs jobs now. An indication of the continent’s overall fragility is the metastasizing of extremist violence, which is expanding its scope from long-troubled areas to affect every region of Africa. And while international coalitions are actively confronting the extremists, they cannot be defeated by military means alone. Eliminating one group, without filling the vacuum with government services and economic opportunities, simply results in the emergence of a new group, more extreme and violent than the previous. At the Crossroads This is why Africa’s leaders desperately seek the types of investments the U.S. (and other Western companies) can bring. However, since U.S. presidents, unlike China’s, cannot order American companies to invest in this or that country, African nations that seriously want to attract U.S. investment have to do their part. This means implementing major and difficult changes: addressing corruption, establishing a “level playing field,” improving the judicial system, improving governance, improving commercial factors (e.g., fair taxes, employment rules, property laws), improving human rights, and so on. This is how the United States can help Africa achieve the more promising future. On the U.S. side, build on Prosper Africa to implement a truly whole-of-government mechanism to effectively support U.S. companies wanting to trade or invest in Africa. This would be especially useful to small and medium- sized U.S. companies that may be eager to invest but need hand-holding. On the African side, engage seriously with African governments that genuinely want to improve their local envi- ronments to attract investors who create jobs. In each case, this would require serious public-private partnerships and working with like-minded international donors, but it is very doable. And most importantly, we need to do much more with Africa’s youth, since in the end they are the solution. This means going beyond YALI to much more ambitious programs. For example, during my time at State, we tried to create a U.S.-Africa University Partnership Initiative to establish long- term, comprehensive partnerships between U.S. and African institutions to benefit both sides. The “big idea” was to help Africa establish the types of universities that could become instruments of national development, as ours have, and produce graduates their economies need. The plan was for student, fac- ulty and research exchanges; dual degree programs; training on how to partner with the private sector; and effective university administration. Our experimental model was highly successful: with $3 million we funded 10 projects in seven countries involv- ing 75 universities (11 U.S. and 64 African). The U.S. university community was highly enthusiastic, but our proposal went nowhere. In February 2020, we organized a widely attended conference at the State Department with representation from numerous U.S. and African institutions. Unfortunately, dealing with the COVID- 19 pandemic became an all-consuming priority within weeks after the conference, and our initiative did not expand further. This would seem like an obvious program for the Biden admin- istration to expand, especially given the increasing competition with China over which country’s global vision Africa’s youth will favor. Regarding Africa, we truly are at the crossroads. Doing what we have always done will leave Africa vulnerable to the dysto- pian future portrayed by the governor of Borno. On the other hand, recognizing Africa’s tremendous riches in resources and human capacity and helping develop their potential can lead to the dynamic future exemplified by the Mandela Fellows. One of the first things I did when coming back to State was to articulate a new slogan for the Bureau of African Affairs: “Look at Africa through the windshield, not the rearview mirror!” And that is exactly where U.S. policy needs to be. n T here is no reason Africa’s emerging youth “tsunami” should not have access to great jobs, because Africa’s potential is enormous.