US Engagement in Africa

Congress commenced consideration of the President’s FY2021 budget request in February 2020.

To date, the 116th Congress has not adopted many of the Administration's proposed changes regarding assistance to Africa, notably its repeated attempts to significantly reduce aid to the region. Allocated funding has instead hovered around $7 billion per year, excluding emergency humanitarian aid. As Congress debates the FY2021 Member are in consideration of the following: The economic, humanitarian, and health-related shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to have a severe impact on Africa’s development trajectory; Unfolding political transitions in Sudan and Ethiopia, which may have significant implications for governance and conflict trends in the region; and U.S.-Africa trade and investment issues, including as they relate to funding and overseeing the Administration’s Prosper Africa initiative. For more information, read the Brief published on May 20, 2020.

Briefing With Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Tibor Nagy on U.S. Support for Combating COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Secretary Pompeo has repeatedly stressed now is the time to reinforce America’s longstanding partnerships with our African friends, and that partnership has continued to grow ever stronger under President Trump’s leadership. With the current global focus on public health, it bears repeating that the United States is by far the largest donor nation to Africa, having committed more than $100 billion over the past 20 years towards public health on the African continent and trained over 285,000 health care workers. Millions of lives have been saved with our initiatives. With PEPFAR alone, over 18 million lives were saved in 18 years, and the President’s Malaria Initiative, or PMI, has helped save over 7 million lives while preventing over a billion cases of malaria in the last 20 years. Read the Transcript here.

Africa Day - May 25

From the First Congress of Independent African States in 1958, led by Ghana under the leadership of the Prime Minister of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, along with representatives from Egypt (then a constituent part of the United Arab Republic), Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon convened to discuss about liberation. Five years later in Addis Ababa, on May 25th 1963, representatives of thirty African nations met in Ethiopia, then hosted by Emperor Haile Selassie, with the aim to establish the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

Every May 25th, Africa Day (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) has become the annual commemoration of the establishment of OAU now African Union (AU). It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world.

Spotlight on UBA

UBA celebrated Africa Day 2020 by organizing two panel discussions with the following topics:

(1) UBA Africa Day Conversations 2020: Growth, Jobs and Sustainable Development Amidst A Global Pandemic and

(2) Domestic Policies and Regional Development and Global Agenda: SDGs and African Development at Crossroads.

For more information and to view the entirety of the discussions hosted by UBA

Silencing the Guns in Africa

By addressing border security issues and preventing the flow of populations, a program aimed at tackling peace and security issues is now also being an effective tool to contribute to fight a health pandemic. Read more about how Africa is working towards Peace and Security.

Stanford researchers harness satellite imagery and AI to help fight poverty in Africa

If we want to understand the effectiveness of an anti-poverty program, or if an NGO wants to target a specific product to specific types of individuals, or if a business wants to understand where a market’s growing – all of those require data on economic outcomes. In many parts of the world, we just don’t have those data. Now we’re using data from across sub-Saharan Africa and training these models to take in all the data to measure for specific outcomes. Read more as these types of partnerships need to continue and will go a long way for US-Africa relations.

Africa needs an economic lifeline to help it fight COVID-19 - here's why it's a solid investment

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank estimate that the region faces a government-financing gap (assuming a modestly supportive fiscal stance) of at least $114 billion in 2020. For its part, the IMF can provide close to $19 billion of rapidly disbursable financing to African countries this year; 26 have already received funding from its emergency facilities. In addition, 19 of the region’s poorest countries will receive direct debt relief, with the IMF Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust providing grants to cover their upcoming debt-service payments to the Fund. Read more on WEF that Sub-Saharan African countries also need large-scale external financing.

American farmers need to replace China with Africa as trade partner

The impact of the coronavirus is likely to harm African farmers more than American farmers. As developed countries shut down to fight the disease, they shut out imports of African commodities. From cashews to crude oil, trade is slowing and prices are plummeting, as the World Bank estimates the first recession in most of Africa in a quarter century as the economy shrinks by around 5 percent. The African Union predicts 20 million jobs will disappear from the continent as trade may fall by 35 percent. Read more on how the United States which sells more food and fiber to world markets can bring the best Foreign investors and establish Joint Ventures with African farmers.

Africa’s Lions and the Global Crisis

According to the World Bank’s preliminary estimates, Africa's total losses from the coronavirus pandemic could amount to anywhere from $37 billion to $79 billion in the wake of severed trade ties and supplier bankruptcies. This will inevitably have an adverse effect on African exports, which will be particularly painful for the countries whose economic stability almost entirely depends on exports. (…)The pandemic is particularly dangerous for Africas six lions - Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique and South Africa, which managed to make a great leap in economic growth in recent years. Read more about how the author argues that weaker national currencies, many of which are heavily dependent on the US dollar, are among the consequences.

5G Connections in Sub-Saharan Africa will Reach 28-Million by 2025, Says GSMA

A 2019 State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report released by GSMA further revealed that global Internet penetration has passed 50%, with Africa at 24%. Mobile Internet users will increase to 483 million by 2025 representing 66% of total smartphone connections. Read more about how African countries will continue to leapfrog.

Infrastructure Opportunities

Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) has over 400 projects including 236 transport projects. The infrastructure projects identified in PIDA require investments in the order of $360 billion by 2040.

Read our blog about Branding Aviation: ETA

Read more about Energy needs in Africa

For more information about Healthcare, read our last month newsletter

Industries Ready for USA

Afrolehar | Abrabrand Services

We aim to be your go-to multicultural communications and public relations company. We utilize technology, our creativity and our expertise in African Affairs to provide country image strategies, brand marketing services, technology solutions, business advisory and CSR program design. Cross-cultural branding in 21st century is pivotal in our globalized world.

Special Thanks

We want to thank International Development Institute (IDI) and Blooh for inviting Rahel G, founder and Managing Director of Afrolehar | Abrabrand to provide an online seminar on 'Building Your Brand' to their network around the globe.

We want to thank In3 for the opportunity given to Rahel G, founder and Managing Director of Afrolehar | Abrabrand to lead the women's program Grow and Glow and to provide 3-weeks 'Start Your Business' workshop to 40 women in the USA.

Fun Facts

Expected annual spending by African consumers and businesses to reach $6.66 trillion by 2030. These trends are spurring growing markets in a range of sectors where Africans have unmet needs, including food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, financial services, healthcare, and education.

While Nigeria has nearly 190 million people and Ethiopia 100 million and Egypt just little over 90 million people each, most African nations have populations below 20 million. Likewise, nine countries make up three-quarters of Africa’s GDP, and in 2030 three countries will represent almost half of the household consumption on the continent: Nigeria (20 percent), Egypt (17 percent), and South Africa (11 percent).

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