BY DIRRIBA TESHOME
The United States policy toward Africa has been stalled in old thinking for too long and especially during the leadership of President Donald Trump, in contrary to President Barack Obama. A combination of factors including low prioritization, an insular community of specialists, and deference to “bipartisan consensus” has resulted in policies and practices locked in amber for Judd Devermont. Although continuity and consistency have their merits, they also act as brakes on creativity, innovation, and fresh thinking.
As reason US policy toward Africa has been in need of a renovation-in both substance and strategic vision-to keep up with the continent’s shifting demographics and growing influence on the world stage. Africans will be essential to addressing some of the world’s prickliest problems.
The continent holds three nonpermanent seats at the UN Security Council, and it embodies the largest and most unified bloc at the UN General Assembly. A restored connection with African countries must prioritize engagement with African counterparts because there are strategic issues on the table. It has to levy real carrots and sticks, not just deploy moralistic arguments about a policy outcome, as in the words of Devermont.
The United States should expand its diplomatic partners and repertoire, investing in cities, deepening its ties with regional bodies, elevating its private sector, and working alongside other external actors; Devermont insists adding that the US should revamp its public diplomacy and communication with both African and US audiences.
By reviewing its soft power, as well as tapping behavioral economists, advertising professionals, and pollsters, the United States has a real opportunity to connect with the next generation of African leaders and advance its objectives in the region and the wider world.
This policy meaning leaves the United States ill equipped for new challenges and discontinuities—such as a global pandemic, for example. It valorizes a decade sold playbook and reflexively dismisses recommendations that swing from the script. Major U.S. policy initiatives, including the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the US-African Leaders Summit, and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) are exceptions to the rule and point to the potential for new policy breakthroughs.
The reemergence of President Joe Biden is a very promising to Africa-US relation. The respected US goals to advance democracy and governance; peace and security; trade and investment; and development in Africa remain valid to new President of the great nation US.
He is expected to pursuit of these objectives that has become unfocused and anachronistic. Over the decades, U.S. policy toward the region has become too encompassing, overstuffed with sub-objectives, and fixated with inputs, not outcomes according to Devermont.
In addressing the 34th African Union Summit, President Biden showed his respect to Africans and his people which they seldom got from President Trump recalling the past. “I am honored to send the best wishes of the people of the United States. This past year has shown us how interconnected our world is, and how our faces are bound together. That’s why my administration is committing to rebuilding our partnership around the world and reengaging with international institutions like the African union.”
Rebuilding Africa-US relation requires fresh thinking with collaboration in mutual respect. That is why he said: “We must all work together to advance our shared vision of a better future.”
The future he sees for the world is the one in which all are respected for the better good. “A future of growing trade and investment that advances prosperity for all our nations. A future, which advances lives of peace and security for all, that is committed to investing in our democratic institutions and promoting the human rights of all people: women and girls, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, and people of every ethnic background, religion and heritage.”
This indicates that the United States has begun revitalizing the shared missions of the global leaders as President Biden said: “To reach this future, we also must confront the serious challenges we face. That includes investing more in global health, defeating COVID 19, and working to prevent, detect and respond to future health crises, and partnering with the African CDC and other institutions to advance health security.”
This showcases President Biden well preparedness to cooperate with international communities for mutual benefits unlike President Trump.
“Raising our climate ambitions and ensuring developing nations can mitigate and adapt to climate impacts that are already causing pain; and engaging in sustained diplomacy in connection with the African union to address conflicts that are costing lives all across the African continent, as President Biden pronounced promising that the United States stands ready now to be your partner, in solidarity, support and mutual respect.
Therefore, the United States no more determinedly treats Africa as a “region apart,” divorced from developments in other areas of the world. And President Biden’s US policy priorities toward Africa are almost exclusively about local issues on the continent and wont act unconscious to Africa’s sway in the international system.
In general, like President Biden, the global leaders need to understand that what happens in Africa does not stop at the water’s edge. Africa’s setbacks and advances are reshaping how the world works. When piracy surged off the Horn of Africa in 2009, it triggered multinational counter-piracy deployments and spurred the shipping industry to adopt new protocols. When the migration crisis deepened in Africa, it remade European politics and contributed to the electoral success of xenophobic, ultranationalist parties. When Ebola reared its head in 2013, it served as a catalyst for the establishment of a new global health security architecture.
This dynamic is also true for positive developments. Mobile money, pioneered in Kenya, is now used worldwide, and African cultural exports, including pop music, literature, and fashion, are transforming the global entertainment industry. Africa should gain the right respect and position in the global issues and need benefit from developments.
The Ethiopian Herald 10 February 2021
