The U.S. - Africa Summit: A Small Step in the Right Direction

“Africa’s rise means opportunity for all of us - including the opportunity to transform the relationship between the United States and Africa,”  President Barack Obama said at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit last week. The event - the first of its kind between the U.S. and the African continent - signifies a historic shift towards greater U.S.-Africa engagement and can potentially benefit both regions tremendously. However, much more can be done on both sides to take advantage of this strategic partnership. For America, it must balance economic growth with political and social development by promoting better human rights and democratic freedoms on the continent. For African nations, its leaders must capitalize on this opportunity to improve their investment climate and work towards diversifying their economies. The three-day event brought together representatives from 50 African countries and the United States in an initiative to boost trade and investment with Africa. It came at a time when the U.S. has been lagging in its economic involvement in the continent: in 2009, it was overtaken by China as Africa’s largest trading partner. The deficit has also been growing: in 2013, Africa’s trade with China ($206 billion) was more than double that with the U.S ($88.9 billion). President Obama hopes to buck this trend by making the summit an annual event. So far, the results have been positive; U.S. firms have already pledged $37 billion in investment. Other programs, such as Power Africa and the Young African Leaders Initiative, indicate that the U.S. is re-dedicated to the investing in the booming African economy.

While the summit has been a great move forward, the U.S. must do much more to take advantage of its unique relationship with Africa. Trade with Sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the continent with the most potential, stood at just 1% of all American exports and 1.5% of all imports in 2013. Although getting American private investment involved was key aspect of the summit, the U.S. government could also look more into creating economic partnerships, as its Chinese counterparts have so intently done.

A critique of the conference is that not enough one-on-one meetings with individual countries took place. While, understandably, there was not enough time for this at the summit, but personal engagement like this is critical future initiatives.

While expanding growth is important, the U.S. should be equally concerned with avoiding neo-colonial policies. Unlike Europe, the U.S. does not have the same imperialist legacy in Africa, giving it somewhat of a clean slate. It also lacks the growing reputation that China has as being hungry for Africa’s extensive natural resources. Yet, of the $39.3 billion that the U.S. imported from Sub-Saharan Africa last year, $26.3 billion was fuel, and another $4.1 billion were mineral resources. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, signed in 2000, cut import duties from many African countries, but this has mostly benefited the petroleum industries. The U.S. must make greater efforts to expand trade with the African manufacturing and service sectors.

Additionally, it is alarming that multiple leaders invited to the summit have poor human rights records. Although some of Africa’s worst offenders, namely Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, were not invited, plenty of others leaders, including Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, did attend. Interestingly enough, leaders from five invited countries (Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Uganda) have been in power before President Obama even attended law school. From these observations, it seems that the U.S. has become more concerned with economic over political development. While it is true that economic growth is the key to lifting millions of Africans out of poverty, America ought to continue upholding its ideals of democracy and transparency to create a more prosperous African civil society.

For Africans, the summit presents a great opportunity to put themselves on a better track for the future. Previously dubbed “The Hopeless Continent” by The Economist 15 years ago, Africa has come a long way. Although growth was initially fueled by a commodities boom, this sector currently only accounts for one-third of African exports. The African middle class, now an estimated size of 313 million, is hungry to consume goods beyond the basic necessities. America, with its diverse economy and its ingenuity, has a lot to offer Africa in terms of job creation and knowledge spillover. If Africa’s leaders can focus on making their countries better places to do business, investment will come. Furthermore, while it is important for Africa to better engage countries like the U.S, an even more impactful strategy would be to strengthen intra-continental trade, which makes up just 12% of all exchanges. Because growth in trade with the U.S. and other countries will be a gradual process, it is imperative for African nations to start looking more into their own backyards. The summit was a milestone in Africa’s revolution, but is a small step of a very long trail to prosperity.