Author: Executive Office of the President
Affiliated organization: The White House
Type of publication: Fact Sheet
Date of publication: August 2022
Sub-Saharan Africa’s governments, institutions, and people will play a crucial role in solving global challenges. The continent will be home to one quarter of the world’s population by 2050 and hosts vast natural resources, including the world’s second-largest rainforest and 30 percent of the critical minerals that power our modern world. Moreover, it is situated along major sea lines of communication and trade in the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Gulf of Aden. The region holds three non-permanent seats in the UN Security Council, and it represents one of the largest regional voting groups (28 percent) at the UN and other multilateral bodies. Africans currently sit at the top of several of the most important international institutions, including the World Health Organization and World Trade Organization.
The world is keenly aware of Africa’s importance, spurring countries to expand their political, economic, and security engagement with African states. This presents new opportunities and challenges for U.S. interests in the region. Allies and partners in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific increasingly regard Africa as integral to their national security, and many are committed to working with the United States to advance high-standards, values-driven, and transparent investments, as well as address political and security crises. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), by contrast, sees the region as an important arena to challenge the rules-based international order, advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests, undermine transparency and openness, and weaken U.S. relations with African peoples and governments. Russia views the region as a permissive environment for parastatals and private military companies, often fomenting instability for strategic and financial benefit. Russia uses its security and economic ties, as well as disinformation, to undercut Africans’ principled opposition to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine and related human rights abuses.
Foster Openness and Open Societies
The United States is both responding to growing foreign activity and influence in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as engaging in a region undergoing significant transformations to its socioeconomic, political, and security landscape. Africa’s population is growing faster than that of any other region and will be majority urban by the end of the decade. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), once fully implemented, would be the fifth-largest economy in the world with the potential to have a combined gross domestic product of more than $3.4 trillion. The region is influencing global entertainment, including film, fashion, literature, and music, in an unprecedented manner.
Lastly, the United States will continue pursuing public-private partnerships to sustainably develop and secure the critical minerals that will supply clean energy technologies needed to facilitate the global energy transition
These positive developments, however, have been blunted by the convergence of armed conflict and terrorism; climate change; food insecurity; and COVID-19 pandemic-induced health and economic woes that have set back 20 years of development gains and resulted in unprecedented levels of displacement and hunger. Armed conflicts and humanitarian crises in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, and across the Sahel constrain sub-Saharan African countries from supporting our shared global priorities and require funding of multiple peacekeeping missions and historic levels of humanitarian assistance. Moreover, the resulting fragility provides fertile ground for expanding terrorist activity. ISIS and al-Qaida maintain a presence in many African countries, conducting attacks that have killed thousands and posing a threat to U.S. persons and interests.
Foster Openness and Open Societies
The United States has an abiding interest in ensuring the region remains open and accessible to all, and that governments and publics are able to make their own political choices, consistent with international obligations. Open societies are generally more inclined to work in common cause with the United States, attract greater U.S. trade and investment, pursue policies to improve conditions for their citizens, and counter harmful activities by the PRC, Russia, and other foreign actors.
- The United States will work with African governments, civil society, and publics to increase transparency and accountability, including by supporting investigative journalism, combating digital authoritarianism, and enshrining laws, reforms, and practices that promote shared democratic norms. Consistent with the first-ever U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption, the United States—working with our African partners—will seek to improve fiscal transparency, expose corruption, and support reforms.
- The United States will increase its focus on rule of law, justice, and dignity to deepen resilience and undercut negative influences. Supporting independent judiciaries serves as a bulwark against democratic backsliding, including constraining leaders who attempt to embezzle funds, change constitutions illegally, or steal elections. An independent judiciary also provides a forum for citizens to seek redress for criminal activities, civil disputes, and human rights abuses.
- The United States will assist African countries to more transparently leverage their natural resources, including energy resources and critical minerals, for sustainable development while helping to strengthen supply chains that are diverse, open, and predictable. In addition, the United States will work closely with African and multilateral partners to address the drivers of food insecurity and boost food production to mitigate the risk of malnutrition and famine that the UN estimates is affecting nearly 800 million Africans.
Deliver Democratic and Security Dividends
The region’s commitment and capacity to renew its democracies, as well as anticipate, prevent, and address emerging and long running conflicts, can lead to more favorable outcomes for Africans and Americans. There are strong linkages between poor and exclusionary governance, high levels of corruption, human rights abuses, including sexual and gender-based violence, and insecurity, which are often exploited by terrorist groups and malign foreign actors. By simultaneously addressing these challenges and reaffirming that democracy delivers tangible benefits, the United States can offer choices to Africans as they determine their own future, limit openings for negative state and non-state actors, and obviate the need for costly interventions.
- The United States will seek to stem the recent tide of authoritarianism and military takeovers by working with allies and partners in the region to respond to democratic backsliding and human rights abuses, including through a targeted mix of positive inducements and punitive measures such as sanctions. At the same time, the United States will partner with other governments and regional bodies, including the African Union (AU), to address public dissatisfaction with the performance of some democracies, which provides a pretext for aspiring coup plotters, populist movements, and authoritarian leaders to undercut democratic values.
- The United States will focus its diplomatic efforts, leverage its development programs, and use its defense tools to strengthen and enable partners to respond to the drivers of conflict across the region. We will focus on improving the capacity of African partners to advance regional stability and security by enabling more professional, capable, and accountable government security actors that can provide internal security. We also will invest in locally-led prevention and peacebuilding efforts to mitigate and address vulnerabilities, leveraging the bipartisan Global Fragility Act in coastal West Africa and in Mozambique.
Advance Pandemic Recovery and Economic Opportunity
It is essential to address two of the region’s most pressing problems: the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant economic and social consequences. These challenges have been compounded by supply chain problems and food insecurity stemming from Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The United States is committed to working with regional governments and international partners to build more stable and inclusive African economies. U.S. support for the region’s equitable recovery is a prerequisite to regaining Africa’s trust in U.S. global leadership, increasing U.S. trade and investment, and creating U.S. and African jobs.
- The United States will build core capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats; address challenges for procuring and delivering vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics; support manufacturing initiatives for vaccines and other medical countermeasures; and strengthen global supply chains to increase preparedness for the next health threat. Public-private partnerships and regional leadership, through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the West African Health Organization, for example, will serve as a critical backbone for U.S.-led support and interventions.
- The United States will work with African countries to promote a stronger growth trajectory and debt sustainability, including by leveraging multilateral institutions, global partners, and international initiatives, to support the region’s economic recovery. Through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), which the G7 committed to mobilize $600 billion globally, we will leverage and streamline financing and co-invest to deliver game-changing projects to strengthen economies, diversify supply chains, and advance U.S. and African national security. PGII will complement new and existing efforts, including Prosper Africa, Power Africa, Feed the Future, and a new initiative for digital transformation, to help close the global infrastructure gap and support resilient and dynamic economies.
Support Conservation, Climate Adaptation, and a Just Energy Transition
Africa’s efforts to conserve and restore the continent’s ecosystems and rich natural resources— while also realizing energy access and energy security goals, diversifying its energy mix, and building sustainable supply chains—are central to tackling the global climate crisis. Although the region is responsible for extremely low emissions per capita, it stands to suffer from some of the most severe effects of climate change. As Africa’s energy demands increase to support economic growth, we will use our influence, development assistance, and financing to help African partners adapt and build resilience to climate impacts and promote mitigation strategies to achieve a sustainable and low-carbon future.
- The United States will partner with African governments, civil society, and local communities to conserve, manage, and restore the continent’s rich natural ecosystems, which can help reduce global carbon emissions and dampen climate change impacts. We will also continue and work to expand our efforts to combat wildlife trafficking and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. The United States will back current and potential climate and environment champions, including through U.S. initiatives such as the U.S. Plan to Conserve Global Forests: Critical Carbon Sinks and the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment.
- Under the auspices of the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), the United States will continue to work with African governments that are acutely exposed to climate impacts and have limited adaptive capacity to respond with urgency and at scale to the priorities identified by our African partners
- Lastly, the United States will continue pursuing public-private partnerships to sustainably develop and secure the critical minerals that will supply clean energy technologies needed to facilitate the global energy transition. The United States will encourage countries to enact necessary reforms to enable transparent and world-class investment in the region’s critical minerals sectors, while upholding human rights and complying with international environmental and social safeguards.
A 21st century U.S.-African partnership
The United States must reset its relations with African counterparts, listen to diverse local voices, and widen the circle of engagement to advance its strategic objectives to the benefit of both Africans and Americans.
- Elevate the U.S.-African Partnership. We will collaborate with and engage our African partners on global priorities, in addition to those issues impacting their own security and development. We will share our priorities, discuss their agendas, and identify mutual interests. We will broaden our vision of and expectations for senior level engagements, treating meetings with African counterparts as opportunities to advance outcomes favorable to U.S., regional, and global interests. Even when we have disagreements, we will lean in, agree to meet, and address differences head-on.
- Engage More African States. We will broaden our engagements, continuing to invest in the largest states while also deepening our relations with small and medium African states to advance our shared priorities, including the AU’s Agenda 2063. Safeguarding U.S. national security interests requires as much engagement with the small countries as it does with the larger ones. We will engage with emerging African democracies, surging assistance and seizing opportunities to support promising democratic openings. We will develop a deeper bench of partners by increasing our interactions and deploying higher level U.S. interlocutors to promote greater policy alignment based on shared values, including at multinational forums and international courts.
- Bolster Civil Society. We are more likely to advance U.S. objectives if the region’s civil society, including journalists and activists, as well as multilateral bodies and democratic institutions, stand up for shared democratic values, such as transparency, accountability, diversity, equality and equity, women’s rights, and inclusion. By ensuring our assistance, engagement, and public statements are informed by diverse local voices, we will more effectively support reformers, prodemocracy movements, state institutions, and the region’s youth and female leaders. This also entails recognizing the historical and ongoing connections between addressing racial justice and equality in sub-Saharan Africa and the United States.
- Leverage U.S. Private Sector and Domestic Leadership. The U.S. Government will increase its partnership with the U.S. private sector, as well as work with states, cities, and communities to showcase how U.S. foreign policy delivers for the middle class. The U.S. private sector plays an important role in advancing U.S. relations and goals in the region across a number of areas—such as health, infrastructure, finance, defense, clean energy, climate change, and education. States and cities also contribute to U.S. foreign policy objectives. In 2017, the City and County of San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System, for example, approved a $100 million investment into power projects in Africa and other emerging markets. To cite another example, the Michigan National Guard, as part of its State Partnership Program, provided training for a military hospital in Liberia. In addition, we will facilitate more African leader travel beyond New York and Washington, D.C., reviving a tradition of U.S.-supported trips to boost trade and investment, reinvigorate cultural ties, and forge new connections to advance our priorities.
This new strategy will spur us to refocus, renew, and strengthen existing programs, as well as recommend and develop new initiatives. The United States will prioritize innovation and partner with Africans to tackle shared global challenges and thrive in a more connected, urban, and youthful region.
Revamp Public Diplomacy Efforts. We will modernize our public diplomacy tools, and we will empower our ambassadors and officials to engage with African publics, especially youth and women, in more accessible and creative ways. We will also encourage more cultural exchanges, such as Ghana’s Year of Return festivities. Finally, we will redouble efforts to ensure we have sufficient human and financial resources to plan, organize, and execute these critical programs.
Support Sustainable Development and Resilience. The speed and the depth of the economic and sociopolitical fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic points to the need for accelerated and dedicated attention to reducing risk and improving state and institutional resilience. We will deepen our work with governments and regional bodies, including the AU, to support sustainable development “accelerators”: digital transformation, particularly in financial services and records; investments in health system core capacities, including workforce and infrastructure; improvements in supply chains for critical commodities; access to electricity; and sustainable job creation.
The United States must reset its relations with African counterparts, listen to diverse local voices, and widen the circle of engagement to advance its strategic objectives to the benefit of both Africans and Americans
Refine and Reinvest in U.S. Defense Tools. Effective, legitimate, and accountable militaries and other security forces are essential to support open, democratic, and resilient societies and to counter destabilizing threats, including in Africa. We will review and reinvest in tools for engaging with African militaries, especially programs that support necessary institutional capacity-building, combat corruption, and advance security sector reforms. We will condemn human rights violations and coups by security forces, as well as the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and integrate these issues in bilateral and multilateral security dialogues.
Drive Digital Transformation. We will foster a digital ecosystem built on open, reliable, interoperable, and secure internet and information and communication technology across sub-Saharan Africa. U.S. companies and venture capital firms are bullish about the opportunities on the continent, building undersea cables, expanding the number of data centers, and investing in dynamic African businesses. We will work to ensure affordable access to the internet, increasing data rates, and lowering costs, while advocating for open technology platforms like Open RAN to advance secure and cost-competitive telecommunications infrastructure and cloud computing.
Rebalance Toward Urban Hubs. Consistent with President Biden’s commitment to invest in urban renewal and infrastructure at home, the United States will help African cities plan for their growth in critical sectors like energy access, climate change, adaptation, transportation, and water and waste management. We will demonstrate a renewed commitment to subnational capacity building and harness existing interagency tools and capabilities to unlock the region’s urban potential and foster thriving, green, and resilient cities and infrastructure.
In his address to the AU in February 2021, President Biden reiterated how interconnected our world is—and how our fates are bound up together. Africa’s peace and prosperity are prerequisites to bolstering Africa’s ability to solve global problems. We recognize that we have vital interests in common, and our path toward progress rests on a commitment to working together and elevating African leadership to advance our shared agenda. President Biden noted that “none of this is going to be easy” but affirmed “there is no doubt that our nations, our people, the African Union – we’re up to this task.”
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