This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.

Ambassador Harriet Babbitt, Deputy Administrator
"The Road to Stronger U.S.-African Ties"
The United States Conference of Mayors, Summit on Africa
Washington, D.C., January 28, 1998
U.S. Agency for International Development

I would like to thank the Conference of Mayors and all the people who put so much hard work into making this event a reality. I would also like to thank Sandy Berger, Secretaries Daley and Slater, Dr. Rice and Ernest Green for their thoughtful comments.

As the Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, I have gained a keen appreciation for both the challenges and vital importance of improving U.S. - African ties. Within the business community, the Administration, the media and even among the American public, interest in Africa is increasingly at the forefront. This focus is both welcome and overdue.

Before my trip to Africa last month, I attended a luncheon sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institute at which Assistant Secretary Susan Rice was the featured speaker. Not the room, but the rooms, were full and people stayed until the very end of the question and answer period. Part of the interest was clearly a tribute to Susan -- an informed and compelling speaker. But part of the reason was attributable to a growing interest in Africa.

Yet far too many Americans still think of Africa as a continent stretching in an endless and dusty misery of refugees, civil wars and abject poverty. Far too many Americans can think of no reason -- beyond humanitarianism -- why we would be active in Africa. But, as other speakers have noted, there are a lot of good things happening in Africa and America must and should remain engaged in the region.

In short, we must be bullish on Africa, and we must be realistic.

Serious challenges do remain. Twenty-two of the world's 30 poorest countries are in Africa. A quarter of all African children will die before their fifth birthday. Only half of all adults are literate, and fewer than 20 percent of young people attend high school.

Nowhere is the justification for foreign aid more compelling, and nowhere are the potential returns on our long-term investments greater. The Administration is deeply committed to a new and concerted international effort to make development work in Africa. Our foreign assistance programs are paving the way for growing trade and for a foreign policy that looks to Africa's future.

People are the center of our development efforts in Africa. Some talk about development as if it were simply a matter of accumulating capital; a simple "trickle-down" process.

However, the essence of development is not the accumulation of roads and bridges; it is the process of combining good policies with an educated populace and vibrant public institutions.

To reach everyone's common goal of more robust economic growth and stronger ties with Africa, we must begin at a more basic level. Development begins with children who live beyond their first birthdays - children who learn to read and write in school, and who as adults, become full members of civil society, find productive employment, and have their own healthy families. This is the face of development without which economic growth cannot flourish.

More African children are attending school and staying there longer, but the proportion of children attending school remains too low. For this reason, USAID has invested heavily in basic education, especially for girls. Gains in education and health go hand-in-hand with an improved policy and regulatory business environment.

In the medium term, the connections between human capacity development and a healthy private sector are obvious -- an educated and healthy labor force is more productive than an uneducated and unhealthy one. The connections are even more pronounced over the longer run: adequate human capacity is essential to compete internationally in today's world.

For these reasons, nearly 50 percent of USAID's budget for Africa is invested directly in human capacity development: for basic education, child survival programs, family planning and for the control of AIDS and other infectious diseases.

By the same token, no amount of investment in people will create economic growth absent sound economic policies. Free markets and trade do not simply materialize out of thin air. The enabling environment must be right before private capital begins to flow. That is why USAID is helping African nations liberalize markets, remove institutional trade barriers and foster cultures receptive to foreign investment.

American business leaders -- through groups like the Corporate Council on Africa and the Business Alliance -- have been eloquent in recognizing the importance of aid in facilitating trade. They are well aware of the structural impediments that block more robust trade with Africa and want to see them addressed by African countries with assistance from the U.S. and other donors.

In terms of the Trade and Investment Initiative, we see multiple ways in which USAID can support the broader Administration effort. We will provide direct, short-term assistance to give African nations the technical help they need to pursue free market policies -- whether through assistance to individual countries or to regional economic entities such as the Southern African Development Community.

We will also support new economic growth opportunities in agriculture, microenterprise, investments through the Southern African Enterprise Development Fund and other measures. Our work in agriculture to assist farmers, private firms and international trade has already helped increase farm incomes and exports across Africa.

These programs have helped Uganda achieve a 10 percent growth rate and an 8 percent growth in food production. Similarly, U.S. assistance has helped Ethiopia move from what some called a "basket case" to an exporter of food to drought-stricken Kenya. Mali has moved from a victim of drought in the 1970s and 1980s to a market oriented exporter of food. USAID's Africa Food Security Initiative, scheduled to begin this year, will restore some of the needed attention and resources to agriculture in Africa.

As part of the Trade and Investment Initiative, we will also support new partnerships between American and African businesses, encourage telecommunications policy reform and expand the use of the internet in Africa through our Leland Initiative.

The road to stronger ties between Africa and America also requires the opportunity for all Africans to have a voice in their societies and participate with equal rights and freedom. While there have been challenges to the fragile democracies in Africa, the overall trend towards the consolidation of democracy in the region remains positive. One of the most noticeable and encouraging changes over the past few years, and one of the more durable, is the significantly increased capacity and vibrancy of African civic institutions.

USAID remains committed to helping build democratic institutions, respect for law, and vibrant civic cultures. We must continue to empower women, not only in civil society, where women's membership is already high, but also in the formal political sphere.

USAID's future vision for Africa is built on one of the primary principles of the Development Fund for Africa: Africa's success depends on Africans themselves. We are convinced that African leadership and African ownership of development challenges are essential.

In conclusion, what we have seen today is the depth and breadth of the Administration's commitment to new partnerships with Africa. And a partnership whose greatest strengths come from the increasing grassroots ties between the United States and Africa.

Thank you.

This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.

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