Africa Rising 21st Century

            The Corporate Council on Africa recently hosted a briefing in Washington by United Nations High Representative for Infrastructure Raila Odinga, who made the case that there was a realization on the continent that development plans, especially enhanced intra-Africa trade, could not be implemented without significant upgrades in various forms of infrastructure.   Mr. Odinga said that intra-Africa trade (he estimated it to be about 15%) lagged significantly behind that of other global regions, including those with numerous developing countries. There are various reasons why the disconnect of African infrastructure took place.   The one most often cited is that the European colonial powers carved out protectorates separate from their rivals.   This meant roads, air travel, etc., were geared to benefit the colonial power in control. This has resulted in neighboring countries not having roads or air links without g...

              Many people not familiar with international affairs see situations as strictly black and white, villain and victim.   While there is much truth to such scenarios, as in Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine.   The impact of such a conflict usually involves more than just the combatants, and there are victims other than the country being attacked.   Such is the case with the Ukraine war.   Our world is so intertwined, that it is nearly impossible to take any significant action without there being collateral damage to those not involved in the original conflict or other actions that led to sanctions. On February 24, the same day Russia invaded Ukraine, as had been speculated for weeks, the United Nations General Assembly held an emergency session that produced a resolution calling Russia’s invasion as an unlawful act of aggression “in violation of Article 2 (4) of the (United Nations) Charter,” dem...

              The international community has been riveted by the horrifying daily reports during Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, never more so than after the withdrawal of Russian forces from the area around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, which revealed numerous cases of torture, murder, rape and other atrocities.   Seeing dead men, women and children – not combatants – lying in the street has outraged world leaders.             Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of war crimes and called upon the international community to take action to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable, presumably through the International Criminal Court (ICC), but who thinks such a referral could be made and carried out as it has been so often for African perpetrators of war crimes?           ...

              Over the last few years, I have heard and read many assessments of America’s engagement with Africa, and they overwhelmingly say that this country has lost interest in helping Africa and no longer cares about benefitting the continent’s governments and people.   As someone who worked on the early days of both the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Prosper Africa initiative, as well as other U.S. programs to support African wellbeing, of course I find such comments offensive and incorrect.   Having worked in government over the past three decades, I have seen no such dismissal of Africa in terms of economic involvement on the continent nor in the desire of many government employees with whom I worked to genuinely be of assistance.   You could make an argument that the American business community isn’t as interested in doing business in or investing in Africa as some other countries, but that’...