Opinion
But What Does Africa Want?
Most African countries now have strategic plans and there is a sizeable movement and urge to join the resat of the world. Africa is tired of poverty, and is dying to join the industrialized world.
The U.S. has not been absent from Africa. But the support from America is not aligned with national economic strategies. The amount of aid flowing from the U.S. to Africa may be significant – but it is not necessarily making a dent in the things that matter. Fortunately, the 2013 AGOA forum proposed something called the AGOA Compact.
The essence here is that if you want to solve supply side constraints, you must devote a significant amount of resources.
The current effort on the regional trade hubs and trying to enhance market linkages and supporting African exporters is just not portentous enough for
the effort required to be truly revolutionary.
African countries need to solve the supply side approach in one go. From one end of the production line to the end. So, with national AGOA strategies with sectors prioritized – African countries can manage the resources towards the AGOA Compact and this will bring success to Africa as a whole. One has to look at their own country, look at sectors that have potential, and ensure that these country strategies have resources committed to them. At the continental level, the different country strategies would make the AGOA Compact and mirror what the U.S. did to boost demand and markets in Europe and Asia after the end of the Second World War.
This is the kind of thing Africa needs. It is also in line with AGOA because if you look at any country that has developed over the past 50 years, it has developed on the back of the U.S. market. Why, therefore, should thing be different for Africa? But all this needs to start with creating an under
standing within the U.S. government. The various agency heads and their staff need to know that they have a role to play in Africa. Congress needs
to appropriately channel resources already available into the economic sphere – away from the political or strategic one. The AGOA Compact could be like the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) but would be especially concentrated on trade and investment promotion in Africa.
The Ministers’ Group from the African Union has decided that this is the way to go and AGOA Forum put significant attention on it. The AGOA Compact will track all the countries’ plans and AGOA Strategies – sorting out what has been achieved and what needs to be improved, and this could form the basis for updates at each forum.
When the AGOA Compact and the National Strategies are aligned – where you track their performance through the Compact – you have an effective way
to leverage the resources, and then also find out if the resources are making an impact. Earlier resources are a little difficult to monitor or evaluate, while, with the Compact, you have an efficient tool to manage the resources with each intervention. If these were to happen over the next 5 to 10 years, you will see a significant change in the trade and investment dynamic between the U.S. and Africa.
Now, if President Obama, at his August 5th and 6th summit with the African heads of state puts in place something like the AGOA Compact – or named something else – this must be a comprehensive plan that handles everything; from trade and investment, inter-agency relationship to strategy. This is what will help the United States of America.
Summarily, Africa is more serious than ever about doing business with the U.S. This is happening at the local, country and continental levels. Research undertaken by UNECA shows that this is real. We should now look at what is bound to happen in Africa’s future other than what happened in the past.
Relatively, the U.S. and Africa must remember that it takes two to tango. The Africans are being serious about AGOA. They are seriously thinking about the longevity of the relationship between the U.S. and Africa – and thus, the U.S. must act and show serious commitment or a level of commitment to compliment what the U.S. could benefit from a growing African middle class.
