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USA/Africa: Talking Points on Common Global Issues
AfricaFocus Bulletin, July 31, 2014
As African leaders and corporate CEOs gather to meet with
President Obama and U.S. government officials, a wide
variety of civil society activists will also be meeting in
Washington, some in officially recognized side events, others in
alternative venues. AfricaFocus Bulletin is a co-sponsor of one such
effort, initiated by the
US-Africa Network.
In this context AfricaFocus has prepared a set of
talking points
on selected critical issues, with particular emphasis on
those where both the United States and African countries
are falling short in addressing common global problems, such as
climate change, illicit financial flows, and flawed frameworks
for addressing conflict and economic progress.
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AfricaFocus Bulletin
July 31, 2014 Africa/Global: Talking Points on Common Issues
As African leaders and corporate CEOs gather to meet with
President Obama and U.S. government officials, a wide
variety of civil society activists will also be meeting in
Washington, some in officially recognized side events, others in
alternative venues. Many more will be issuing statements and
communicating their views, some appropriating the twitter hashtag
#AfricaSummit used by U.S. government officials, thus inserting their
views as well into that hashtag stream.
July 29, 2014 USA/Africa: A Dubious Summit
"Starting August 4, the Obama Administration will host a mini replica
of an African Union (AU) summit. As many as 40 heads of state from
the continent will be on hand for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, a
conference that will look at ways to boost trade and investment in
the continent, tap into Africa's burgeoning youth population, and
promote good governance. ... Unfortunately, unless a major change is
made, the summit risks simply becoming an AU heads of state road trip
with a photo-op at the end to confirm that they visited Washington
before returning home." - Adotei Akwei, Amnesty International
July 14, 2014 Africa: Understanding Organized Crime
"We have concluded that drug use must be regarded primarily as a
public health problem. Drug users need help, not punishment. We
believe that the consumption and possession for personal use of drugs
should not be criminalised. Experience shows that criminalisation of
drug use worsens health and social problems, puts huge pressures on
the criminal justice system and incites corruption. ... We caution
that West Africa must not become a new front line in the failed "war
on drugs," which has neither reduced drug consumption nor put
traffickers out of business." - West Africa Commission on Drugs
July 10, 2014 Africa: Rapid Growth in Mobile Money
"The mobile money landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, and
this is especially true in Sub-Saharan Africa where mobile money is
already available in 36 of 47 countries in the region. ... [For one
example], Tanzania has witnessed unprecedented uptake of mobile
financial services (MFS) in the span of five years. After a humble
beginning, when less than 1% of the adult population had access to
mobile financial services in 2008, 90% had access by September 2013 -
an exponential increase. Likewise, active usage has shown similar
improvement, with 43% of the adult population actively using this
service in September 2013." - GSM Association reports
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