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USA/Africa: Waiting for Change
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Mar 1, 2009 (090301)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"While low visibility for Africa policy may not be entirely
unexpected, considering the multiple crises the President faced
entering office, it has disappointed many who had hoped the
administration might quickly mobilize the high level attention that
is needed to spur action on vital issues." - Reed Kramer,
Kramer notes that Sudan, the Congo, and Somalia, as well as
development issues, call for urgent attention. But few of the
middle-level policymakers for Africa have yet been announced.
Widely respected and experienced diplomat Johnnie Carson is the
name most frequently mentioned for the post of Assistant Secretary
for African Affairs. But that post is still occupied by a Bush
administration holdover, Phillip Carter.
Carter gave his first major speech of the year in February, at the
Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington. Speaking on
"U.S. Policy in Africa in the 21st Century,"
(http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/rm/2009/117326.htm). Carter told
his listeners that "the one foreign policy success of the previous
administration is Africa," although he acknowledged "challenges and
frustrations" such as Darfur, Eastern Congo, and Somalia. The State
Department's website notes that the Africa Bureau's "priority is
conflict resolution" (http://www.state.gov/p/af/), and Carter's
introductory remarks referred to successes in the Congo, Sierra
Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, North-South Sudan, Ethiopia-Eritrea, and
Angola.
Listing current priorities, however, Carter said "Our first
priority is providing security assistance programs." Second, third,
and fourth, his statement noted, were promoting "democratic systems
and practices," "sustainable and broad-based market-led economic
growth," and "health and social development." The decision to
establish AFRICOM (the U.S. Africa Command), he said "marks the
beginning of a new era where African security issues can be
addressed from an Africa-centric perspective."
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a review, by Reed Kramer of
AllAfrica.com of the status of Africa appointments and Africa
policy discussions in Washington as of late February. Ambassador
Carter's speech is available both on the State Department website,
as noted above, and at
http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=2617
Comparing the AFRICOM website (http://www.africom.mil ) and that of
the State Department's Bureau of African Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/af/)
is itself a very revealing indicator of the priorities of the previous administration.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on US Africa policy, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/country/usa-africa.php
For regularly updated news coverage of the United States and
Africa, see http://allafrica.com/usafrica/
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Africa: Getting the Continent on the Obama Agenda
Reed Kramer
26 February 2009
http://allafrica.com
George Clooney's meeting to discuss Darfur with Vice President Joe
Biden and with President Barack Obama Monday night (Feb 23) at the
White House provided one of the first glimmers of Africa
involvement from the top echelon of the new administration.
According to Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander, Clooney was
told that Sudan policy is under "ongoing review." The Academy
Award-winning actor, who skipped the Oscar's ceremony Sunday night
to fly to Washington, said he welcomed what he heard "because there
was some concern this could fall off the radar."
That concern has been spreading among Africa watchers as days go by
without any significant Africa-related pronouncements -
particularly, no announced selection of a person to head the Africa
Bureau at the State Department. Similar misgivings are being
expressed about the administration's slow movement to fill top
foreign assistance-related posts, which also affect U.S. relations
with Africa.
Not only are the conflicts in Sudan, Somalia and Congo requiring
urgent attention and perhaps changed approaches, but also there is
equally pressing need to spotlight and support places trying to get
development right, especially with the added strain of the global
economic crisis. One stark example is Liberia, which has been
making "steady progress" toward eradicating poverty, United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported this month, but where
"limited national institutional capacity" and persistent security
threats make continuing international support vital for the
country's and region's growth and stability, his report said.
Each of the eight geographic bureaus at the State Department is led
by an assistant secretary, and the Assistant Secretary for Africa
is generally considered the top Africa policy official in any U.S.
administration. The person widely expected to be named to the post
is a career diplomat, Johnnie Carson, who has served as U.S.
ambassador to Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda and is currently senior
intelligence officer for Africa on the National Intelligence
Council, the agency charged with coordinating strategic thinking
for the U.S. government.
Although other names have been put forward - and several other
prospects were interviewed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
Carson was a near-consensus favorite of Africa-watchers both inside
and outside the Obama camp. His experience includes diplomatic
postings in Nigeria, Mozambique, Botswana and Portugal and
assignments as staff director of the House Subcommittee on Africa
and senior vice president of National Defense University. During
President Clinton's second term, Carson served as the principal
deputy in the Africa Bureau to Assistant Secretary Susan Rice, who
is now the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and member of the
Obama Cabinet.
His selection would provide a morale boost for career foreign
service professionals, many of whom were incensed when he was
passed over during the Bush administration for two top
ambassadorial posts for which he was considered qualified and
deserving - South Africa in 2003 and Ethiopia in 2005.
In a signal that key foreign assistance appointments are awaiting
a major policy review, the White House announced that U.S. Agency
for International Development Chief Operating Officer Alonzo
Fulgham has been named acting administrator. Gayle Smith, who
chaired the Obama foreign assistance transition team and is
considered a lead candidate to become eventual agency head, is
joining the National Security Council staff on Monday as Senior
Director for Relief, Stabilization and Development and Senior
Advisor to the President. Another oft-mentioned choice, Helene
Gayle, a former official at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
and the Centers for Disease Control, continues her high-level
engagement as president and CEO of CARE International.
As a member of the bipartisan Congressional panel on reforming
foreign aid - the HELP Commission, Smith advocated creation of a
Cabinet-level position that would encompass not only USAID but also
the Millennium Challenge Corporation, created by President George
W. Bush to distribute increased U.S. assistance to developing
countries meeting 16 performance indicators. Apparently, the
leadership choices will have to wait until a foreign assistance
structure is agreed.
At the State Department, none of the assistant secretary
appointments have been announced, and Clinton is yet to name her
own selections for most of the six undersecretaries, who sit one
step higher on organizational chart. Currently, the Africa Bureau
is headed on an 'acting' basis by Phillip Carter, a former
ambassador to Guinea and deputy chief of mission in Madagascar and
Gabon.
Europe is the destination for the President's first overseas trip
in early April. Asia got the first official visit from Secretary
Clinton, who is preparing to head to the Middle East over the
weekend. The Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan and North Korea
have all had senior envoys or representatives assigned to tackle
tough policy issues.
"Africa has slipped into the background," says Richard Joseph, John
Evans professor of International History and Politics at
Northwestern University and non-resident senior fellow at The
Brookings Institution.
Pressure has been mounting to add Sudan to the list of places
receiving top level attention. The 'Save Darfur Coalition' has
called on the president to name "a point person with the stature,
mandate and authority to take charge of U.S. efforts to end the
violence in Darfur." The Enough Project, an organization focused on
mobilizing a permanent constituency to prevent genocide in Africa,
is asking the public to press for special envoys for both Sudan and
the Great Lakes Region, to focus on the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, the deadliest conflict in the world today, where an
estimated five million people have died as a result of the fighting
in recent years.
Rep. Frank Wolf (Republican-Virginia), who has made five trips to
Sudan since 1989, asked President Obama in a letter this week to
select former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist as special envoy
for Sudan. Frist, who as a surgeon undertook medical missions to
the country and was "a leader in declaring what was happening in
Sudan to be genocide," Wolf wrote.
Speaking to ABC News as he left the White House, Clooney said he
received assurances that Sudan "is high on their agenda" and
expects an envoy to be named. Clooney traveled to the Chad/Darfur
border visiting refugees with New York Times columnist Nicholas
Kristof, after being denied a visa to enter Sudan.
The top Africa position at the National Security Council, the White
House agency responsible for coordinating foreign policy, was
quietly filled last week by Michelle D. Gavin. While serving as
international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
last year, Gavin co-chaired the Africa advisory team for the
Obama-Biden campaign. Previously, she spent six years as senior
foreign policy advisor for Sen. Russell Feingold
(Democrat-Wisconsin) and staff director of the Senate Africa
subcommittee and two years as legislative director for Colorado
Democrat Ken Salazar, Obama's Interior Secretary. Gavin, whose
official title is Senior Director for African Affairs and Senior
Advisor to the President, is aided by three directors - Karen
O'Donnell, Cameron Hudson and Marie Brown.
At the Pentagon, responsibility for sub-Saharan Africa falls under
a deputy assistant secretary within the office of the Defense
Secretary. Theresa Whalen, a national security specialist and
career department official who has held the post since 2002,
continues to serve under Secretary Robert Gates, whom Obama
retained from President Bush's Cabinet.
Within the Obama camp, several names have been mentioned as her
possible replacement, most prominently, Vicki Huddleston, who
served as acting U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, U.S. ambassador to
Mali and Madagascar, deputy assistant secretary of state and chief
of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. Currently, she is a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she worked alongside
Susan Rice. Huddleston has been an outspoken advocate of a close
alliance with the Ethiopian government, a policy pursued by the
Bush administration but opposed by human rights organizations and
some members of Congress. A November 2007 New York Times op-ed
article co-authored by Huddleston and another former chief of
mission at the American Embassy in Addis Ababa, Tibor Naby,
criticized Congressional moves to limit U.S. military assistance
for Ethiopia. "A far better approach would be to buttress Ethiopia
against threats to its survival - by helping it resolve its border
conflict and ensuring that it reopens negotiations with insurgents
and traditional leaders and permits international investigation of
reported military abuses," the two diplomats argued.
While low visibility for Africa policy may not be entirely
unexpected, considering the multiple crises the President faced
entering office, it has disappointed many who had hoped the
administration might quickly mobilize the high level attention that
is needed to spur action on vital issues. "The powerful symbolism
of a son of Africa overcoming extraordinary odds to become the 44th
president of the United States" may be as much of an 'Obama
dividend' as Africa can expect for the moment, Witney Schneidman
and Paul Collier wrote in a guest column for AllAfrica.
Schneidman, who co-chaired the Obama campaign Africa advisory group
with Gavin, and Collier, an Oxford professor and author of "The
Bottom Billion", cite steps that can be taken to help Africa even
if Obama is unable to fulfill his pledge to double development
assistance. These include "revitalizing the African Growth and
Opportunity Act, working through the Millennium Challenge
Corporation to improve governance and using the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation to extend credit to small and medium
enterprises," they wrote.
An ambitious agenda, which includes a 'first 100 days action plan',
was outlined by the advisory team that Schneidman and Gavin
coordinated during the presidential campaign, The group, which
included leading experts - American and African - authored 23
thematic and country-specific papers, looking at energy,
governance, peacekeeping and women, as well as Nigeria, Zimbabwe,
South Africa, Angola, Uganda and the Mano River states (Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Guinea, plus Cote d'Ivoire).
The overview called for the new administration to "build on the
successes" of the Bush years while addressing issue that were
"largely neglected." The advisors recommended a major focus on
African agriculture, careful integration of Africa into early
administration efforts on climate change, a new HIV/Aids and
malaria initiative to insure treatment over 10 years for anyone
becoming HIV-positive, a strengthening of trade ties and reduction
in American agricultural subsidies, and annual discussions
involving the African Union and China on a range of issues from
economic development to codes of conduct for investors.
The group suggested a presidential address on Africa in the "first
several months" and a U.S.-Africa summit in 2010.
In recognition of a region requiring exceptional attention, the
group put together a detailed 360-day action memo focused on
conflict-torn Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. The memo recommended that the effectiveness of the special
envoy for Sudan should be strengthened by the addition of two
deputies, one for Darfur and the other for southern Sudan to press
full implementation of the stalled Comprehensive Peace Accord
between the northern government and the south. The advisors also
called on the new administration to send an 'early signal' of
serious intention by providing helicopters and logistical
assistance for the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping
mission in Darfur.
Administration statements about Africa have been limited, thus far,
to two State Department condemnations of Darfur violence and one
this month on Zimbabwe. President Obama reportedly discussed
Zimbabwe late last month in a telephone conversation with South
Africa President Kgalema Motlanthe, when the two leaders also
talked about the G20 summit they both plan to attend on April 2 in
London.
Proof that Africa's problems will not wait comes next week when
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is expected to be indicted by the
International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur.
"At the Obama School here in eastern Chad, the refugees are waiting
to see if the school's namesake will resolutely back up the
International Criminal Court," Kristof wrote in his New York Times
column Thursday. Based on Obama's strong record in the Senate -
along with that of now Vice President Biden and Secretary Clinton,
Kristof is hopeful that the administration will support the action.
Along with the firm position taken by UN Ambassador Rice, who
Kristof says "terrifies Sudanese officials; parachute her into
Khartoum, and the entire Sudanese leadership might surrender", he
cites the lead role on Sudan of White House assistant Samantha
Power, who he says "catalogs all the ways that American politicians
have found excuses to avoid confronting past genocides" in her
Pulitzer-winning book, A Problem From Hell.
While Africa's violent conflicts and calamities must be addressed,
U.S. policy can and must be directed broadly throughout Africa,
according to Richard Joseph, a participant and lead author of the
advisory group. "There are four critical areas in which the
Obama-Biden Administration can have a decisive impact in the 48
states of sub Saharan Africa - most of which are not experiencing
complex emergencies," he said in an interview - democracy and the
rule of law; enterprise-led growth; energy and basic
infrastructures; and capacity-building.
Joseph believes the Obama presidency offers "great opportunity" for
countries in Africa such as Nigeria to take self measure and make
the efforts required for "concrete advances in governance,
prosperity and security." He says the President and his
administration "should take Africa off the back-burner" and put in
on the agenda. "They don't have to commission new policy briefs -
they can just read these," he said, speaking of the campaign
advisors' reports.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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