{"id":801,"date":"2013-06-28T01:39:36","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T01:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=801"},"modified":"2013-06-28T01:39:36","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T01:39:36","slug":"african-tour-obama-abandons-nigeria-senegal-represents-west-africaas-south-africa-tanzania-rejoice-challenges-ecowas-on-leadership-role-in-west-africa-presidential-economic-team-opi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/african-tour-obama-abandons-nigeria-senegal-represents-west-africaas-south-africa-tanzania-rejoice-challenges-ecowas-on-leadership-role-in-west-africa-presidential-economic-team-opi\/","title":{"rendered":"AFRICAN TOUR!   OBAMA Abandons Nigeria, Senegal represents West Africa\u2026as South Africa, Tanzania Rejoice   *Challenges ECOWAS on Leadership Role in West Africa  Presidential Economic Team, OPIC, Export-Import Bank top Officials to be on trip Foreign Private Investors Confirm for Visit *White House: \u201cUS President\u2019s 2nd Trip to Sub-Saharan Africa to advance America\u2019s Interest\u201d  * Attached: US Embassy Letter to Naija Standard Newspaper Inc USA Editors as Evidence *Star Attraction: US First Lady, Senegal First Lady, South Africa First Lady, Tanzanian First Lady  take tea *Mitchel Obama takes part in African First Ladies Summit on July 2nd * \u2018I will be paying tribute to Nelson Mandela for his contribution to Africa\u2019-US President"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>AFRICAN TOUR!<a href=\"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/barack-obama-and-wife-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-803\" alt=\"barack obama and wife 2\" src=\"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/barack-obama-and-wife-2-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>OBAMA <\/b><b>Abandons Nigeria<\/b><b>, <\/b><b>Senegal represents West Africa<\/b><b>\u2026<\/b><b>as South Africa, Tanzania Rejoice<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0*<\/b><b>Challenges ECOWAS on Leadership Role in West Africa<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Presidential Economic Team, OPIC, Export-Import Bank top Officials to be on trip<\/b><b><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Foreign Private Investors Confirm for Visit<\/b><b><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>White House: \u201cUS President\u2019s 2<sup>nd<\/sup> Trip to Sub-Saharan Africa to advance America\u2019s Interest\u201d\u00a0 * Attached: US Embassy Letter to Naija Standard Newspaper Inc USA Editors as Evidence<\/b><b><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Star Attraction: US First Lady, Senegal First Lady, South Africa First Lady, Tanzanian First Lady \u00a0take tea <\/b><b><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Mitchel Obama takes part in African First Ladies Summit on July 2nd<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>\u00a0\u2018I will be paying tribute to Nelson Mandela for his contribution to Africa\u2019-<\/b><b>US President<\/b><b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201c<\/b><b>We see Africa as one of the most important emerging regions in the world, and a place for the U.S. to significantly increase our engagement in the years to come.\u00a0 There are growing economic opportunities there for increased trade and investment and increased engagement by U.S. businesses\u201d<\/b><b>&#8211;<\/b><b>US Govt.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/<i>EDITOR-IN-CHIEF<\/i>, TEXAS<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>NIGERIA, <\/b>from all indications would be missing billions tones of investment that would have accrued to the nation\u2019s economy, if Barack Obama, President of United States of America had listed the most populous black nation on earth as parts of his working tour to Africa, but insecurity in the country has obviously \u2018robbed\u2019 the nation of this unique opportunity that would have brought \u2018positive image\u2019 to President Goodluck Jonathan\u2019s of Nigeria\u2019s administration in the eyes of the International Community.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Senegal, Tanzania, South Africa Rejoice<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Naija Standard<\/i><\/b><b> <\/b>gathered that so elated and getting ready to showcase their countries\u2019 rich cultural heritage are South Africa, Tanzania and Senegal. Without doubt, these countries whose preparation to receiving Obama is in top gear would be gaining as their economies would boom with the visit of the Presidential Economic Team, OPIC, Export-Import Bank top Officials, who have been slated to accompany the delegate of the United States President on his second-leg African tour fixed which commences on June 27, 2013 actively.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>American Govt officials Speak<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Going by the release sent to Editors of<b> <i>Naija Standard,<\/i> <\/b>US National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes said: \u201cWe wanted to give you an overview of the President\u2019s upcoming trip to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.\u00a0 We have on the call also Grant Harris, our Senior Director for African Affairs at the NSC, as well as Gayle Smith, our Senior Director for Development and Democracy issues.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just start by giving you guys an overview of the trip and the schedule.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the President\u2019s second trip to sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0 He previously went to Ghana in his first term.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a very important opportunity for him to advance U.S. interests in a range of areas &#8212; in particular, U.S. engagement in Africa at the beginning of his second term.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrankly, we see Africa as one of the most important emerging regions in the world, and a place for the U.S. to significantly increase our engagement in the years to come.\u00a0 There are growing economic opportunities there for increased trade and investment and increased engagement by U.S. businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>US Private Sector on the trip <\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe, frankly, have heard a high demand signal from the U.S. private sector for us to play an active role in deepening our trade and investment partnerships in Africa.\u00a0 And I think one of the things you\u2019ll see on this trip is we\u2019ll be incorporating events that bring in the private sector in each of the countries that we\u2019re visiting.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll also be bringing a number of members of the President\u2019s economic team from our new USTR, Mike Froman, to representatives from OPIC, from the Export-Import Bank, and including Raj Shah, our AID Director, who also plays a role in these issues.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Trade and Investment Opportunities in these African Countries<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo trade and investment and the economic opportunities on the continent are going to be an important part of the agenda; also democracy and democratic institution-building.\u00a0 Each of the countries that we\u2019re visiting are strong democracies, and the President has made it a priority to support the consolidation of democratic institutions in Africa so that Africans are focused not just on democratic elections, but institutions like parliaments, independent judiciaries, and strengthening of the rule of law &#8212; both as necessary elements of a democratic government, but also as necessary elements of development.\u00a0 Because when you have the assurance that comes with the rule of law, it is easier for companies to invest and for economies to take off.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think you will also see a focus on young people.\u00a0 Africa has an extraordinarily large youth population, and it\u2019s important for the United States to signal our commitment to investing in the future of African youth.\u00a0 And this, too, is a part of unleashing development on the continent because if you have young people who are able to access opportunity and able to shape the direction of their countries, that\u2019s going to be in the interest of Africa and the United States as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes explain: \u201cAnd you\u2019ll also see the President speaking to the key pillars of our development agenda, which has focused on economic growth and also on issues such as food security and global health, where we\u2019ve really shifted to a focus on capacity-building on the continent.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not simply a model of assistance, it\u2019s a model of capacity-building so that Africans are forging solutions to their own challenges.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of this, I think, adds up to a U.S. engagement and leadership on the continent that is focused on unleashing African economic growth, democratic progress, and ultimately that will have a positive impact on a range of issues, including peace and security issues &#8212; because if we\u2019re working and partnering with strong economies and strong democracies, we\u2019re going to be better able to deal with the security challenges on the continent as well.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Senegal outshines Nigeria<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On Obama itinerary, Rhodes said: \u201cSo just working through the schedule, the first stop will be Senegal.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be flying there on Wednesday, arriving Wednesday night in Senegal time.\u00a0 It was important for us, we felt, to travel to West, South and East Africa.\u00a0 So we\u2019re beginning in West Africa, in Senegal, which is a strong democratic partner of the United States.\u00a0 We recently hosted the President of Senegal at the White House &#8212; a French-speaking country, which allows us to speak directly to the large French-speaking population within Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the President will begin his program on Thursday with a bilateral meeting with the President of Senegal.\u00a0 Following that, we\u2019ll have a joint press conference.\u00a0 Then, the President will attend an event that he\u2019ll be hosting at the Supreme Court there with regional judicial leaders.\u00a0 And this will be an opportunity for the President to speak to the importance of the rule of law and the role of the independent judiciary as a part of African democratic institution-building.\u00a0 So the President will have a chance to have a dialogue with judicial leaders from the region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen he and the First Lady will take the trip to Goree Island, obviously a deeply important site both for Africans and African Americans.\u00a0 This is the site of the \u201cDoor of No Return,\u201d and the President will be visiting the House of Slaves museum there on Goree Island.\u00a0 Then he will also visit with civil society leaders at the Goree Institute.\u00a0 Goree Island has been a home for a very vibrant civil society, which is also a key part of the democratic development taking place in Senegal and across the continent, and so he\u2019ll have a chance to hear directly from civil society leaders there.\u00a0 Then, that night, there will be an official dinner that the President of Senegal will be hosting.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Mitchel Obama, US First Lady, and Sall, First Lady of Senegal share tea<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d also add, for the First Lady, the First Lady, on June 27th in Dakar, will have tea with the First Lady of Senegal.\u00a0 Then the First Lady will travel with Mrs. Sall to the Martin Luther King Middle School, which is an all-girls school in Senegal, where she\u2019ll have a chance to see that school and speak to the girls.\u00a0 And then, of course, the First Lady will join the President at Goree Island and for the dinner that night.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0Obama Day 2 Visit<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Naija Standard<\/i><\/b> can tell you that on the second day, the President Obama will begin in the morning by joining an event focused on food security.\u00a0 Food security has been one of our key development priorities, in which we\u2019ve brought together the international community as well as the private sector behind approaches that strengthen African capacity in developing agricultural sectors that better feed the populations and also allow products to get to market &#8212; allows Africa to forge solutions to the challenges of feeding their population.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As such, the President will join an event that brings together private sector leaders and people from the agricultural sector in Senegal and across West Africa, and he will hear about the efforts that are being made to enhance food security and be able to join with them where there will be different expositions of technologies that are being applied to improve crops, improve the ability of agricultural sectors to meet the needs of the people.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Obama pays tributes to Nelson Mandela<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then the President will fly with his family to South Africa that day.\u00a0 The next day, the President will be in Pretoria and Johannesburg.\u00a0 And he\u2019ll begin the day with a bilateral meeting with President Zuma of South Africa, clearly a key partner on a whole range of our issues on the African continent to include some of our significant development priorities but also a range of peace and security issues, from our efforts to deal with the situation in Sudan and South Sudan to some of the security challenges in Central Africa, and of course, to the promotion of democracy on the continent.\u00a0 There will be a bilateral meeting and then the two Presidents will have a joint press conference.<\/p>\n<p>Then later that day, the President will host a town hall at the University of Johannesburg in Soweto.\u00a0 This is going to be a continuation of the President\u2019s Young African Leaders Initiative. You may recall that the President launched this initiative when he hosted African leaders from across the continent at his town hall meeting at the White House, with the idea being that we need to reach the next generation of African leaders in civil society, in entrepreneurship, in journalism.\u00a0 And the State Department carried forward a program that connects African leaders across the continent to one another and to the United States.\u00a0 And it\u2019s been one of the more exciting initiatives that we&#8217;ve had in terms of people-to-people programs.\u00a0 And this will carry that initiative forward.\u00a0 And so he&#8217;ll be speaking to young African leaders about the U.S. investment in deepening ties with young people not just in South Africa but across the continent.<\/p>\n<p><b>Obama parleys Africa Union<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Following the town hall meeting, <b><i>Naija Standard<\/i><\/b> can tell you that the President will have a bilateral meeting with the Chairwoman of the African Union, again focused on strengthening mutual organizations across Africa, with the African Union, of course, being the most prominent one on the continent.\u00a0 And so they\u2019ll have the opportunity to discuss the agenda in the United States with the AU. Then that night there will be an official dinner that President Zuma will host for President Obama.<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes further explained: \u201cI&#8217;ll also add that the First Lady on this day &#8212; she will have tea with the wife of the South African President, Mrs. Thobeka Madiba-Zuma.\u00a0 Later in the afternoon, the First Lady will also hold remarks and participate in a discussion with youth, and this will be an opportunity for her to meet with high-school-age young people in South Africa.\u00a0 I&#8217;d add that the First Lady in her last trip to South Africa met with young people.\u00a0 And this continues her focus on education, youth, and women and girls around the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u00a0This event that the First Lady is participating in develops a theme organized in conjunction with MTV Base, which is an African youth and music television channel, as well as with (inaudible.)\u00a0 And the First Lady will be joined at the Sci Bono Discovery Center by teenagers from across South Africa, as well as students who will be able to join virtually from cities across the United States via Google+ Hangout, including in Los Angeles, California, Kansas City, Missouri, New York City, and Houston, Texas. And so this is an opportunity to connect young people in the United States with young people in Africa to discuss our shared future.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll also be covering this live not just on White House.gov, but on our Google+ page and MTV Base.\u00a0And then that night, the First Lady will join the President for the official dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the tight schedule, \u201cThe next day, the First Family will fly to Cape Town in the morning.\u00a0 They will visit Robben Island and have the opportunity to take in the remarkable history there and pay tribute to the extraordinary sacrifices made by Nelson Mandela in his pursuit of freedom for the people of South Africa as well as so many other figures in the anti-apartheid movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing the visit to Robben Island, the President will visit a community center with Archbishop Desmond Tutu &#8212; a community center that focuses in part on health, and this will be an opportunity for the President to hear firsthand about the important efforts that are being made by the Archbishop, but also by people across South Africa that come up with community-oriented solutions to health care challenges, but also to discuss our own global health agenda, much of which has been focused on combating preventable diseases, HIV\/AIDS, and carrying forward the very good work that&#8217;s been done for many years to improve not just &#8212; combat disease, but to improve public health systems in South Africa and across the continent.<\/p>\n<p><b>Obama to speak at University of Cape Town<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing the visit to the community center the President will give a speech at the University of Cape Town, which will be his main framing speech of the trip about our Africa policy, focusing on these different areas of trade and investment, development, democracy, partnerships on behalf of peace and security.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe University of Cape Town is an historic site &#8212; one of the great universities on the continent; a place that has been host to very significant speeches, including the speeches Robert F. Kennedy gave &#8212; the Day of Affirmation address where he spoke about &#8220;ripples of hope.&#8221;\u00a0 And so the President will be able to lay out a vision for U.S.-African relations going forward.\u00a0Then that would conclude the program in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p><b>His arrival in Tanzania<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe next day, the President will fly with the First Family to Tanzania, also a strong democratic partner of ours in East Africa.\u00a0 He&#8217;ll have a bilateral meeting there with the President and then they will host a joint press conference.\u00a0 Following the joint press conference, the President will go to a roundtable with business leaders.\u00a0 And then he&#8217;ll speak to a group of business leaders and CEOs from the United States and across Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd this will be an opportunity for him to really focus on what we can do to increase trade and investment from the United States into Africa, what we can do to advance our trade relationships, dealing with AGOA and other opportunities that we have going forward, how do we improve the climate for economic growth in East Africa and Africa generally.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI should add that in addition to this event and the food security event with the private sector in Senegal, members of the President&#8217;s economic team &#8212; Valerie Jarrett, Mike Froman, Fred Hochberg, and Raj Shah &#8212; will be participating in an event with the private sector in Cape Town as well, independent of the President.\u00a0 And they&#8217;ll be discussing these issues there as well.\u00a0So the President will speak to business leaders and CEOs about these issues.\u00a0 And then, that night he&#8217;ll attend an official dinner hosted by the President of Tanzania.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Mitchel Obama takes tea with Tanzanian First Lady<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the First Lady, that day she&#8217;ll have tea with Ms. Kikwete, the wife of the Tanzanian President.\u00a0 And then, she will visit the memorial to the embassy bombing at our embassy.\u00a0 Then the First Lady will attend a performance by the Baba wa Watoto troupe, which serves underprivileged boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 18 years old.\u00a0 And then she will join the President for the dinner that night.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen, finally, on our last day of the trip, the President will begin his day by going to the embassy and also laying a wreath at the sight of the memorial to the embassy bombings.\u00a0 Then, he will visit the Ubungo power plant in Tanzania &#8212; one of his focuses of not just our development policy, but also our support of economic growth on the continent is power, and the President will be able to speak to those issues as he visits the Ubungo power plant.\u00a0 And then that will conclude the President&#8217;s agenda on the trip.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>US First Lady takes part in African First Ladies Summit<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ll also add on July 2nd, the last day, in Dar es Salaam, the First Lady will participate in an African First Ladies&#8217; Summit, Investing in Women Strengthening Africa, which is going to be hosted by the George W. Bush Institute, including Laura Bush.\u00a0 At the summit, first ladies from across the continent will gather to focus on the important role that first ladies play in promoting women&#8217;s education, health and economic empowerment.\u00a0 I think that this will also speak to the bipartisan support that exists in the United States for support for sub-Saharan Africa, for deeper relations between the United States in sub-Saharan African countries, and of course, for the empowerment of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that concludes our very busy schedule on the trip.\u00a0 Before we open it up for questions, I want to turn it over to my colleagues.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll start with Grant to see if he has any words you want to add.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes in a conference call and Senior Director for Development and Democracy<\/p>\n<p>Gayle Smith, on President Obama&#8217;s upcoming visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania said: \u201cThis trip is going to be highlighting America&#8217;s longstanding investments in Africa&#8217;s development and economic growth and people.\u00a0 Africa is a new center of global growth, clearly, but today&#8217;s challenge is making sure that those gains are expanded and that they&#8217;re spread to benefit all of Africa&#8217;s people.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first being encouraging trade and investment. And on that front, we&#8217;re redoubling our efforts to create an environment that enables greater trade and investment.\u00a0 This includes encouraging things like regional integration and legal reforms that break down barriers to the free flow of goods and services.\u00a0 It gets at also the need for greater transparency in anti-corruption measures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere, it&#8217;s our strong belief that deepening these partnerships in Africa advance important American interests, particularly because Africa&#8217;s economic growth is going to support increasing demand for U.S. exports, which in turn is going to help create jobs at home, and it&#8217;s also going to provide valuable investment opportunities for U.S. businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes: \u201cWe&#8217;ve been a longstanding partner with African states to help build and support vibrant democratic societies.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve seen that African nations have made demonstrable progress here, particularly in instituting democratic reforms.\u00a0 But political institutions in many countries are still fragile, so we have ongoing assistance that\u2019s looking to strengthen these democratic institutions.\u00a0 And we&#8217;ll be able to highlight that, particularly how we&#8217;re looking &#8212; and we are engaged in building capacity for effective and responsive governance, for supporting civil society, independent media, and all the different institutions that it takes for a democracy to flourish.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rhode said \u201cAbout the next generation of African leaders, which is another key element of what the President will be discussing in addition to what he said, I would just note that nearly one in three Africans are between the ages of 10 and 24, and so we see Africa&#8217;s youth as already shaping the political and social and economic realities on the continent, and being key to the long-term growth and prosperity of the region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Young African Leaders Initiative that we&#8217;ve been talking about already has deep roots and has included more than 2,000 events on the continent in the formation of a lot of embassy youth advisory councils, but there\u2019s more that we want to be doing in expanding that engagement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then across the board, in each of these countries and in each of these relationships, we have a host of global issues that we partner on as we are turning to African states to help address a range of global issues that include nuclear proliferation, climate change, counterterrorism, and other transnational threats.\u00a0 So all of that will be the basis for further discussion and deepening our partnerships to confront those transnational, and peace and security challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0United States Consulate General, Public Affairs Section,<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 align=\"center\">2, Walter Carrington Crescent, P.O. Box 554 Lagos.<\/h1>\n<h1 align=\"center\">Website at <i>http:\/\/nigeria.usembassy.gov<\/i><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1><\/h1>\n<p align=\"center\"><b>PRESS RELEASE<\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">THE WHITE HOUSE<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Office of the Press Secretary<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">_____________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>For Immediate Release\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 June 21, 2013<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p align=\"center\">PRESS BRIEFING<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">BY DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR BEN RHODES,<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR AFRICAN AFFAIRS GRANT HARRIS,<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">AND SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY GAYLE SMITH<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">ON\u00a0THE PRESIDENT\u2019S UPCOMING TRIP TO<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">SENEGAL, SOUTH AFRICA AND TANZANIA<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p align=\"center\">Via Conference Call<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Thanks, everybody, for joining the call here.\u00a0 We wanted to give you an overview of the President\u2019s upcoming trip to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.\u00a0 We have on the call also Grant Harris, our Senior Director for African Affairs at the NSC, as well as Gayle Smith, our Senior Director for Development and Democracy issues.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just start by giving you guys an overview of the trip and the schedule.<\/p>\n<p>This is the President\u2019s second trip to sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0 He previously went to Ghana in his first term.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a very important opportunity for him to advance U.S. interests in a range of areas &#8212; in particular, U.S. engagement in Africa at the beginning of his second term.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, we see Africa as one of the most important emerging regions in the world, and a place for the U.S. to significantly increase our engagement in the years to come.\u00a0 There are growing economic opportunities there for increased trade and investment and increased engagement by U.S. businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We, frankly, have heard a high demand signal from the U.S. private sector for us to play an active role in deepening our trade and investment partnerships in Africa.\u00a0 And I think one of the things you\u2019ll see on this trip is we\u2019ll be incorporating events that bring in the private sector in each of the countries that we\u2019re visiting.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll also be bringing a number of members of the President\u2019s economic team from our new USTR, Mike Froman, to representatives from OPIC, from the Export-Import Bank, and including Raj Shah, our AID Director, who also plays a role in these issues.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So trade and investment and the economic opportunities on the continent are going to be an important part of the agenda; also democracy and democratic institution-building.\u00a0 Each of the countries that we\u2019re visiting are strong democracies, and the President has made it a priority to support the consolidation of democratic institutions in Africa so that Africans are focused not just on democratic elections, but institutions like parliaments, independent judiciaries, and strengthening of the rule of law &#8212; both as necessary elements of a democratic government, but also as necessary elements of development.\u00a0 Because when you have the assurance that comes with the rule of law, it is easier for companies to invest and for economies to take off.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I think you will also see a focus on young people.\u00a0 Africa has an extraordinarily large youth population, and it\u2019s important for the United States to signal our commitment to investing in the future of African youth.\u00a0 And this, too, is a part of unleashing development on the continent because if you have young people who are able to access opportunity and able to shape the direction of their countries, that\u2019s going to be in the interest of Africa and the United States as well.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And you\u2019ll also see the President speaking to the key pillars of our development agenda, which has focused on economic growth and also on issues such as food security and global health, where we\u2019ve really shifted to a focus on capacity-building on the continent.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not simply a model of assistance, it\u2019s a model of capacity-building so that Africans are forging solutions to their own challenges.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>All of this, I think, adds up to a U.S. engagement and leadership on the continent that is focused on unleashing African economic growth, democratic progress, and ultimately that will have a positive impact on a range of issues, including peace and security issues &#8212; because if we\u2019re working and partnering with strong economies and strong democracies, we\u2019re going to be better able to deal with the security challenges on the continent as well.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So just working through the schedule, the first stop will be Senegal.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be flying there on Wednesday, arriving Wednesday night in Senegal time.\u00a0 It was important for us, we felt, to travel to West, South and East Africa.\u00a0 So we\u2019re beginning in West Africa, in Senegal, which is a strong democratic partner of the United States.\u00a0 We recently hosted the President of Senegal at the White House &#8212; a French-speaking country, which allows us to speak directly to the large French-speaking population within Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And the President will begin his program on Thursday with a bilateral meeting with the President of Senegal.\u00a0 Following that, we\u2019ll have a joint press conference.\u00a0 Then, the President will attend an event that he\u2019ll be hosting at the Supreme Court there with regional judicial leaders.\u00a0 And this will be an opportunity for the President to speak to the importance of the rule of law and the role of the independent judiciary as a part of African democratic institution-building.\u00a0 So the President will have a chance to have a dialogue with judicial leaders from the region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then he and the First Lady will take the trip to Goree Island, obviously a deeply important site both for Africans and African Americans.\u00a0 This is the site of the \u201cDoor of No Return,\u201d and the President will be visiting the House of Slaves museum there on Goree Island.\u00a0 Then he will also visit with civil society leaders at the Goree Institute.\u00a0 Goree Island has been a home for a very vibrant civil society, which is also a key part of the democratic development taking place in Senegal and across the continent, and so he\u2019ll have a chance to hear directly from civil society leaders there.\u00a0 Then, that night, there will be an official dinner that the President of Senegal will be hosting.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d also add, for the First Lady, the First Lady, on June 27th in Dakar, will have tea with the First Lady of Senegal.\u00a0 Then the First Lady will travel with Mrs. Sall to the Martin Luther King Middle School, which is an all-girls school in Senegal, where she\u2019ll have a chance to see that school and speak to the girls.\u00a0 And then, of course, the First Lady will join the President at Goree Island and for the dinner that night.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The second day, the President will begin in the morning by joining an event focused on food security.\u00a0 Food security has been one of our key development priorities, in which we\u2019ve brought together the international community as well as the private sector behind approaches that strengthen African capacity in developing agricultural sectors that better feed the populations and also allow products to get to market &#8212; allows Africa to forge solutions to the challenges of feeding their population.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And so the President will join an event that brings together private sector leaders and people from the agricultural sector in Senegal and across West Africa, and he will hear about the efforts that are being made to enhance food security and be able to join with them where there will be different expositions of technologies that are being applied to improve crops, improve the ability of agricultural sectors to meet the needs of the people.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then the President will fly with his family to South Africa that day.\u00a0 The next day, the President will be in Pretoria and Johannesburg.\u00a0 And he\u2019ll begin the day with a bilateral meeting with President Zuma of South Africa, clearly a key partner on a whole range of our issues on the African continent to include some of our significant development priorities but also a range of peace and security issues, from our efforts to deal with the situation in Sudan and South Sudan to some of the security challenges in Central Africa, and of course, to the promotion of democracy on the continent.\u00a0 There will be a bilateral meeting and then the two Presidents will have a joint press conference.<\/p>\n<p>Then later that day, the President will host a town hall at the University of Johannesburg in Soweto.\u00a0 This is going to be a continuation of the President\u2019s Young African Leaders Initiative. You may recall that the President launched this initiative when he hosted African leaders from across the continent at his town hall meeting at the White House, with the idea being that we need to reach the next generation of African leaders in civil society, in entrepreneurship, in journalism.\u00a0 And the State Department carried forward a program that connects African leaders across the continent to one another and to the United States.\u00a0 And it\u2019s been one of the more exciting initiatives that we&#8217;ve had in terms of people-to-people programs.\u00a0 And this will carry that initiative forward.\u00a0 And so he&#8217;ll be speaking to young African leaders about the U.S. investment in deepening ties with young people not just in South Africa but across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>Following the town hall meeting, the President will have a bilateral meeting with the Chairwoman of the African Union, again focused on strengthening mutual organizations across Africa, with the African Union, of course, being the most prominent one on the continent.\u00a0 And so they\u2019ll have the opportunity to discuss the agenda in the United States with the AU.<\/p>\n<p>Then that night there will be an official dinner that President Zuma will host for President Obama.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll also add that the First Lady on this day &#8212; she will have tea with the wife of the South African President, Mrs. Thobeka Madiba-Zuma.\u00a0 Later in the afternoon, the First Lady will also hold remarks and participate in a discussion with youth, and this will be an opportunity for her to meet with high-school-age young people in South Africa.\u00a0 I&#8217;d add that the First Lady in her last trip to South Africa met with young people.\u00a0 And this continues her focus on education, youth, and women and girls around the world.<\/p>\n<p>This event that the First Lady is participating in develops a theme organized in conjunction with MTV Base, which is an African youth and music television channel, as well as with (inaudible.)\u00a0 And the First Lady will be joined at the Sci Bono Discovery Center by teenagers from across South Africa, as well as students who will be able to join virtually from cities across the United States via Google+ Hangout, including in Los Angeles, California, Kansas City, Missouri, New York City, and Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>And so this is an opportunity to connect young people in the United States with young people in Africa to discuss our shared future.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll also be covering this live not just on White House.gov, but on our Google+ page and MTV Base.<\/p>\n<p>And then that night, the First Lady will join the President for the official dinner.<\/p>\n<p>The next day, the First Family will fly to Cape Town in the morning.\u00a0 They will visit Robben Island and have the opportunity to take in the remarkable history there and pay tribute to the extraordinary sacrifices made by Nelson Mandela in his pursuit of freedom for the people of South Africa as well as so many other figures in the anti-apartheid movement.<\/p>\n<p>Following the visit to Robben Island, the President will visit a community center with Archbishop Desmond Tutu &#8212; a community center that focuses in part on health, and this will be an opportunity for the President to hear firsthand about the important efforts that are being made by the Archbishop, but also by people across South Africa that come up with community-oriented solutions to health care challenges, but also to discuss our own global health agenda, much of which has been focused on combating preventable diseases, HIV\/AIDS, and carrying forward the very good work that&#8217;s been done for many years to improve not just &#8212; combat disease, but to improve public health systems in South Africa and across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>Following the visit to the community center the President will give a speech at the University of Cape Town, which will be his main framing speech of the trip about our Africa policy, focusing on these different areas of trade and investment, development, democracy, partnerships on behalf of peace and security.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Cape Town is an historic site &#8212; one of the great universities on the continent; a place that has been host to very significant speeches, including the speeches Robert F. Kennedy gave &#8212; the Day of Affirmation address where he spoke about &#8220;ripples of hope.&#8221;\u00a0 And so the President will be able to lay out a vision for U.S.-African relations going forward.<\/p>\n<p>Then that would conclude the program in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p>The next day, the President will fly with the First Family to Tanzania, also a strong democratic partner of ours in East Africa.\u00a0 He&#8217;ll have a bilateral meeting there with the President and then they will host a joint press conference.\u00a0 Following the joint press conference, the President will go to a roundtable with business leaders.\u00a0 And then he&#8217;ll speak to a group of business leaders and CEOs from the United States and across Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And this will be an opportunity for him to really focus on what we can do to increase trade and investment from the United States into Africa, what we can do to advance our trade relationships, dealing with AGOA and other opportunities that we have going forward, how do we improve the climate for economic growth in East Africa and Africa generally.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I should add that in addition to this event and the food security event with the private sector in Senegal, members of the President&#8217;s economic team &#8212; Valerie Jarrett, Mike Froman, Fred Hochberg, and Raj Shah &#8212; will be participating in an event with the private sector in Cape Town as well, independent of the President.\u00a0 And they&#8217;ll be discussing these issues there as well.<\/p>\n<p>So the President will speak to business leaders and CEOs about these issues.\u00a0 And then, that night he&#8217;ll attend an official dinner hosted by the President of Tanzania.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For the First Lady, that day she&#8217;ll have tea with Ms. Kikwete, the wife of the Tanzanian President.\u00a0 And then, she will visit the memorial to the embassy bombing at our embassy.\u00a0 Then the First Lady will attend a performance by the Baba wa Watoto troupe, which serves underprivileged boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 18 years old.\u00a0 And then she will join the President for the dinner that night.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then, finally, on our last day of the trip, the President will begin his day by going to the embassy and also laying a wreath at the sight of the memorial to the embassy bombings.\u00a0 Then, he will visit the Ubungo power plant in Tanzania &#8212; one of his focuses of not just our development policy, but also our support of economic growth on the continent is power, and the President will be able to speak to those issues as he visits the Ubungo power plant.\u00a0 And then that will conclude the President&#8217;s agenda on the trip.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll also add on July 2nd, the last day, in Dar es Salaam, the First Lady will participate in an African First Ladies&#8217; Summit, Investing in Women Strengthening Africa, which is going to be hosted by the George W. Bush Institute, including Laura Bush.\u00a0 At the summit, first ladies from across the continent will gather to focus on the important role that first ladies play in promoting women&#8217;s education, health and economic empowerment.\u00a0 I think that this will also speak to the bipartisan support that exists in the United States for support for sub-Saharan Africa, for deeper relations between the United States in sub-Saharan African countries, and of course, for the empowerment of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So that concludes our very busy schedule on the trip.\u00a0 Before we open it up for questions, I want to turn it over to my colleagues.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll start with Grant to see if he has any words you want to add.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. HARRIS:\u00a0 Thank you, Ben.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As Ben already described, this trip is going to be highlighting America&#8217;s longstanding investments in Africa&#8217;s development and economic growth and people.\u00a0 Africa is a new center of global growth, clearly, but today&#8217;s challenge is making sure that those gains are expanded and that they&#8217;re spread to benefit all of Africa&#8217;s people.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ben mentioned a few issues in particular, the first being encouraging trade and investment.\u00a0 And on that front, we&#8217;re redoubling our efforts to create an environment that enables greater trade and investment.\u00a0 This includes encouraging things like regional integration and legal reforms that break down barriers to the free flow of goods and services.\u00a0 It gets at also the need for greater transparency in anti-corruption measures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here, it&#8217;s our strong belief that deepening these partnerships in Africa advance important American interests, particularly because Africa&#8217;s economic growth is going to support increasing demand for U.S. exports, which in turn is going to help create jobs at home, and it&#8217;s also going to provide valuable investment opportunities for U.S. businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ben mentioned as well that we have ongoing and important work in helping to build and consolidate strong democracies.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve been a longstanding partner with African states to help build and support vibrant democratic societies.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve seen that African nations have made demonstrable progress here, particularly in instituting democratic reforms.\u00a0 But political institutions in many countries are still fragile, so we have ongoing assistance that\u2019s looking to strengthen these democratic institutions.\u00a0 And we&#8217;ll be able to highlight that, particularly how we&#8217;re looking &#8212; and we are engaged in building capacity for effective and responsive governance, for supporting civil society, independent media, and all the different institutions that it takes for a democracy to flourish.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ben spoke also about the next generation of African leaders, which is another key element of what the President will be discussing.\u00a0 In addition to what he said, I would just note that nearly one in three Africans are between the ages of 10 and 24, and so we see Africa&#8217;s youth as already shaping the political and social and economic realities on the continent, and being key to the long-term growth and prosperity of the region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Young African Leaders Initiative that we&#8217;ve been talking about already has deep roots and has included more than 2,000 events on the continent in the formation of a lot of embassy youth advisory councils, but there\u2019s more that we want to be doing in expanding that engagement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And then across the board, in each of these countries and in each of these relationships, we have a host of global issues that we partner on as we are turning to African states to help address a range of global issues that include nuclear proliferation, climate change, counterterrorism, and other transnational threats.\u00a0 So all of that will be the basis for further discussion and deepening our partnerships to confront those transnational, and peace and security challenges.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we go to Gayle to do a bit of an overview of the development portion, and then we\u2019ll take your questions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MS. SMITH:\u00a0 Thanks, Ben.\u00a0 And hi, everybody.\u00a0 I think the important piece of the development story on this trip is the huge gains that we\u2019ve seen in Africa over the last 10 or 15 years.\u00a0 A couple of these will be highlighted.\u00a0 The first is on food security, as Ben mentioned.\u00a0 This has been a priority of the President since shortly after he came into office in the first term.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, what he\u2019s been able to do on food security, which was lead in the G8 to mobilize the world to start reinvesting in agriculture &#8212; the world was investing more in relief than in agricultural development &#8212; was we modeled our own programs on what the African Union itself was doing.\u00a0 African countries had agreed that they all needed to have comprehensive plans for food security for their countries.\u00a0 These were vetted, serious, really solid plans, and so we mobilized other donors and invested in &#8212; launched something called Feed the Future, which involved a number of agencies, as led by USAID, which has reinvigorated our own investments in agriculture, research, and science.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the President launched at Camp David with African leaders and other G8 leaders something called the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.\u00a0 That was launched with three African countries in the AU.\u00a0 The model there is somewhat different.\u00a0 It\u2019s built on the premise that if we can combine some reforms on the African side with some really targeted, strategic assistance on our side, we can leverage private capital flows into agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the first year of that initiative, since it was launched last summer, it\u2019s gone from three to nine countries and over $3.5 billion in letters of intent of private sector commitments to invest in the ag sector in those nine countries.\u00a0 A 10th will join in September.\u00a0 So that will be profiled.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That is something that is about making the ag sector work, making markets work, bringing small farmers into the system, and really enabling Africa to build on one of its greatest strengths, which is agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Health, as Ben said, will also get a focus.\u00a0 Here we\u2019ve seen a similar change, where if you think about where we were on the HIV\/AIDS epidemic a decade ago, it was daunting and I think the world feared for Africa\u2019s future.\u00a0 If you look at where we are today, there\u2019s been over a one-third drop in AIDS-related deaths, a one-third drop in infections.\u00a0 A number of countries are coming to what\u2019s called the tipping point, where the number of new infections is smaller than the number of people being put on treatment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s really interesting in this is that the game-changer is that more and more countries are putting skin in the game at the level of political leadership.\u00a0 Civil society is becoming more and more capable and engaged and contributing a great deal more.\u00a0 So we\u2019re seeing the change on that side.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And I think what we\u2019re seeing and what we\u2019ll highlight on the development side is very much the foundation of what makes us so confident about the potential on the trade and investment side.\u00a0 That&#8217;s leadership.\u00a0 That&#8217;s the development of systems and markets that are really working and providing the foundation, and it\u2019s results across the board.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I think that you\u2019ll see on this trip, and there\u2019s plenty of evidence to show that, as I said at the top, the greatest gains we\u2019ve see in development anywhere in the world over the last decade have been in sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0 So that&#8217;s kind of the foundation from them going from there to how do we really help build strong economies that can fuel and support those populations and continue Africa on the positive trajectory it\u2019s on.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll stop there, Ben.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you, Ben, for doing this.\u00a0 Can you just clarify because, of all the reporting in The Washington Post &#8212; and I know you\u2019ve addressed this in prior calls or in the press room briefing &#8212; but just what do you think the costs are, do you have any estimates of the trip, and why you think the costs are well justified given, in particular, President Xi\u2019s visits and other visits by competing economic interests.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Yes, thanks, Andrea, for the question.\u00a0 First of all, we don&#8217;t have the exact figure on costs.\u00a0 Frankly, we don&#8217;t own or control those numbers.\u00a0 The security requirements which make up the bulk of the costs are determined by the Secret Service.\u00a0 And they don&#8217;t publicly release the breakdown of the costs for these types of trips.\u00a0 But again, this is something that is determined not by White House planning, but rather by what the Secret Service and the White House Military Office determine is the appropriate support for presidential travel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And as The Washington Post story indicated, that&#8217;s been the case no matter who is President.\u00a0 The costs for these types of trips, as well as any presidential trip depend on those determinations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In terms of why it\u2019s worth it, Africa is a rapidly growing region that is of increasing importance to the United States.\u00a0 On the economics side, several of the fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa.\u00a0 And if Africa does take off, economically, you\u2019re going to have a rapidly growing middle class and market for U.S. goods.\u00a0 And, again, what we hear from our businesses is that they want to get in the game in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In terms of democracy, it is an important front in our support for democratic institutions and democratic institution-building around the world.\u00a0 There are some success stories but there are also some huge challenges on the continent &#8212; from Zimbabwe to some of the peace and security challenges that we see in places like Congo and in South Sudan, where we continue to be deeply engaged in.\u00a0 So we want to make sure we\u2019re moving in the right direction there.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And there are peace and security challenges in a country like Mali that partners with the United States &#8212; sorry &#8212; a country like Senegal, for instance, that\u2019s a partner with the United States in dealing with the situation in North Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And to your reference, there are other countries getting in the game in Africa &#8212; China, Brazil, Turkey.\u00a0 And if the U.S. is not leading in Africa, we\u2019re going to fall behind in a very important region of the world.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s in the U.S. interest for the United States to step aside and cede many potential opportunities for our country because we don\u2019t want to move forward with presidential travel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The fact is, the President has traveled to Asia; he\u2019s traveled to Europe; he\u2019s traveled to Latin America; he\u2019s traveled to many regions of the world.\u00a0 And, frankly, Africa is a place that we had not yet been able to devote significant presidential time and attention to.\u00a0 And there\u2019s nothing that can make an impact more in terms of our foreign policy and our economic and security interests than the President of the United States coming and demonstrating the importance of our commitment to this region.\u00a0 And it would not be in our interest for the United States to pull back at precisely the time when we see other nations stepping into Africa and increasing their own investments.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So this is a very important signal for the President to send &#8212; that we take this region very seriously, that we have significant interest here, and that we see this as fundamental to maintaining our leadership in the 21st century.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A couple things &#8212; and I know you went through the schedule, it\u2019s very involved.\u00a0 But I wonder if you could just give us all a sense &#8212; because it\u2019s been on all of our newsroom mindsets in the last two weeks &#8212; what priority the President has of trying to see President Mandela while he\u2019s in Africa.\u00a0 And second of all, I\u2019m duty-bound because this came up at the briefing, the LA Times had a very specific story &#8212; very specific, highly detailed &#8212; about CIA training of rebel forces in neighboring countries.\u00a0 And I wonder if you could give us any visibility on that whatsoever, because it\u2019s not just a generic story, it\u2019s a specific, so it requires some sort of comment, it seems to me.\u00a0 Thanks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the Mandela question, I should have added, we, of course, while we\u2019re in South Africa, are going to be very deferential to the Mandela family in terms of any interaction that the President may have with the Mandela family or with Nelson Mandela.\u00a0 Ultimately, we want whatever is in the best interest of his health and the peace of mind of the Mandela family.\u00a0 And so we\u2019ll be driven by their own determinations in that regard.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll be in touch with them.\u00a0 The President wants to support them in any way.\u00a0 He\u2019s supporting them with his thoughts and prayers as it is.\u00a0 And if he has an opportunity to see the family in some capacity, that\u2019s certainly something that we may do.\u00a0 And he\u2019ll be going to Robben Island as well, which I think will be an important and powerful symbol at this time when the world has Nelson Mandela in their prayers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I would just add that the President has always seen Nelson Mandela as one of his personal heroes.\u00a0 And he was honored &#8212; well, first of all, his first political activism, when he was in college, was driven by the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the inspiration of Nelson Mandela.\u00a0 And carrying that forward, he was honored to meet him in Washington in 2005.\u00a0 He was very moved that Nelson Mandela called him after the 2008 election and spoke to him several times in the years that followed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So this is something that the President watches very closely.\u00a0 And we are definitely going to be paying tribute to Nelson Mandela\u2019s contribution to not just South Africa, but to Africa and the world during our stop in South Africa.\u00a0 The President will speak to it, I\u2019m sure, in his speeches.\u00a0 And we will be closely monitoring the situation as it relates to Nelson Mandela\u2019s health.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On your second question, Major, I\u2019m just not going to be able to comment on CIA activities, as you I think can understand. Again, what we\u2019ve said is we\u2019ve been focused for some time now on how to strengthen the effectiveness and cohesion of the Syrian political and military opposition.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that we work with countries in the region on.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that has been a key national security priority for us.\u00a0 But beyond that, I can\u2019t get into reports of CIA activity.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll take the next question.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, thank you for this briefing &#8212; very useful.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if you\u2019re aware, but in South Africa there\u2019s a group of Muslim lawyers want a warrant to arrest to be handed President Obama when he arrives here on the strength of &#8212; whatever &#8212; drones, et cetera.\u00a0 And a court has to rule whether this is acceptable after our national prosecuting authority rejected it. I\u2019m just wondering if you have any comment on that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Yes, I\u2019ve seen the &#8212; well, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s that specific report.\u00a0 Obviously, we are aware of different opinions that have been expressed in South Africa and around the world about issues related to counterterrorism.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that obviously is a part of the ongoing debate about these issues.\u00a0 I don\u2019t anticipate that it will be a specific issue that is a focus of our trip to South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But I will say as a general matter, when it comes to security issues on the continent, counterterrorism is an important priority for the United States.\u00a0 We\u2019ve worked with each of these countries on counterterrorism-related issues in the various regions.\u00a0 And our focus in Africa, frankly, has been on building Africa\u2019s capacity.\u00a0 It has not been on U.S. actions as much as it\u2019s been on U.S. support for African actions in strengthening African security efforts and strengthening African collaboration like we\u2019ve seen across the continent &#8212; whether it\u2019s AMISOM in Somalia; whether it\u2019s support for the stabilization efforts in Mali; or whether it\u2019s regional institutions.\u00a0 So we understand the variety of opinions that have been expressed on drones-related issues, but we do not expect it to be a focal point of this visit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll take the next question.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, guys, thanks for doing the call.\u00a0 I have two quick questions &#8212; One on South Africa.\u00a0 Ben, if you could talk a little bit about what Obama\u2019s message might be on kind of the politics there post-Mandela, given some of the problems that they\u2019ve had there recently.\u00a0 And then also you\u2019re skipping Kenya, where Obama obviously has deep family ties, and I wanted to see how much of that is based on the results of the recent election and Kenyatta\u2019s upcoming trial at the ICC.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 Well, Julie, I\u2019ll take your second question first.\u00a0 The President has obviously deep personal and familial connections to Kenya.\u00a0 He has visited there in the past as a private citizen and as a senator. \u00a0And the Kenyan people just hold a very special place in the President\u2019s heart and in terms of his commitment to the future of sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We, as we expressed, in the aftermath of the Kenyan election, we fully respect the sovereign right of the Kenyan people to choose their own leader and we\u2019ll certainly be focused on working with the new Kenyan government under President Kenyatta.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We also as a country have a commitment to accountability and justice as a baseline priniple.\u00a0 And given the fact that Kenya is in the aftermath of their election and the new government has come into place and is going to be reviewing these issues with the ICC and the international community, it just wasn\u2019t the best time for the President to travel to Kenya at this point.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So Tanzania is an important partner for the United States, in the same region of East Africa.\u00a0 Tanzania partners with us on a range of security issues across the region; in all of our major development initiatives is a partner; one of the significant U.S. foreign assistance partners, as well, as well as a strong democracy.\u00a0 So we felt like Tanzania was an important stop in East Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But I would just add that the close partnership that the United States has had with Kenya for decades will certainly continue and we\u2019ll be continuing our collaboration with Kenya on issues from economic development to security to also supporting Kenya\u2019s democracy.\u00a0 But again, the Kenyan government will be continuing to work through the issues that it has with the international community.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With respect to South Africa and their politics, and Mandela, I\u2019d just say a couple of things, and then Grant may want to add something.\u00a0 I guess what I\u2019d say is so much of the democratic progress that we\u2019ve seen in South Africa can be attributed to Nelson Mandela and the extraordinary example he set not just in standing up to apartheid, but also in standing up for reconciliation and the handover of power to a successor through a peaceful transition.\u00a0 And we are heartened by the peaceful transitions of power that we\u2019ve seen in other countries like Senegal, for instance.\u00a0 And so much of the democratic progress that we see across the continent I think can be tied in some way to the inspiration that Nelson Mandela set.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The point the President will be making is &#8212; all across the continent &#8212; that to continue that progress there needs to be strong democratic institutions; that it&#8217;s not enough to have elections, it&#8217;s not enough to have democratically elected leaders, that you need to have independent judiciaries; you need to have confidence in the rule of law; you need to have efforts to combat corruption.\u00a0 Because, frankly, not only is that good for democracy and respect for human rights, but it&#8217;s critical to Africa&#8217;s economic growth, because where you have clear rules of the road and efforts to combat corruption, businesses will invest, and jobs will be created, and growth will take off.\u00a0 And that&#8217;s what we want to see.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But in terms of any further comment on the South African political dynamic, Grant, I don&#8217;t know if you have anything you&#8217;d like to add.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. HARRIS:\u00a0 I think you laid it out completely.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t think we here, nor would the President comment on South African politics, but the visit and the depth of the bilateral relationships and the relationship with the people of South Africa are going to give him the opportunity to highlight a lot of shared work both in addressing the scourge of HIV and AIDS, but also a shared commitment to the regional and international security issues that we&#8217;ve been talking about.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 And, Julie, just as I know it&#8217;s of interest to you, a contrast to the example that has been set by many democratic leaders on the continent is how Robert Mugabe has not allowed for respect for human rights in Zimbabwe.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a type of issue I think that we&#8217;ll be able to speak to in a place where we&#8217;d like to see enhanced progress in the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Actually, most of my questions have been answered.\u00a0 But if I can just amend a little bit &#8212; obviously, you can&#8217;t go to 54 countries, but Nigeria also was not on the list.\u00a0 Can you talk about the decision not to go to Nigeria?\u00a0 Can you answer critics who have said Africans are frustrated that it took Obama this long to get here?\u00a0 And is there any chance that President Obama will see his grandmother even if he is not going to Kenya?\u00a0 Any chance she&#8217;ll come over to Tanzania?\u00a0 Thanks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Sure, Margaret.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll take those.\u00a0 On the last question, I&#8217;m not aware of any plans to see his grandmother.\u00a0 I would note that his sister, Auma, was with us in Berlin and was able to attend the speech and the state dinner, and that&#8217;s obviously a very close family member of the President&#8217;s from that side of his family.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With respect to Nigeria, we certainly believe that Nigeria is a fundamentally important country to the future of Africa.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve put a lot of investment in the relationship with Nigeria through their leadership of ECOWAS, through the significant U.S. business investment in Nigeria and through our security cooperation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, Nigeria is working through some very challenging security issues right now.\u00a0 And in that process, they&#8217;re going to be a partner of the United States.\u00a0 We certainly believe we&#8217;ll have an opportunity to further engage the Nigerian government through bilateral meetings going forward.\u00a0 But at this point, we just were not able to make it to Nigeria on this particular itinerary.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I will say that we purposefully designed the itineraries to be able to reach West Africa, South Africa and East Africa, and in West Africa, to visit Senegal, a French-speaking, Muslim-majority democracy that is an important partner of the United States and also provides a platform for the President to speak to the broader region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We are also looking at ways, at the President&#8217;s town hall in South Africa with young African leaders, to draw in through technology young people in Nigeria and in Kenya, among other places, so that the President is using this trip to speak to the broader African audience.\u00a0 We recognize we&#8217;d like to go to as many countries as possible.\u00a0 Time only permits us to go to these three.\u00a0 But we want to make sure that in each country we&#8217;re speaking to the broader region.\u00a0 And we&#8217;re going to make use of technology and other means to do so.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And to the middle question, the Africans who have been frustrated &#8212; look, I think it points back to Andrea&#8217;s first question.\u00a0 This is a region that, frankly, has been underrepresented in our travel.\u00a0 And for all these questions of why the President is going to Africa, I think the questions that we&#8217;ve been getting is why hasn&#8217;t the President been in Africa more?\u00a0 And, frankly, that tracks with our belief that there is extraordinary potential on the continent, and that when we look back 20 years from now, 30 years from now, we&#8217;ll see this potentially as a pivotal moment when Africa took off in terms of economic growth, when you saw economic opportunities open up for the United States and when you saw democratic consolidation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not to minimize the challenges.\u00a0 But this is a place where the United States needs to be present.\u00a0 And we&#8217;re very pleased that early in the second term we can send a signal of increased U.S. engagement through this trip.\u00a0 And it&#8217;s going to be very important for us on this trip to signal that this isn&#8217;t a one-off, that there&#8217;s going to be follow-through.\u00a0 And bringing the President&#8217;s economic team with him on this trip I think sends that message.\u00a0 Bringing business leaders from the United States sends that message.\u00a0 And deepening our exchange programs with young people and some of the development priorities we\u2019ll be able to speak to on the trip will send that message as well.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So we see this trip as a door that we&#8217;re walking through towards a much deeper U.S. engagement in sub-Saharan Africa leading into the President&#8217;s second term.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just wanted to follow up on that last line that you were talking about there.\u00a0 You talk about sort of underrepresented in travels.\u00a0 In talking to folks both here in Washington and in Africa who are sort of policy analysts and others, they say it&#8217;s not only just that the President hasn&#8217;t traveled there, but that the U.S. just hasn&#8217;t been investing enough &#8212; as much as they thought that President Obama would because of his personal connections, and that if anything stands out on the continent, it&#8217;s the U.S. increasing military engagement with the drone bases and so on, and that&#8217;s what his legacy has become at least in the first four years.\u00a0 And I&#8217;m curious what your thoughts &#8212; how you would respond to that, concerns from Africans that have said &#8212; and explain maybe why the President did choose to go to Asia, South Asia, Latin America before Africa, despite the fact that in the Ghana speech he said this would be a new moment of promise and really pledged at that time to do the same things you\u2019re talking about now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Yes, well, I\u2019d say a couple things, David, and then Grant and Gayle may have a perspective here, too.\u00a0 Just on the very precise question at the end, before getting to the first part of your question, part of the reason is, frankly, that we have anchor summits in other parts of the world.\u00a0 So as those of you who travel with the President know, a lot of his travel ends up being built around G20s, G8s, APECs, East Asia summits, and so that ends up driving a lot of the schedule.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And we were able to make the trip to Ghana.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been able to bring groupings of democratic leaders into the Oval Office, as well as other African leaders to the Oval Office.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve been able to do a number of things in terms of our policies to signal an increased engagement and a ramping up in certain areas.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now, to that, what I\u2019d point to is &#8212; you mentioned the security in AFRICOM, and it\u2019s really true that AFRICOM has been a key partner to a number of African countries.\u00a0 I will say that the focus of AFRICOM has been on building African capacity, not on bringing U.S.-based military solutions to African problems.\u00a0 So whether it\u2019s to do with Africa &#8212; the situation in Mali, or whether it\u2019s AMISOM, or whether it\u2019s our efforts to capture Joseph Kony, all of those have been U.S. operations in support of African partners who are really in the lead for these efforts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But as you look at this trip, I think this trip ultimately disproves the notion that we\u2019re somehow securitizing the relationship with Africa, because this trip is expressly devoted to trade and investment, democratic institution-building, young people, and unleashing economic growth through some of our development priority.\u00a0 So the trip itself I think speaks to the broader agenda and the fundamental interconnection between democracy, development, and security.\u00a0 Because it\u2019s our belief that stable democracies that are growing are ultimately going to be more secure, are not going to be exposed to conflict, and could even be strong partners in dealing with conflicts as Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania have been.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In terms of our engagement, I will make &#8212; I believe there was one announcement that went out today that\u2019s just worth flagging, which is Linda Thomas-Greenfield is going to be Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, a long-time senior foreign service officer, former ambassador to Liberia, so that\u2019s an important member of the President\u2019s Africa team for the second term who we put before today.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But then we have done a lot on the development and other aspects of our policy side that I want to give Grant and Gayle a chance to comment on.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So, Grant, anything you\u2019d like to add?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. HARRIS: \u00a0I would just add that, exactly as you said, I think it\u2019s really important to push back on this false notion that we somehow have a securitized or militarized approach.\u00a0 As we\u2019ve been laying out even just on this call, advancing peace and security is a core objective for U.S. policy, but it\u2019s part of a holistic approach of strengthening democratic institutions, spurring economic growth, trade and investment, and promoting opportunity and development.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And as Ben mentioned as well, our activities on the continent are in partnership and help build capacity of African partners.\u00a0 Some of the examples of the way that we\u2019re doing that would include supporting Uganda and regional forces in countering the predatory Lord\u2019s Resistance Army; supporting, helping to train and equip those African forces composed in the African Union mission in Somalia that are also trying to advance democracy and stabilize the situation in Mali and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So I think looking at the total range of where our investments are &#8212; and I know Gayle will touch on this in terms of health and food security and others &#8212; there\u2019s a very strong record on which to draw, and it paints a very holistic picture.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MS. SMITH:\u00a0 Yes, I think I would just add on to that, and I think \u201cholistic\u201d is the key word.\u00a0 The U.S. has a security relationship with Africa like it does in many parts of the world. And as Grant points out, a lot of that is rooted very much in the leadership being shown by the African Union and by African countries &#8212; but I think what some of those stories obscure has been the extensive cooperation, whether it\u2019s, again, the preponderance of our effort on food security is based on, in, and with Africa on countries across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, on health, we launched an effort about a year ago to end preventable child deaths.\u00a0 That was co-hosted with Ethiopia as one of the leading countries in the world on that, and every African country was represented there.\u00a0 So that\u2019s been a huge effort.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Open Government Partnership that President Obama launched with other leaders, including South Africa, at the U.N. a couple years ago &#8212; Tanzania is now in the leadership, South Africa is a founding member of that.\u00a0 So that\u2019s had a huge level of involvement of Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So I think sometimes these things are less visible than others, but I think that we all believe they\u2019re foundational.\u00a0 I would add to that &#8212; think about OPEC, which has tripled its investment portfolio in Africa.\u00a0 Those things, again, may be less visible, but we really think those are the foundations for the strong relationships that we\u2019re going to build on, on this trip.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, thanks for taking the question.\u00a0 I just wanted to return to the issue of the administration\u2019s engagement in Africa.\u00a0 Could you address sort of the criticism that\u2019s been leveled that the United States has fallen behind China or other countries in Africa?\u00a0 And also, the idea that, visits notwithstanding, that this administration has not followed up sort of the PEPFAR or the Millennium Challenge Corporation with similar broad, sweeping, new initiatives to engage with Africa?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Yes, sure.\u00a0 On your first question, I think the United States brings a unique type of engagement to Africa, and one that in the long run will serve not just U.S. interest but the interest of the people across Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s certainly true that China and other nations have increased their investments, and China has pursued a range of economic interests that have led to a significant investment in Africa.\u00a0 When you look at what the United States is focused on, it\u2019s support for African democratic institutions, for models of economic growth that will be broad-based and will bring opportunities to more people, and its investment in young people &#8212; and that\u2019s represented in this trip.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So the type of leadership that the U.S. brings to the continent uniquely advances opportunities for more Africans, and frankly, we believe represents a better model of engagement not just for the United States, but for democratic development on the continent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So because of our democratic values, because of our businesses, and because of our focus on capacity-building for African solutions, we believe U.S. leadership is ultimately going to be welcomed on the continent and going to be in the best interest of the people of Sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s an important point, because this is an emerging region, just like any other region, and given Africa\u2019s emergence, they\u2019ll be making determinations about their own futures and about their own partners.\u00a0 And we believe that what the United States brings to the table is a model of partnership that serves our interest but also the interest of people in Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s represented in this trip, where you see us focusing on institution-building, the trade and investment environment, young people, human capital, and the various development priorities we pursue.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That relates to the second question, and I know Gayle will want to say something about this, but I\u2019ll just begin by saying that we have carried forward PEPFAR, which is an extraordinary initiative because of the work that has been done under two administrations.\u00a0 And on the continent itself, we have within reach an AIDS-free generation.\u00a0 And we have also broadened out our global health initiative so it\u2019s focused on capacity building, public health sectors and long-term African solutions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But as a general matter, the point is Africa doesn\u2019t need handouts.\u00a0 Africa needs trade.\u00a0 Africa needs economic growth.\u00a0 And this notion that the only way to make an impact is to announce a high-dollar assistance program doesn\u2019t fit with the times as it relates to what Africans are looking for.\u00a0 Because the things that are really going to unleash growth on the continent is not an assistance program, per se, but rather the types of partnerships that we\u2019ve been pursuing in areas like food security, for instance, that enable economic growth; that enable a broader base of people coming out of poverty; that enhance trade between Africa and the United States, but also within African countries and within the continent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So that\u2019s why we focus so much of our attention &#8212; whether it\u2019s development policy or our broader Africa policy &#8212; not just on carrying forward these very important assistance programs, but on unleashing economic growth that ultimately is going to be in our interest as well as Africa\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But, Gayle, you may want to add to that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MS. SMITH:\u00a0 Sure, let me just add a couple things.\u00a0 One of the things that\u2019s interesting, if you look at what is fueling development now as opposed to 10 or 12 years ago, assistance is the smallest piece of the puzzle.\u00a0 It is private capital and it\u2019s domestic resources.\u00a0 Because with a lot more countries that have growing economies, governments are investing more and more, so there\u2019s a momentum going that we are tapping into.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With PEPFAR, for example, as Ben suggests, we didn\u2019t turn off PEPFAR, nor did President Bush turn it off when he left the White House.\u00a0 In fact, we inherited it.\u00a0 It was a terrific foundation.\u00a0 We\u2019ve built on that substantially by shifting it a lot more in the direction of capacity-building, of strengthening systems in partner countries, in building on things like maternal\/child health so that we could help to radically reduce the rate of the spread of the infection from mother to child.\u00a0 And what we have seen over the last few years is a turning point where, as Ben says, we can now talk about the possibility of an AIDS-free generation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, I would argue that on the food security side that is an issue that, when President Obama came into office in 2009, had fallen off the map.\u00a0 The United States was once among the world\u2019s leaders in supporting agricultural development around the world and, as I said at the top, the world was providing far more in relief aid than it was in investing in production, in getting small-holder farmers\u2019 goods to market, and so on and so forth.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I think the President &#8212; in cooperation with African partners, the G8, the G20 &#8212; has really put this issue on the map.\u00a0 There is tremendous momentum behind food security.\u00a0 And as an example of how we\u2019re using assistance to leverage, to have in one year well over $3.5 billion in commitments from the private sector to invest in African agriculture is a pretty good deal.\u00a0 So that\u2019s something we\u2019re quite proud of and we think much more of that can happen.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I would argue, as Ben suggests, the shift we\u2019re seeing is one that is away from the kind of linear donors provide aid to compensate for the deficits in governance or in functional economies, and more that we are working with partners to figure out how we can accelerate the flow of private capital, accelerate the flow of domestic resources, strengthen systems, and make countries and economies actually work for their people.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a much different &#8212; I\u2019m not a big fan of the word \u201cparadigm\u201d, but it\u2019s a much different paradigm than what we were looking at even 10 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MR. RHODES:\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 Well, thanks, everybody, for joining the call.\u00a0 I think we\u2019re going to\u00a0 &#8212; as you see, there\u2019s quite a busy schedule.\u00a0 We\u2019ll keep you updated if there are any developments associated with the schedule.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll look forward to seeing everybody on the trip.\u00a0 But we wanted to get you this information early because we know a lot of people are beginning to now preview the trip.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll look forward to being in touch and we\u2019ll look forward to seeing you on our trip.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">####<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFRICAN TOUR! OBAMA Abandons Nigeria, Senegal represents West Africa\u2026as South Africa, Tanzania Rejoice \u00a0*Challenges ECOWAS on Leadership Role in West Africa Presidential Economic Team, OPIC, Export-Import Bank top Officials to be on trip Foreign Private Investors Confirm for Visit White House: \u201cUS President\u2019s 2nd Trip to Sub-Saharan Africa to advance America\u2019s Interest\u201d\u00a0 * Attached: US [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}