From September of 2020, when airports across Africa re-opened from the initial surge, I hit the road, often in a state of perpetual anxiety of being quarantined at a military hospital, or \u2014 worse \u2014 getting really sick and unable to return home. Then when normalcy returned last year, I lost count of the international conferences I attended with colleagues in the frenzy of return to in-person events on the continent.<\/p>\n
I had the opportunity to see firsthand how different actors \u2014 governments, politicians, private sector, civil society and Africa\u2019s international partners \u2014 responded to the challenge.<\/p>\n
My main takeaway was that Africa\u2019s private sector \u2014 particularly its young innovators \u2014 met the moment, in contrast to the political class, which atrophied, and the international donor community, which at times aided and abetted the dysfunction.<\/p>\n
It is my hope that the Biden administration learns from the pandemic response as it implements the substantial commitments it made during last year\u2019s US-Africa Leaders Summit, which brought together more than 40 African presidents with President Biden, congressional leaders, U.S. diplomats, business leaders, and the African diaspora, for a reset with the continent.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
The pandemic accelerated changes in citizen behavior, and the private sector met them on their level of need and ability to pay. African companies created thousands of new products and services at price points that could be absorbed through economies of scale enabled by innovation. This development was made possible by more than a decade of dedicated investment in home-grown technology solutions to community-based challenges.<\/p>\n
And the global capital markets, led by the United States, responded. During 2021, African tech startups raised a record nearly $5 billion, much higher than the global average. This included companies like Interswitch, Paystack and Flutterwave, part of Nigeria\u2019s fintech revolution, and entrepreneurs changing the face of healthcare delivery in Africa.<\/p>\n
The crisis also showcased the nimbleness of Africa\u2019s public-private partnerships, including financial institutions like the African Finance Corporation and the African Export-Import Bank, which moved in to fill the financing gaps for vaccines and brought liquidity to depressed economies.<\/p>\n
In contrast, the majority of African governments only got further mired in corruption. In too many countries there was government scramble to profit personally from COVID aid, only deepening the wounds of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
The health emergency also was used to consolidate power, big-man style. With the world\u2019s attention drawn elsewhere, particularly after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the continent saw a spike in military coups, and the spectacle of a Central African President extending his 43 years in office. Effortlessly.<\/p>\n
Africa\u2019s donor nations did not help matters by channeling funds and goods solely through public health facilities, while relaxing accountability measures to monitor their use. Little effort was made to bring in Africa\u2019s private sector, even though in the United States vaccine development and distribution heavily relied on such a public-private partnership.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not sustainable to have an African governing class continue to narrow the democratic space and crowd out its private sector, particularly when the imperative to generate employment and create economic opportunity on a continent of 1.3 billion \u2014 where by 2050 one in every fourth person on Earth will be African \u2014 is all but an existential threat to the planet.<\/p>\n
As the Biden administration prepares to deliver on its 2022 Summit commitments \u2014 it needs to consider how its policies, funding, programs, and engagements feed the continent\u2019s innovators \u2014 and starve out its political dysfunction. It needs to be willing to ask some hard questions:<\/p>\n
20 years later, does it still make sense for our billions of healthcare dollars for PEPFAR to run solely through public health facilities with poor track records of patient retention? And without consideration for how these drugs can become part of a supply chain that addresses other chronic illnesses on the continent?
\nAs the U.S. Trade Representative considers the reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) set for 2025, shouldn\u2019t we be aligning our bilateral framework with the ambitions of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which has the potential to boost to economic output of $29 trillion by 2050 and to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty? Are we considering fiscal incentives for U.S. investors to participate in the value addition of critical commodities, like we did for textiles 23 years ago?
\nWhat about the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)? Can we supercharge USAID Administrator Samantha Power\u2019s 25 percent commitment to the localization in Africa spending?
\nAs for the $55 billion promised for Africa over the next three years announced at the summit? What is the administration\u2019s plan to get it appropriated through the Republican-led House? How can new monies be directed to de-risk investment for American companies so that the private sector, along with the African Diaspora, can be a force multiplier for scarce U.S. government resources?<\/p>\n
I am hopeful that that these questions will being considered as the Biden administration executes on its summit commitments and unleashes its parade of Cabinet officials to the continent, the capstone of which will be a visit by Biden himself later this year.<\/p>\n
K. Riva Levinson is president and CEO of\u202fKRL International LLC,\u202fa D.C.-based consultancy that works in the world\u2019s emerging markets, award-winning author of \u201cChoosing the Hero: My Improbable Journey and the Rise of Africa\u2019s First Woman President.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is said that character is revealed by how one responds to adversity \u2014 that it is life\u2019s setbacks that create the opportunity for renewal, and in other cases, and unfortunately, an excuse for retreat. I found this especially true observing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":25412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[7,26,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-25415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n