Sisule F. Musungu – From potential to opportunity to governance through to the excellent Nairobi hairdos. The speech by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as the head of the U.S. delegation to the 8^th AGOA Forum, on 5^th of August 2009 in Nairobi was quite wide-ranging.  Its value primarily lies in the detail it offered regarding the policy that Obama outlined in his Ghana Speech less than a month before. They say the devil is in the detail. For that reason having the detail can tell you if, and where, the devil might be in Obama’s Africa policy.  Read the rest of this entry »

Sisule F. Musungu – The eighth African Growth and Opportunity Act -8^th AGOA Forum- takes place in Nairobi, Kenya from the 4^th to the 6^th August 2009. The theme for this year’s Forum is “Realizing the Full Potential of AGOA through Expansion of Trade and Investment”. The theme sounds depressingly similar to the themes of the last two forums. The theme of the 7^th AGOA Forum, in 2008, was “Mobilizing Private Investment for Trade and Growth” and that for the 6^th Forum, in 2007, “As Trade Grows, Africa Prospers: Optimizing the Benefits under AGOA.” The topics in the Forum Programme are also fairly familiar. The familiarity of topics and like sounding themes year in year out might not necessarily be a negative thing. But it is a reason to look beyond the surface.  Read the rest of this entry »