Sisule F. Musungu – The eighth African Growth and Opportunity Act -8th AGOA Forum- takes place in Nairobi, Kenya from the 4th to the 6th 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 7th AGOA Forum, in 2008, was “Mobilizing Private Investment for Trade and Growth” and that for the 6th 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.
Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category
U.S. –Africa Trade: Assessing Nine Years of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)
Monday, August 3rd, 2009Obama’s Africa Policy – A Response to the Ghana Speech
Saturday, July 11th, 2009It was another eloquent and powerful speech. That was President Barack Obama’s speech, laying out his Africa policy, delivered to the Parliament of Ghana today morning. In the main, Obama outlined four key planks of the United States of America’s (U.S.A) policy on Africa during his administration. The four planks are:
- Good governance.
- Supporting development that provides opportunity for more people.
- Strengthening public health.
- Addressing conflict.
If these were the only big things in the speech, it would have been disappointing.
