África: A caminho dos 2.000 milhões de habitantes

During his campaign for president in 2008, Barack Obama promised that he would restore America’s standing in the world—in part by using his unique multicultural background to better communicate with U.S. friends and foes alike. While Obama has certainly enjoyed some foreign policy successes, there is one region in which he has so far glaringly and disappointingly fallen well short of that promise: Africa. By every conceivable metric, Africa is growing in stature and importance. More than 60 percent of Africans are below the age of 25, and the continent’s population is expected to double by 2050 to more than 2 billion people. The continent’s economy is growing faster than any other’s. Indeed, according to International Monetary Fund figures, 10 of the world’s 20 fastest-growing economies are located in Africa, and recent surveys of institutional investors reveal that sub-Saharan Africa is the region where most investors intend to increase their portfolio exposure in the coming decade. But for years now, the United States has been losing ground in Africa to various competitors, particularly China. China’s annual trade and investment in Africa has increased sixfold over the past 10 years and now stands at more than $150 billion. This has to do largely with the fact that China has made Africa a top priority. The Chinese government spends considerable time and money wooing African leaders by hosting state visits in Beijing, financing large infrastructure projects across the continent, and doing everything else in its power to deepen commercial and political relations between China and Africa. Obama had a unique opportunity to reverse these trends and make a real play on the African continent. As the first African-American U.S. president and, perhaps even more important, the child of a Kenyan father, Obama’s connection to Africa is highly tangible. Across the continent, African hearts swelled with pride at his election to America’s highest office. Obama T-shirts abounded in cities and villages throughout Africa, and American flags proliferated. African leaders, too, hoped that Obama’s election might augur a new era in U.S.-African relations. But instead of seizing this opportunity, Obama paid almost no attention to Africa during his first four years in office. Unlike President George W. Bush, who during his first term launched a $15 billion campaign to combat AIDS in Africa, Obama had no major initiatives related to the continent. Of the more than 40 countries Obama visited during his first term, only one, Ghana, was in sub-Saharan Africa, and he was on the ground for less than 24 hours. Obama’s neglect of Africa left leaders across the continent feeling confused and disappointed. Early indications from his second term are more promising. Obama spent a full week in Africa this summer, visiting Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. During that trip, he announced Power Africa, a multibillion dollar initiative involving the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC) and other U.S. agencies, designed to double access to electric power in sub-Saharan Africa. And this month, he traveled to South Africa again to participate in Nelson Mandela’s funeral. The door remains wide open for Obama to deepen ties between the United States and Africa. Observers need only look at how Obama was received at the Mandela funeral service. The loudest cheers of the entire event occurred when he and Michelle Obama arrived in the stadium. Conversely, Obama was the only speaker at the event for whom the crowd quieted down enough to properly hear his remarks, and the only speaker who received a standing ovation from the entire stadium. To be sure, this is partly due to the inherent clout that redounds to any president of the United States; but there is also no doubt that Africans feel a special connection, and a special pride, when it comes to Barack Obama specifically. Power Africa is a good start, but Obama should do much more than that in his second term. Specifically, he should conduct a comprehensive economic engagement strategy designed to increase investment by U.S. companies in African markets. The American private sector enjoys some advantages in African markets. For example, U.S. companies are better equipped to handle technically complex projects and generally have a stellar reputation when it comes to governance, transfers of skills and technology, and local employment. But there are two factors that have made it difficult for U.S. companies to compete effectively in Africa: First, foreign competitors significantly undercut American firms on price; and second, those competitors often enjoy the benefit of incumbency and, relatedly, of long-standing relationships across the continent. The challenge for the U.S. government is to amplify U.S. strengths by better communicating the advantages that U.S. firms can offer, while at the same time implementing policies that are geared toward mitigating those firms’ weaknesses. Such policies should include, at a minimum, stronger support for OPIC and Export-Import Bank initiatives in Africa, a more aggressive push to use commercial officers to make introductions for U.S. firms in Africa, as well as a set of free trade agreements across the continent. Obama should advance this agenda through a sustained dialogue with leaders of key U.S. allies in Africa, culminating in a summit in the United States. Due to the challenges they often face in advancing their second-term domestic agendas, U.S. presidents often gravitate more toward achieving foreign policy wins as they near their latter years in office. Given the unique cultural context, Obama should seize the moment and convert the immense goodwill that exists toward him in Africa into a strong and lasting relationship between the United States and Africa. Alexander Benard, COO of Schulze Global Investments, a U.S. private equity firm with a $100 million fund dedicated to Ethiopia. He is the author of a Foreign Affairs article on successfully investing in emerging and frontier markets.