Bush Administration Africa Policy: The First Six Months and Looking Ahead

11:34 A.M.

MR. KANSTEINER: Thanks very much. Glad to be here.

It's been an active six months in Washington and in Africa as far as the Bush administration is concerned. Secretary Powell made a trip to Africa already. President Bush has met with numerous African leaders and diplomats. So we have jumped right in and are quite engaged.

If I could just spend a few minutes outlining briefly some of the priorities, and Jendayi will also mention some of the priorities as well, as we begin to unfold and activate our policy towards Africa. We're going to be looking at economic issues, particularly investment and trade. We have a terrific start with AGOA. We want to build on AGOA. We want to make AGOA run as smoothly as possible and we want to increase it, both in terms of numbers of countries that meet the criteria for AGOA, as well as the number of goods and services that are allowed to come into this country duty free.

On the investment side, the government's role is to encourage private investment in Africa. There are a number of ways we can do that. It's helping African countries become a more attractive environment for foreign direct investment. We can also help on portfolio investment, building capital markets, both debt and equity. Technical assistance is needed everywhere. And so we're anxious to get going on that.

On the democratic institution front -- that is, helping democracies grow and expand in Africa -- we're keen on pushing and, again, technically helping. We have a number of key democratic processes underway, Zimbabwe being one of them. The DRC is, hopefully, going to be looking at unfolding a democratic process.

So we've got a couple of real tough, good issues that we're going to be focusing on as far as increasing democracy capabilities.

A third area that we're very focused on, of course, is HIV-AIDS and the pandemic that is across the continent now. Last Monday's meeting in New York was a good start. We've got a lot more to do. Secretary Powell gave one of the keynote speeches up there describing some of our early actions which of course includes the $200 million that we have put into the global trust fund.

We are looking at environmental issues; that is, Africa provides a real ecosystem that is unique. In fact, Thaba Mbeki, in his MAP program, talks about the "ecological lung of the world" being Africa, both its rainforests and its open spaces, and we look forward to ways that we can engage Africans in preserving and conserving that.

Finally, we can't do any of these things without conflict resolution; that is, stopping the wars in Africa. So a lot of Jendayi's and my time is going to be spent looking at how we can help build peace processes, how we can build structures that will lead to cease-fires, how we can help end the wars in Africa.

So those are some of the priorities we're looking at in the years to come.

MS. FRAZER: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. As the president's special assistant for African affairs, I often hear his voice in my mind when I talk about Africa policy, and I think it's important to share that for him this is going to be an administration that's committed to Africa. And as Walter mentioned, we have very clear priorities on the economic front with the AGOA implementation as one of the practical tools for pushing our economic agenda on the conflict resolution, conflict mitigation front and obviously, as well, to deal with HIV-AIDS and democratization.

I think over the last six months, President Bush's commitment has been demonstrated with his meeting with at least five African heads of state in these first six months, with Secretary Powell going to Africa so soon after the administration began governing. In fact, Secretary Powell is the first secretary of State to go so early in an administration. And so I think that we are clearly demonstrating the commitment that the president has articulated.

We are very clear in our priorities.

President Bush also wants to be very strategic in our approach, and that strategy is clearly to build on the democracies, to build on the African governments who are strong economic reformers, to work and engage with them, to devote our resources in their direction, as well as to deal with those countries that are -- have a major impact on their subregion, like South Africa and Nigeria -- clearly we all know that the consolidation of their democracy will have a positive impact throughout the continent -- and finally, also, to work with the subregional organizations. We think it's extremely important to help build the capacity of those subregional organizations. And we also feel that they are a legitimate forum for engagement that represents the interests of the collective states, rather than simply the big powers in each subregion.

And so I look forward to the questions and to the dialogue on the Bush administration's Africa policy.

MODERATOR: Thank you. With that, we're ready to go to questions. Please wait for the microphone and give your name and your news organization. We'll start here in the front row corner. The microphone's on its way.

Q My name is Adu-Asare, editor of AfricaNewscast.com. Since the days of President Clinton, the fundamental criticism of U.S. policy towards Africa has been in the area of translating policy into dollars. In other words, there's a feeling that there hasn't been much substantially for monitoring contributions to back up U.S. policy on the continent. Is there -- are we likely to see any change in the Bush administration?

MR. KANSTEINER: The dollar amount of the assistance is very important, and we in the Bush administration will fight for as much budget as we possibly can get.

But you know, that's not the only way that the United States can really assist sub-Saharan Africa. There are a lot of other ways. And in fact, aid alone is not going to make or break the future of Africa; it's really private-sector involvement. And there you're talking about foreign direct investment from the private sector. You're talking about trade between African entrepreneurs and American entrepreneurs. So it's in those ways that we think the money can be best spent; that is, to facilitate private-sector investment and private-sector trade.

So we are going to be focusing on how do we technically assist, for instance, how do we technically assist African countries in making their investment opportunities more attractive to U.S. investors so in fact that long-term capital flow that is so vital to Africa will actually flow.

MS. FRAZER: I would just add one point as well. I think it's extremely important at the beginning of an administration to engage in a dialogue with African leaders and African civil society to find out where our assistance should be appropriately directed. Too often we throw money in a -- just sort of throwing out money to solve a problem and we haven't had a sufficient analysis and a dialogue about where actually it would be best to devote our resources and have the most impact when a challenge is faced. And so I think that one should not simply assess an administration in terms of providing grants here and there, but really look at the substance of the policy that one is trying to achieve with the money that's being provided.

Q Simon Marks with the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Can you tell us where you got last week in your conversations with President Mbeki over HIV/AIDS? And do you feel that he is close to being on the right track in dealing with the problem?

MS. FRAZER: I think that we -- both presidents affirmed a commitment to deal with HIV/AIDS, that global leadership is necessary on the issue, and that more resources need to be devoted to addressing the scourge of HIV/AIDS. I think President Mbeki's point is that too often people don't look at the programs on the ground in South Africa. But certainly President Bush's orientation is that we need not simply talk about the problem but actually actively engage.

And the $200 million that we contributed or that we have committed to a global trust fund for HIV/AIDS is money on top of our normal bilateral HIV/AIDS programs often that take place through AID. And so we're really looking at about a billion dollars or so in the U.S. contribution, which in fact is more than any other government is making at this point, and clearly is not an end to our financial contribution to this problem. But President Bush's interest in providing that $200 million was really to jump-start the trust fund that Kofi Annan called for out in Abuja, Nigeria.

MODERATOR: Okay, we'll go to the front here in the center.

Q My name is James Bati (sp). I represent two media organizations today. I'm with Voice of America, Africa Division, and West Africa Magazine, so I think if you don't mind, I will pose two questions to represent two of -- (Laughter.)

My first question goes to Mr. Kansteiner. There has been apprehension as to what exactly U.S. policy towards Africa will be, particularly since the administration came to power. Do you think there is any basis for this apprehension or whether it is fair? And then my question for -- I think there was a shooting two weeks ago in Monrovia, Liberia, of the assistant U.S. military attache, and the United States was conducting its own investigation. What is the outcome of that investigation?

MR. KANSTEINER: As far as your first question is concerned, we hope that some of these efforts and policies that we have worked on in these first five and a half, six months, clearly indicate that this administration is very committed to Africa. Secretary Powell's trip, President Bush's visits, welcoming these African heads of state here, are all really important signals and symbols that this administration is fully engaged.

You know, we've got so many issues that involve Africa. Economic issues; political; what they call trans-national, be it health care, drug -- there's no way you can avoid Africa, and I think everyone in the administration understands that this has got to be a priority. And, in fact, two key folks, Colin Powell and President Bush, have made it a priority.

MODERATOR: And on the other question?

MS. FRAZER: Yes. There was an incident in Monrovia. One of our embassy personnel was shot at a check point. The investigation is still ongoing as to what happened that evening, and he is in good health. That's I think the most important aspect of this, is that the individual that was shot is okay. But the investigation is still ongoing.

MODERATOR: Okay. We'll go next to Ben, then we'll go back over here.

Q My name is Ben Bengura (sp). I am Washington correspondent for Guinea News. Do we know what the future holds for U.S. programs like Focus Relief and ACRI, which were initiated by the former president but now are under review under your administration?

MR. KANSTEINER: Both of those programs are indeed under review, and we're looking at how exactly does the U.S. stay involved in military training in sub-Saharan Africa. And so we are calling interagency meetings and dialogue and we're trying to see exactly how that all fits together.

One type, OFR, the Operation Focus Relief, has more forward-leaning type training, and the ACRI is more classical type, IMET-style training.

So we're looking to see how do we combine those, do we combine them, exactly how they're going to be operated. So we're reviewing it, and we're looking at how our policy towards military training in Africa is going to unfold.

MS. FRAZER: And I would just add that we are involved in a review, but there is not at this point any NSC working paper discussing the future of OFR or of the Africa Crisis Response Initiative. That was reported, but in fact I think the working paper that was mentioned was actually a Center for Strategic and International Studies report that came out in March and was written last summer.

MODERATOR: Okay. We'll take the question in the middle.

Q Hello. Elaine Monaghan from Reuters. I'd like to ask where we are with naming a Sudan envoy. And also, could you say which countries could be added to AGOA, please?

MR. KANSTEINER: Your second question first -- there are, I think, 35 countries right now that are AGOA-credited, if you will. I'd love to see all 48 sub-Saharan African countries make it. There are criteria and thresholds that have to be achieved, and that's by law. That's congressional mandate.

I think our role as diplomats is to help those African countries fulfill those criteria and reach those thresholds. So in the upcoming years, that's exactly what we'll be doing. And those criteria, as you know, involved everything from human rights to transparent customs regulations, harmonization of tariff scheduling. And so there are a whole bunch of technical but -- as well as political issues. So we're going to be working with them on that.

MODERATOR: And on the Sudan?

MR. KANSTEINER: Sudan -- on the special envoy, right now we are looking at a number of potential special envoys. I think the administration is very committed -- we're very committed to looking at the Sudan issue and working the Sudan issue. We believe that it would be effective to have a special envoy who could totally focus on that and nothing else, and so we are looking at a number of names and possibilities of who that individual might be.

MODERATOR: Yes? In the middle on this side.

Q Jim Lobe from Inter Press Service and Africa Confidential, for which reason I'd like to ask two questions, just like James. (Laughter.)

The first question is on AIDS, and its relationship to the ability of Africa, particularly Southern Africa, to attract foreign investment. For every 5 percent of the adult population which is infected, the World Bank says that 1 percent of GNP annually is sacrificed. That's -- those are very telling figures, and I wondered what you thought, whether the existence of the scourge makes your job a lot more difficult, and whether, therefore, $200 million as a down payment may be not nearly sufficient for the challenge that lies ahead.

The second question had to do with Chad, and particularly the Chad-Cameroon pipeline and the World Bank's involvement with it now that the opposition leaders, I guess, are still in jail, I think, and whether the United States would like to hold up the project.

On the first question, of AIDS discouraging investment, we haven't seen any empirical data that would suggest that individual and specific investments did not take place because of HIV/AIDS, but I think you can assume that it very much comes into the mix of any foreign capital investor as he looks at investing in sub-Saharan Africa, that this has got to come into play.

I mean, it has direct application to productivity. For instance, I was talking to someone that is in the extractive -- natural resources extractive industry in South Africa the other day, and he was saying that they are now hiring at least two workers for every job opportunity, with the full expectation that 50 percent of their workforce is, in fact, HIV positive, or they will be absent 50 percent of the time, either because they are ill themselves or because a close family member is ill.

So we're looking at productivity levels that have just gone in half. That affects if you're going to invest in a country or not. I mean, you know, your ROI, your return on investment, has a lot to do with what your productivity level is. So, yes, I think your point is well taken and -- well made and well taken.

Do I think that the $200 million is sufficient? The $200 million is a start. It is, by the way, as Jendayi said, the largest single investment in the global trust fund yet made today. I think the next largest is the Gates Foundation $100 million. So the U.S. contribution is really seed money, and it's doing exactly what it's supposed to. It's getting and encouraging foundations and other countries in the private sector to kick in as well. So we're hopeful that that will start the process going. It's a catalyst; that's what we hope.

(To Ms. Frazer) You get Chad. (Laughs.)

MS. FRAZER: On Chad, I think there are always a number of factors that one has to consider when one is putting together their policy.

I don't think we're in a position where we would say that we would want to end our support. I think that we're in a position where we say we need to consider all of the factors. So we will look closely at that, review it, and then make a decision on it.

MR. KANSTEINER: Just on that pipeline, you know, we do think that the World Bank's input and the structure that they have done -- that is, on revenue distribution -- is very innovative. It's very -- it's well-thought out. You know, we're pretty comfortable with it. It's a good start. We might think about where we can do it elsewhere now.

MODERATOR: Yes. Right there.

Q Adam Ouologuem with the office of the Radio and Television of Mali. Last week during the mini-summit of the three African West heads of state, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and President Bush, they called the president to help them to develop infrastructure; also, to be their voice to the World Bank to talk to the president of the World Bank to help them with that kind of policy. When are you going to implement the call, to make the call come through; not just to put it in the voice -- to put it in action?

MS. FRAZER: I think dialogue is action, but where President Bush made a commitment to the three heads of state was to take their case to the G-8 and make the case to the other donors. He also committed to talking to President Wolfensohn of the World Bank, which he will do. And so the beginning of the process was, it's an immediate implementation starting this month. And I think that as you watch the G-8, when President Bush made his first trip to Europe, he raised the issue of Africa and what can the donor countries do to support African leaders, African civil society, to work on the challenges that are there -- HIV-AIDS, as well as economic development. And I think he's going to continue that dialogue at the G-8, and perhaps more concrete action as well.

MODERATOR: We have time for another three or four questions. We'll go up to the gentleman in the front here next.

Q I'm Vincent (Collier ?) from the Zimbabwe Independent in Zimbabwe. My question is on the democratization in Africa, and you mentioned Zimbabwe in that regard. What is being done about it, and do you think the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act is going to solve that problem?

MR. KANSTEINER: The answer to your second question first, does the legislation alone solve the problem, you know, rarely does unilateral legislation completely resolve or solve a problem.

I think that legislation is important in the sense that it signals to this country and to the world that the legislative branch of the U.S. government is interested, involved and concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe and that, in fact, it is taking some steps forward to try to encourage a peaceful resolution to what is clearly a breakdown of law and order in a very important and critical country in Africa.

As you know, Zimbabwe's geopolitical position in southern Africa causes reverberations. What happens in Zimbabwe causes reverberations all over the neighborhood -- South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia -- they all have been affected by what's taken place in Zimbabwe today, and they will continue to be.

So this administration is looking forward to working with Congress and working with the international community; the region, (SADAC/SADC) particularly; the neighbors in the region; Europeans, the EU, the Commonwealth. We're looking forward to coordinating with all these groups to see how we can in fact encourage Zimbabwe to proceed towards a free and fair election and let the body politique of Zimbabwe speak.

MODERATOR: Well go next to Thomas.

Q Thomas Gorguissian, Al Wafd, Egypt. Regarding Sudan, this question is for both of you. When you say the administration is "very committed" -- that's quote-unquote -- to the Sudan, can you elaborate a little bit about this commitment and explain to us the ingredients or the components of this commitment, either in shaping policy or taking steps? Thank you.

MS. FRAZER: I think probably, first, to begin the answer is to clearly outline what our objectives are in Sudan, and we really have three that we're focused on. One is to deal with the humanitarian crisis that we find there, and what we've done is appointed Andrew Natsios as a special humanitarian coordinator. Our second objective is to end Sudan's role as a sanctuary of terrorism. That's been a long-standing objective that has crossed administrations, and we are working with the Sudanese government in terms of trying to make sure that there's very clear benchmarks and concrete action that's taken so that Sudan doesn't harbor terrorists.

And thirdly, is to promote a just peace, and we are looking at the appointment of a special envoy, a special peace coordinator who would be the lead on trying to bring the parties together initially for a cease-fire. As part also of the humanitarian objective and the just peace, we would want to end the government of Sudan's bombing of civilians and other atrocities.

MR. KANSTEINER: Just to follow up on that, the humanitarian issues, the human rights issues, everything from the abduction and slavery issues to, literally, food-as-a-weapon and the starvation that's taking place, all of these are bound up in the war.

It's about the war. And to resolve the war and to seek peace and to create a peace is going to help alleviate all of the humanitarian and human rights problems.

Q (Off mike) -- government of Sudan, what is the nature and the level of this working with government?

MS. FRAZER: Yeah. We have a dialogue, obviously, especially within the context of the U.N. in terms of the sanctions that we have, that the United States has held fast that those sanctions are related to terrorism and that it's only through concrete progress on the ground that we would be willing to lift the U.N. sanctions on Sudan because of its terrorist record.

MODERATOR: The gentleman there in the back row.

Q Thanks a lot. If you would elaborate and continue to talk on the list of the Horn of Africa countries, like Ethiopia and Eritrea. As you know, both countries have stopped the two-years war and there seems to be peace, and that is keeping forces also in place, but people are skeptical whether this is going to be a lasting peace, number one.

Number two, you see also in both countries -- I wouldn't call it political unrest, but dissent, at least; reformers in Eritrea are actually asking for opening up and for multi-party election. And -- (inaudible) -- Ethiopia has split with the ruling party; 12 Central Committee members have walked out, and the president also walked away a week ago. What is your assessment, and if you can reflect on the policy of the administration?

MR. KANSTEINER: Jendayi was just there.

MS. FRAZER: Thank you, Walter. (Laughs.)

Yes, I was there, and we had, I think, a very frank discussion with Prime Minister Meles and President Isaias on both their domestic political scene as well as the relation between the two countries and their commitment to the U.N. mission for Ethiopia and Eritrea, UNMEE.

On UNMEE, both presidents stated very unequivocally that they were, in fact, committed to peace and committed to having a successful U.N. operation. However, we feel that and we discussed with them that many of their sort of tactical actions vis-a-vis each other could lead to an unintended consequence to carry them back into war. That is the concern. The concern is not sort of with their political commitment, it's with the actions on the ground. And so we were very clear with them where we think they need to adjust their policies so that UNMEE can be implemented and that we can, in fact, put a final end to this war.

On the domestic political scene, I was there.

We met with political opposition leaders, the civil society leaders in Ethiopia. And I think that what we need to do, in terms of our administration's policy, is to push both presidents -- or the prime minister and the president -- on greater transparency, on commitment to the rule of law. It's a commitment that the administration has to democracy across the board, and we see no exception to that, to the pressure that we will be placing and sort of -- it's -- as Walter said, it's one of our priorities. And so it will be one of the issues that we will assess our bilateral relationship with, with both countries.

So we are engaged. We have made our concerns known to both heads of state, both on UNMEE and on their domestic political scene.

MODERATOR: Time for just two more. Next here in the front middle.

Q My name is Pam Glass, with a paper in Mauritius. The administration's put a lot of accent on developing trade between the United States and Africa, specifically private-sector development, and this has translated into support for the AGOA bill. But there has been a serious implementation problem with that that has presented -- prevented some textile products from coming to the United States duty- free. And I was wondering what you're doing about it and what the progress is towards a resolution. Thank you.

MR. KANSTEINER: As in a lot of trade legislation, the difference between the spirit of the law and the implementation of the law can be tricky, and there are areas, especially in the textile area, but other areas as well, where we're trying to smooth out that transition. We're working on a couple specific areas that in fact affect places like Mauritius, and we're hoping to get resolution on and clarification on some of those issues.

Generally, AGOA has been a terrific success in its early, early months. I mean, we're looking at some early numbers that would suggest that in Lesotho, for instance, 8,000 jobs have been created as a direct by-product of U.S. market availability for, in this case, textiles.

Kenya, the same way; we're looking at -- almost 10,000 jobs now have been created in the last 11 months, so less than a year.

So we're seeing some great results. It's still anecdotal evidence, quite frankly. But we're pulling together more and more, so it's becoming real, hard data, and the data looks very good.

So implementation we're going to keep working on. We're going to keep pushing for additional products to be added to that AGOA list and additional countries to come on board.

MODERATOR: And we'll take our final question. The woman in the back.

Q Carrie Brown (sp), African Conflict Journal. Taking it back to Sudan again, the Sudan Peace Act was passed in the House last month. I'm curious to know what -- your views on the contents of that bill and also, specifically -- I think it's the 10 million that will be appropriated to fund the opposition movement in the South and how that fits in with the overall policy, with establishing and bringing peace to Sudan.

(Soft chuckling.)

MR. KANSTEINER: We're fighting over this one. (Laughs.) (Laughter.)

That particular grant, I believe, was made to increase capabilities for negotiation. That is, increased technical skills for some of the NDA alliance members to become effective negotiators so, when the time comes, and we hope it's soon, that they can go to the table to negotiate a cease-fire, an end of hostilities, a peace plan, if you will, that they would be capable and comfortable and competent into being a good negotiator and one that could follow through.

On your question about Sudan's peace act that was passed in the House, you know, the spirit of that legislation finds real resonance with the Bush administration. We are very sympathetic and empathetic to the notion that terrible humanitarian crimes and conflicts and crises are developing in Sudan. The part of the bill that we have particular problem with is, in fact -- I think it's Section 8 or Section 9, known as the Baucus amendment, that deals directly with capital market sanctions; that is, it prohibits companies, private companies from using our capital markets, both debt and equity, from trading on our capital markets.

And this is not so much a Sudan issue, quite frankly, as it is a capital markets liquidity issue. You know, the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq exchange and the debt markets of this country wouldn't be where they are today if we constantly had a political filter allowing some investments in and not allowing others in. So when we see political filters being placed on our capital markets, both equity and debt, we become very worried and very concerned.

Q I have a quick one. President Milosevic; it seems to me it's very easy, very easy for bad people in Europe to go to the world court, but it seems to be difficult to bring the African bad leaders to world court. What can you tell us about the formation of the Sierra Leone Tribunal?

MODERATOR: That will be the final question -- (inaudible) -- (laughter). MR. KANSTEINER: The Sierra Leone Tribunal, what's the status. We're working right now with the U.N. on getting a budget together, a realistic, good budget that will focus on how that court will be set up. The Bush administration is committed to providing resources for that court.

We want to see that court set up and run. And we are going to give in excess of $5 million for that effort in the first year, and hopefully, it will be up and running and be functioning and we will continue to support it. We also are committed to giving it some technical assistance, too.

So the U.N. is still pulling together the final shape and form of how that court is going to actually work, where it's going to sit, who the justices are going to be on it. But as far as we're concerned, we're committed to it, we want to see it happen, we want it to be rational and reasonable in its approach, but we want to work with it.

MS. FRAZER: Also, our ambassador designate for war crimes is Pierre Prosper, and we're hoping that -- he's already given his testimony in front of Congress, and we're hoping that he will be confirmed soon. And he will be the designated point person to make sure that this is implemented and accomplished and in short order.

MODERATOR: With that, we really are out of time. And thank you both very much, and thank you all for coming.

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