Bottom Line
- The US-Africa Leaders Summit—which included delegates from forty-nine countries and the African Union—was held in Washington, D.C., from Dec. 13–15, 2022. The summit focused on deepening and expanding the US-Africa partnership and giving voice to Africans in meeting current global challenges.
- The summit addressed substantive issues like climate change, food security, and human rights, without dwelling on America’s concern about Chinese or Russian influence on the continent.
- While specific details remain to be worked out, the three most important deliverables of the summit were: US support for the African Union to become a member of the G-20; a promise of $55 billion in aid to Africa over the next three years; and a commitment from President Joe Biden to visit Africa in 2023.
Delegates from forty-nine African countries and the African Union traveled to the United States to attend the
US-Africa Leaders Summit earlier this month. Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Sudan were not invited because the African Union has suspended them over unconstitutional changes in government, and Eritrea was excluded because the United States does not currently have diplomatic relations with that nation. According to a senior Biden administration official, the summit was to focus on “deepening and expanding the long-term US-Africa partnership and advancing shared priorities, amplifying African voices to collaboratively meet this era’s defining challenges.” The United States announced major initiatives in the lead-up to the summit, which included US support for making the African Union a member of the
G-20, and the promise of
$55 billion to Africa over the next three years.
This was the first US-Africa Leaders Summit since
August 2014. While there was hope that the 2022 summit would reverse the decades of benign neglect of Africa in US policymaking, it was not without its skeptics. Senegalese President Macky Sall, who is also president of the African Union, signaled that Africans want closer ties with the United States, but as
active participants and not just sitting and patiently listening to what Americans want. While the goals of the summit were ambitious—and welcomed—it should not be forgotten that implementation of many of the proposals will require the cooperation of the US Congress.
An Ambitious Agenda
One of the main goals of the summit was to narrow the
trust gap that has developed between the United States and the nations of Africa after years of frustration with America’s apparent lack of true commitment to the continent.
