The United States (US) will demonstrate its commitment to the African continent with $55 billion in pledges, the White House said Monday ahead of the US-Africa summit of 50 high-level African delegations in Washington.
“The US will commit $55 billion to Africa over the next three years, across a wide range of sectors, to tackle the core challenges of our time,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.
“These commitments build on the United States’s long-standing leadership and partnership in development, economic growth, health and security in Africa,” he added.
“We will shower you with details about those deliverables” as the summit progresses, he said. Sullivan declined to give details, saying they would be revealed during the coming three days of bilateral and multilateral talks and a dinner hosted by Biden at the White House for his African counterparts.
He stressed that the guiding theme would be the African Union’s own Agenda 2063, its plan for sustainable socio-economic development of the continent.
“The entire first substantive session that the president will chair at the summit is on Agenda 2063,” Sullivan told reporters.
Sullivan said that the summit, which runs through Thursday, will include a small multilateral meeting between President Joe Biden and a selected group of African leaders.
The leaders would discuss, among other things, the elections happening on the continent in 2023. Polls of note include presidential elections in Congo, Sudan and the world’s newest country, South Sudan.
“We would like to do everything we can to support those elections being free, fair and credible,” said Sullivan.
Beginning on Tuesday, the three-day summit will focus on key challenges, including the climate crisis, good governance, food security and global health, as well as bolstering US-Africa trade and investment opportunities.
Forty-nine African heads of state and leaders, as well as the African Union, were invited to the summit. The talks are a follow-up to the first such gathering hosted by former US President Barack Obama eight years ago.
