The United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has revealed that the President, Joe Biden pledged to work with Congress to provide over $165 million to support elections and good governance in Africa in the coming year.
Blinken disclosed this during the Press briefing on Thursday, added that the President made the pledge when hosting small group of leaders to discuss how to help support free, fair, and credible elections in 2023 like the ones witnessed in several places this year, including Kenya.
He said these will be key themes of the second Summit for Democracy coming up in March, where Zambia will be one America co-hosts. Where there are crises and conflicts, we are supporting the African leaders, the regional institutions, and citizens who are stepping up to find diplomatic solutions.
“That’s what we’ve demonstrated over the last year through our diplomatic engagement in places like Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, and eastern DRC. We know African countries face real security concerns, including terrorism and transnational organized crime.
“The message we sent this week on the US-Africa Leaders Summit is that African nations can continue to count on the United States as a partner in building more effective and accountable security forces”, the Secretary of State said.
On food insecurity, Blinken said US has provided more than $11 billion over the last year to address global hunger and improve nutrition.
“Much of this assistance has gone to African countries, which have been disproportionately impacted by the drivers of hunger, COVID, climate, and conflict, and by President Putin’s war on Ukraine, which has made a serious crisis much worse.
“We’re making unprecedented investments to help African countries fulfill their goal of not only being able to feed their own people but those around the world.
“Sixteen of the 20 partners in the Feed the Future program, our flagship program to reduce malnutrition and increase food security, are in Africa, where innovations like high-yield, high- nutrition crops that can endure extreme weather are putting communities on the path to greater resilience”.
He added that the climate crisis is a major driver of increased food insecurity and the spread of deadly viruses. “It’s exacerbating tensions that can spark and spread deadly conflict. Yet as the President often points out, once-in-a-generation’s opportunity to create good paying jobs for the future.
“That’s why we committed to foster a just energy transition that can both meet the region’s need for more reliable, affordable energy and, at the same time, create opportunities for businesses and workers in African countries and the United States as well”, he said.
Blinken recalled that since January of 2021, US has dedicated massive resources toward this very goal, solar energy in Angola, wind power in Kenya, hydro-solar energy in Ghana, and a new 100 million project that the President announced to expand off-grid access to solar energy; and that’s just to name a few of the initiatives and projects that we’re working on.
“We’re deepening the resilience of African communities to a changing climate through a $150 million adaptation fund, and this is critical, and you’ve heard the President talk about this.
“We have a responsibility in the United States as, historically, the largest emitter in the world – and now still the number two emitter after China to help countries adapt, to help them build resilience.
“And we are putting the resources, we’re putting the technology, we’re putting the technical know-how, into doing that and sharing it with our partners.
We’re teaming up with governments and NGOs to incentivize the protection of irreplaceable natural resources like the Congo Basin rainforest, which absorbs more carbon than is emitted by the entire continent of Africa.
“Finally, we committed to work with African partners to fulfill the promise of democracy. That includes helping strengthen its core pillars, the rule of law, human rights, a free press, as well as addressing some of the root causes of insecurity, which undermines ability of democracies to actually deliver for their people”.