By John Bavoso, Africa Contributor
With subjects such as President Obama’s ties to Kenya, his appointment to the position of United States Ambassador to the United Nations of Susan Rice, a woman who spent years herself working for think tanks advocating U.S. intervention in Darfur, the recent rash of high profile pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia, increased international attention to countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe, and the election of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi to the position of Chairman of the African Union, think tanks around the world have become more and more interested in sub-Saharan Africa as a region.
Simultaneously, in conjunction with the growing “African solutions to African problems” movement and in opposition to the so-called African “brain-drain,” think tanks within the region are turning their attention internally and providing a unique insider’s perspective.
Below is a sampling of some of the most recent work coming out of think tanks around the world focusing on sub-Saharan Africa.
Center for American Progress
In anticipation of the inauguration of President Obama, the Enough Project, part of the Center for American Progress, a liberal public policy research and advocacy organization, featured a piece penned by noted African scholars John Prendergast and John Norris entitled “Obama, Africa and Peace,” which looked at “reframing the overall approach to U.S. relations with Africa.” In the article, the authors argue for turning our attention towards peacemaking in areas such as Sudan, Eastern Congo, and Somalia, stating that, “An investment in ending some of the world's deadliest, most destructive, and costliest wars would yield great results in those countries and the positive repercussions from such engagement would rebound across the continent.” Prendergast and Norris particularly highlight President Obama’s African heritage as a positive aspect which has both generated goodwill for the United States within Africa and provided a viable rebuttal to claims made by African leaders such as Robert Mugabe that attempts at international intervention are merely thinly-veiled attempts at Western neo-colonialism.
The Heritage Foundation
While organizations such as the Center for American Progress have looked at ways in which President Obama could change the direction of U.S. foreign policy as it relates to sub-Saharan Africa, the Heritage Foundation, an American think tank on the opposite end of the political spectrum, has advocated for several policies enacted by President Bush’s administration which the group thinks should be continued. In “Into Africa: Bush Initiatives That Deserve Continuing Support,” Thomas M. Woods, the Senior Associate Fellow in African Affairs at the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, argued the Bush administration's support of HIV/AIDS policies such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), interest in democracy promotion throughout the continent, promotion of the new U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), amongst others, are policies worth President Obama’s continued support in the coming years.
United States Institute of Peace
Some think tanks choose to go deeper into specific countries within Africa, depending on their specialization. The United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a nonpartisan think tank established and funded by Congress, which focuses specifically on peace and conflict resolution, has chosen to recently look at the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in terms of going beyond just humanitarian relief. In Go Funai and Catherine Morris' “Disaster in the DRC: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in North Kivu,” a brief based on an event of the same name held in December at USIP’s headquarters in Washington, DC, the authors note that “the conclusions and recommendations from this event highlight the importance of going beyond traditional short-term humanitarian interventions to adopt more comprehensive and sustainable solutions that effectively balance security and development.”
American Enterprise Institute
While the USIP chose to narrow its focus to a specific region, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank, which often focuses on the promotion of democratic capitalism throughout the international community, chose to highlight the role of U.S. foreign aid and how it can make the private sector work throughout Africa. A recap of a roundtable discussion held in January entitled “Focusing Foreign Aid on Entrepreneurial Development,” reveals that, at the panel, “a consensus emerged that Africa should be recognized not only for its development difficulties but also for its entrepreneurial ambition,” but that “Africa must bring under control its manifold health and security problems before it can unleash the full capacity of its entrepreneurial spirit.”
Africa Institute of South Africa
While many of these organizations deal with the relationship between the rest of the world and sub-Saharan Africa, there are a number of organizations on the continent which are focusing on finding African solutions to African problems. One such group is the African Institute of South Africa (AISA), a non-profit organization created in 1960 in South Africa with the intent of providing research, training, and ideas to help aid the rest of the continent. Organizations like AISA provide a much-needed perspective: while many groups and scholars look at the foreign policy of countries such as the United States and China towards Africa, very few highlight the foreign policy of African countries with regards to the rest of the world. This is why publications such as AISA’s “Globalisation and Emerging Trends in African Foreign Policy,” a volume which is a collection of essays which “examines the emerging trends in foreign policy formulation, implementation and evaluation in post Cold War Africa,” in which contributors, “analyze existing foreign policy, propose changes to the African foreign policy approach, and explore the implications of African foreign policy on the world stage.” This is a much-needed perspective which those outside of the region can certainly benefit from.
African Institute for Economic Development and Planning
The African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) was established in 1962 on Dakar, Senegal by the United Nations as a Pan-African institution meant to advise African leaders on issues regarding economic and social development on the continent. In addition to publications such as 2003’s “Fixing African Economies: Policy Research for Development,” the organizations hold very specialized and practical events, the most recent being a three week intensive training session on applied econometrics for development for African officials.
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Obviously, this is just a very brief sketch of the types of work being done by countless think tanks both within and outside of sub-Saharan Africa working towards improving life on the continent. While there is much work left to do before sub-Saharan Africa becomes known in the international media for much more than its tragedies, the wealth of information accessible to anyone with an internet connection is extremely encouraging.
