Obama's commitment to Africa

Todd Moss of the Centre for Global Development, a Washington based think tank, alerts us to the fact that Barack Obama is yet to name an Assistant Administrator (AA) for African Affairs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID):

Nearly 30 months into the term, the White House has yet to name a USAID Assistant Administrator for Africa, the top government official responsible for US development efforts on the continent…The signal the vacancy sends to the outside world about priorities are patently clear — and interpreted as such in Africa.

In an earlier post, Mr Moss concludes thus:

There is simply no way to avoid the conclusion that USAID, development more broadly, and Africa in particular, are not just low on the list of priorities, but not on the list at all.

I am with Todd Moss on this one. To be sure, the Obama administration is probably focussing all its energies on fighting the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. The ‘Great Crisis’ notwithstanding, taking a few minutes to ponder on a possible candidate for the AA position is unlikely to cost the US economy one extra job . After all, AAs for Global health and the middle-east have already been filled by the administration.

Just two years into his presidency, George W. Bush launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR, a $15bn programme that is widely acknowledged as being behind some of the good news emerging from the AIDS war front especially in Africa. All this, by the way, took place in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks and the ensuing war on terror.

Failure to make such a high-level appointment does say quite a bit about Mr Obama’s commitment to Africa and is surely disappointing to those who expected much from the "son of the soil".