America.gov this week featured two articles outlining and detailing each US presidential candidate’s policies in regards to combating poverty and disease in Africa. Each article features a major campaign surrogate discussing his respective candidate’s plans—Howard Wolpe for Obama, Herman J. Cohen for McCain. Both are rather illuminating and definitely worth the read.

Excerpts below, full Obama piece here, full McCain piece here

A McCain administration would place even more emphasis on promoting private-sector economic development in Africa, Cohen said.

“The Millennium Challenge Corporation is very strong on private-sector [development], and I think you will see the United States Agency for International Development moving to finance even more private-sector activity to help even more Africans themselves become investors,” he predicted. “Now that Africa is becoming more open to the private sector, they need the infrastructure to make it work. “

An Obama presidency will “greatly facilitate the diplomacy required to try to make some progress on these difficult issues,” such as the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan or the political situation in Zimbabwe.
In the long term, Wolpe said, the central challenge facing Africa is the building of cohesive states. An Obama administration would be particularly focused on helping Africans search for common ground and eliminate conflict across the continent, he predicted. “Unless you can tackle that issue, the prospects for long-term sustainable economic development will be constantly compromised,” he said.

-Chris Scott