Two weeks ago, I got to meet some of the women behind the fashionABLE scarves here in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

At first glance, the fashionABLE factory is pretty modest. Tucked deep into the neighborhood of Mekanisa, it sits on an unpaved road about five minutes from the highway. Inside, five women are quietly working at looms and sewing machines, while another three are washing and dying fabric outside. As I walk around snapping photos, a couple women shoot me shy smiles but most stay focused on their work.

A one-time visitor might not realize that these women –- and this factory -– have an unbelievable story to tell. Most of the women who work at fashionABLE are former prostitutes who have been able to turn their lives around thanks to jobs at the factory. Women like Bezuayhu, who was forced into prostitution as a teenager, are now able to come to work in the morning with dignity and to invest in a better future for their children.

Nora, on the far right, with some of the workers and Barrett Ward, founder of fashionABLE

But beyond Bezuayhu and her colleagues, there’s another hidden success — the story of fashionABLE itself. The World Bank’s annual “Doing Business Index” ranks Ethiopia 111th out of 183 economies; it takes an average of 99 days to start a business here, as compared to 13 in the United States and five in China.

That’s why I’m not surprised when Serawit Tekatel (who heads up Women At Risk, the NGO that benefits from fashionABLE’s profits) cites “running a business” as one of her biggest challenges. And it’s why she wants Americans to buy fashionABLE’s scarves not just because for the women who make them, but because they like them. She knows that keeping fashionABLE profitable and expanding the business so that she can employ more women means they need to stay competitive.

For me, this side of the fashionABLE story is just as powerful. More than any amount of aid or assistance, ventures like fashionABLE –- and trade and investment more broadly — will be what helps Ethiopians pull themselves out of poverty. So, when you buy fashionABLE this holiday season, you are not just buying a beautiful handmade scarf, you are investing in a woman and her family.

In 2001, an AIDS pandemic threatened to destroy a generation of Africans. In country after country, people were needlessly dying even though new life-saving antiretroviral drugs were available at a reasonable cost. The humanitarian disaster called for dramatic action.

Against this backdrop, my administration decided to act and become part of the global effort to stop the spread of AIDS in the developing world. We began by helping create the multinational Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It was a good start, but more was needed. So in 2003, with bipartisan support in Congress, we launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to partner with officials in 15 countries hit hardest by the disease. Today, PEPFAR is active in more than 30 countries and, in total, provides funding to programs in 88 countries.

PEPFAR was built on a results-oriented strategy. Our first step was to intervene where we could make an immediate impact.
Unborn children whose mothers are HIV-positive are the saddest victims of the disease and among those who can be helped the most. So we began by providing pregnant women with medications that reduce mother-to-child transmissions of the disease. Then we expanded with prevention programs, care for orphaned children, and anti-retroviral treatments for those who suffer from HIV/AIDS.

I am proud of the contributions made by my fellow citizens. America’s initial PEPFAR commitment was $15 billion over five years. In 2008, the American people renewed their commitment and will now spend an additional $39 billion on PEPFAR and the Global Fund through 2013. I am also proud to have worked with Bono. His encouragement and inspiration played a vital role in winning support for these initiatives.

To some, the fight against HIV in Africa may have once seemed hopeless. A deadly disease with no cure posed a threat to African nations and a challenge to all of humanity. It also fed despair, which can lead to terrorism and violence.

But PEPFAR set the clear goal of saving lives and is getting results. A decade ago, an estimated 50,000 people were receiving antiretroviral treatments in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010, PEPFAR provided antiretroviral treatment to more than 900,000 people in South Africa alone and to approximately 3.2 million people worldwide. Combined, the Global Fund and PEPFAR provided about 4.7 million people across the world with antiretroviral medications last year.

I wish every American could see the individuals whose lives have been transformed by our efforts. Thanks to PEPFAR, approximately 450,000 children have been born HIV-free since 2004 even though their mothers have the disease. I’ve met many HIV-positive mothers who have given birth to healthy children because of PEPFAR. One of them, Kunene Tantoh of South Africa, came to the White House with her son Baron in 2007. Watching him smile, I could see the life and vitality our efforts are making possible. Thanks to treatments she received, Kunene broke HIV’s bonds of death, and Baron was given a chance to live a full and productive life.

Read more about the fight against HIV/AIDS in our new report, “Progress. Proof. Promise.” Download the report here.

You may have read somewhere that last week was International Literacy Day. To mark the occasion, USAID, the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative and the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution put on an impressive event with an important theme –- All Children Reading.

After we were all greeted by Bert and Ernie, USAID Administrator Raj Shah highlighted the main goal of USAID’s education strategy -– to improve the reading skills of 100 million children by 2015. Basic education, particularly teaching children to read in primary school, not only ensures children have a sturdy foundation upon which to learn, but also translates to improved health and economic growth in developing countries. No one in Congress is better at championing the importance of education for all children than Representative Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.

Thanks to her leadership, the US played a critical role in sending more than 46 million African children to school for the first time between 1999 and 2008. So it was no surprise that Administrator Shah presented Rep. Lowey with the first annual USAID Literacy Champion award.

Representatives from Ministries of Education in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Liberia and Nicaragua shared success stories from their education programs, such as incorporating first language instruction in primary schools. This is not an easy feat in a country like Ethiopia, where there are 80 different languages. Ethiopia’s education sector development plan will ensure curriculum, teaching materials and learning assessments are translated, and primary school will be taught in 24 languages.

Organizations around the world are helping to advance literacy in the developing world in exciting new ways, most of which have to do with exposing children to words -– something that is more important and more difficult than it sounds. Some programs are building and encouraging the use of libraries, or encouraging parents to read to their children, and later their children to read to them. A 20-year strong dictation contest last year drew millions of applicants — 1.5 million from Africa alone. I got to fiddle with a talking book that not only helps kids learn how to read and how to learn, but that provides practical information for parents on other topics, like farming and health, helping them to better provide for their children.

After talking about how technology can bridge the gaps in education, this video from NASA filmed especially for the occasion was a poignant reminder that the theme of the day -– All Children Reading -– is a lofty goal we must achieve. Children who are able to read will be healthier, live longer and dream bigger, and that’s something to fight for.

Photo Credit: Flickr stream of futureatlascom

Trade = development, but only with transparency.

Last month, at the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about continuing challenges and new solutions for success in US-Africa trade relations.

AGOA is a trade preference program which aims to jump start economic development in Africa by allowing African businesses to export certain products to the US duty-free. As Clinton discussed AGOA’s successes in increasing exports of African valued-added products like marmalade and apparel, she also noted the need to strengthen AGOA by increasing opportunities for women, improving infrastructure and ensuring transparency in government revenues generated from AGOA.

While AGOA has successfully broken down many trade barriers and created new markets in the US for African entrepreneurs, improved transparency is necessary to realize the full benefits of AGOA. With transparency, citizens are empowered with information that allows them to recognize corruption, and to question and hold their leaders accountable. Despite an abundance of natural resources, government corruption too often stands in the way of economic development in Africa.

The extractives sector is the most lucrative industry in Africa, generating billions of dollars from oil, gas and mining, and yet public revenue generated from these resources is often lost to corruption and mismanagement. As the oil industry alone constitutes more than 90 percent of AGOA exports to the U.S., transparency in the oil sector is critical to African citizens experiencing the full benefits of AGOA.

In a May 2011 speech at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development donors conference, Secretary Clinton spoke about the importance of transparency to successful development:

“Corruption stifles entrepreneurship and it siphons funding away from critical services, hurting the people who rely on those services. Poor transparency makes it difficult if not impossible to determine how governments raise and spend their funds, and therefore, how to hold governments accountable.”

Some of the most resource-rich countries have the poorest populations because corrupt leaders steal public money rather than investing in public services like education, health care and infrastructure, which are necessary to societal well-being, employment and overall economic growth and security.

She reiterated this statement, this time to recipient countries, in her speech at the AGOA forum in Lusaka, and offered improved transparency as a solution to corruption and the next step in realizing AGOA’s full potential, then announced America’s new policy to implement this objective, saying:

“And let’s have a very frank conversation about corruption… The United States now requires oil, gas, and mining companies that raise capital in our markets to disclose the royalties they pay to foreign governments, which will help ensure that Africa’s natural wealth benefits the people of Africa rather than corrupt officials.”

Secretary Clinton was referring the Cardin-Lugar Transparency Amendment, which was passed on July 21, 2010. The new law requires all companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange to publish their payments made to foreign governments for oil gas and mining. The bill will go into effect once the Securities and Exchange Commission publishes the regulations implementing the law.

The Cardin-Lugar Amendment puts new muscle behind the US policy of partnering with African countries for meaningful development, of which transparency is a critical component. Once information on payments is available, African civil society, watchdog groups and law makers must use it to hold their leaders accountable. This new law has the potential to unleash billions of dollars worth of domestic resources to fund Africa’s needs and attract investment for lasting economic development.

I heard about the job from a friend. I had been working in another factory before, but it wasn’t paying well and I was not working. So, I sent in my application and got the job. I’m a quality control supervisor. It’s difficult! I have to make sure the work is done the way it needs to be done -– the measurements are correct, well stitched, etc. It’s tough but it’s a great experience. Telling people to do something and then seeing them do it the wrong way is not easy. I tell them what I want and that they have to give me what I want. I’m learning a lot of things at this job -– particularly how to supervise employees. I feel like the sky is the limit.

I want to go back to school for computing and graphic design to use in the fashion industry. I’m part of fashion now. I’ve always loved fashion. I wanted to be a model when I was young but circumstances led me to the fashion industry. When I was young I loved to make beaded necklaces and toys. One day, I want to have a fashion shop -– to make T-shirts, tops, dresses. And put my name on the products –- I’d have my own brand!

I leave my home by 5:30 every morning –- I live in Shai Hills, about 25 km from Tema. I arrive to the Tema roundabout by 6:30 and then I get on the bus -– it makes two trips every morning to bring workers to the factory. The management here is very good. When we work overtime, the management buys us food and drinks. I know so many people who want jobs but cannot find them. And here we feel special -– there’s unity and togetherness. In one way or another, the jobs have changed people’s lives for the better. Some are able to educate their kids and others are saving to go to school, like me.

Africa Is Awakening, Helped by Free Trade
Six of the 10 fastest-growing economies of the last decade were in sub-Saharan Africa.
By DANIEL W. YOHANNES AND MO IBRAHIM
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Long a symbol of stagnation, the African continent is experiencing a reawakening. Poverty and hunger are still widespread problems, but Africa’s growing middle class is creating business and investment opportunities that are among the best in the world. With the right trade policy and development assistance, we can unlock the potential of a thriving private sector and lift millions from poverty.

Six of the 10 fastest-growing economies of the last decade were in sub-Saharan Africa, the Economist recently found. And over the next five years, the average African economy will outpace its Asian counterpart. From telecom to financial services, extractive industries and consumer goods, Africa is open for business.

Yet challenges remain steep, from export tariffs that stunt development to the dismal shape of roads, electricity grids and other infrastructure that prevent businesses from getting their goods to market. Transport costs in Africa can be as high as 77% of the value of the exports.

This is where smart development assistance must play a role. Two excellent examples that work hand-in-glove can be found in the United States, with the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Enacted in 2000, AGOA reduces the tariffs that African exporters face in U.S. markets while providing technical assistance to help them take advantage of the legislation. In 2010, the initiative brought in $44 billion in African export earnings, a more than 438% increase since its inception in 2001, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. Overall, calculates former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa Rosa Whitaker, the effort has created more than 300,000 African jobs.

While that law opens the U.S. market, the Millennium Challenge Corporation helps African exporters take advantage of it. In partnership with African governments, the corporation funds projects that build trade capacity, from irrigation systems that boost productivity to airports and seaports for shipping cargo.

To qualify for financing, partner countries must meet international standards for good governance, invest in their citizens, and ensure economic freedom. This means making business-friendly policy reforms, such as fighting corruption and eliminating the red tape that suffocates entrepreneurship. These are many of the same standards that businesses look for when deciding where to invest capital.

Trade and development policies often conflict with each other, but in this case the U.S. government and the Millennium Challenge Corporation have devised a coherent approach to foster the domestic and international conditions that will enable Africa’s private sector to thrive.

Now we should be working to expand opportunities for AGOA-approved goods in sectors where Africa has significant potential for growth, like agriculture. Africa accounts for 60% of the world’s arable but uncultivated land, and although 70% of Africans are involved in agriculture, the continent still faces considerable hunger and malnutrition.

The United States is doing its part by investing in agriculture projects through the Millennium Challenge Corporation. But, together with African governments and businesses, more needs to be done to build the production capacity of African farmers and improve their links with U.S. markets.

America has always given generously to the cause of poverty reduction in Africa, but moral leadership is not the only interest at stake. Other nations seeking to gain a foothold in emerging African markets are investing heavily in their development. Now is not the time to back away. The economic future and national security of the U.S. are equally compelling reasons to invest in Africa’s growth.

Mr. Yohannes is CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Mr. Ibrahim is chairman of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and a board member of the global antipoverty advocacy group, ONE.

The 2011 AGOA Forum brings back into sharp focus the key role of trade in driving Africa’s development.

For Africa to secure its share of the benefits and gains from trade, the imperative for the international community to progress world trade agreements is matched by the need for an acceleration in the pace of economic integration in Africa to create larger and more competitive markets.

Africa faces a range of challenges that have a major impact on the rate of progress toward economic integration, and consequently higher levels of trade, economic growth and poverty reduction. Forty percent of East Africans live in landlocked countries versus a world average of 1 percent, making it much harder for producers to access international markets, and only 10 percent of African trade is with other African countries. Transport costs are 60 to 70 percent higher in Africa than the USA or Europe.

Across Africa, whilst the broader political and structural frameworks are being put in place to enable regional integration and trade, much more progress needs to be made to make common markets work in practice, and to tackle significant infrastructure constraints.

The existence of multiple trading blocs disrupts the cross-border flow of goods, and existing trade agreements are either not in place or not being implemented. Limited improvements in customs facilitation, a wide range of non-tariff barriers and a lack of standardized documents and procedures all contribute to the cost and complexity of doing business.

Hard infrastructure continues to be a major barrier to progress. At Lagos port for example, congestion and slow clearance procedures can lead to a 14 week-clearance time. It can take six weeks to clear containers in Mombasa and four weeks in Abidjan. It is currently more expensive and takes longer to move a product from Abidjan to Lagos, a distance of 940 kilometers, than to import the same product from China or India.

Business, political leaders and development partners have a key role to play to ensure that resources are effectively channeled into delivering much-needed hard and soft infrastructure improvements, and that the regulatory environment is reshaped to facilitate trade, rather than inhibit it.

Emerging models of collaboration between the private and public sector, including developing innovative forms of trade financing and tackling both hard and soft constraints to trade, are starting to make a real difference.

In West Africa, for example, a coalition of businesses, the World Bank and customs organizations of five ECOWAS countries are identifying ways to improve customs administration along the Abidjan-Lagos transit corridor. The route has five customs points and partners have been examining potential options for a green channel fast track mechanism for Authorized Economic Operators to enable reliable businesses to be granted authorization for more simplified and streamlined customs procedures.

A program known as Business Action for the Improvement of Customs Administration in Africa is a private-sector led trade facilitation effort in the EAC region that aims to improve the customs environment and to change the culture of customs administration from a controlling function to a facilitating one. Initiated by Business Action for Africa with support from member companies, in partnership with local government bodies, the World Customs Organization and the East Africa Business Council, the AEO Model being introduced will make the EAC the second region in the world, after the EU, to introduce mutual recognition of authorized economic operators and customs controls at the regional level.

Progress in regional integration and trade involves both public and private stakeholders across industries and countries, all of whom have critical and interdependent roles to play. Greater co-ordination and targeting of effort through collaborative action is necessary to address bottlenecks and accelerate progress. Developing new forms of collaboration requires experimentation and is often risky and complex, but the challenges can be overcome and the rewards can be significant.

BAA is an international network of businesses, business organizations and development partners, working collectively to accelerate growth and poverty reduction in Africa.

Did you know that many of the products at the ONE Store are sourced from organic products from African countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Swaziland?

To help raise awareness for African trade — a crucial tool in Africa’s efforts to develop their economies and escape poverty — we created a special tag to accompany all our African-made products.

It has information about the multi-tiered and multilateral benefits of doing business with Africa.

The production of ONE products in Africa helps provide jobs and independence and puts money into the pockets of hard-working men and women — money that pays for basic necessities such as food, shelter and medicine for children.

For a limited time, we’re offering 20 percent off our African-made T-shirts. Simply enter the code TRADE into the promotion code window before check out. Promotion is valid through July 17th so get your ONE shirt today. And of course, it comes with the cool new tag.

Bezuayhu parents died when she was a girl, so she stayed with her grandparents. They wanted her to work as opposed to attending school, so she left for the capital city. Unable to find her way in the city as a teenager, the predators of the sex industry brought Bezuayhu the false promise of hope in the form of prostitution. Her life was having to give herself to dirty men for less than a dollar at best, and facing the threat of being beaten and raped as an occupational hazard.

The rehabilitation program that my company, fashionABLE, helps to fund gave her the opportunity to get off the streets, and she took it. When Bezuayhu was 19 years old, we trained her to be a weaver, and now with great satisfaction, she says “I am so proud to be called a scarf maker.”

Giving people the opportunity to earn one’s own income and have a skill has a transforming effect on dignity. I love being around Bezuayhu. She is quiet, strong, humble, noble — the character of someone who has thrived beyond unconscionable circumstances. To those of us who affectionately call her “Bezzy,” she is very much a hero.

This video is a testimony to Bezuayhu’s beauty, and to the transformation that can happen when we give people an opportunity. Watch the video above and see for yourself.

We’ve heard from a number of commentators as part of our Trade and Development blog series on the importance of helping Africa trade more with the US and with itself. Richard Gilbert of Business Action for Africa and Zenia Lewis of the Brookings Institute both talked about the need to bring down the barriers between countries and make trade quicker and easier. New research from the World Bank says trade between southern African countries accounts for just 10 percent of all their trade compared to 40 percent in North America.

Initiatives like AGOA and technical assistance from the Millennium Challenge Corporation can help build roads and improve communications — but the political will to open borders has to come from African governments themselves. They have been promising to do this for some time (they first committed to a Common Market for Africa at the Africa Union in 1970s) and have signed a myriad of overlapping free trade agreements among themselves (around 27 across the continent at the last count) but few tariffs have been eliminated and it still takes longer to transport goods between countries than practically anywhere else in the world.

This may be about to change though. In a neat follow up to the AGOA Summit, on June 12 African leaders launched talks to form the continent’s biggest free-trade bloc by integrating the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, The East African Community and the Southern African Development Community. This would create a market worth $875 billion across 26 countries and a combined population of 700 million people. It would bring together the continent’s most developed economies of South Africa and Egypt, and some of the most dynamic, such as Angola and Ethiopia and smaller landlocked countries like Rwanda and Burundi. Improving regional integration would in the longer term also help Africa to compete with other joined up markets such as the North America Free Trade Area, the European Union and emerging economies like China.

The proposed free trade area would be a first step in unraveling the “spaghetti bowl,” as it is sometimes called, of the overlapping trade blocs. However, it still won’t be an easy task as each group has different rules and some countries also belong to another trade group that is not part of the initiative. Negotiations will cover issues like streamlining border crossings and removing non-tariff barriers such as import bans and permits. For example, the South African grocery store Shoprite loses $500 a day for a truck delayed at a border post.

Jacob Zuma, the South African president, is a strong supporter of the initiative. At the launch he said “This is but one major step towards achieving economic freedom in our lifetime in the continent. We must also continue building an African continent that is united, and which is free of poverty, disease, deprivation and conflict.” It’s great to see the political will is emerging to tackle these issues. As any traveler will know, it’s no fun being stuck at customs — and while it’s simply an inconvenience for us it can mean the difference between making a profit or loss for Africa traders.