VOA: Clinton Unveils New US Africa Policy – The Obama administration announced on Thursday that it is launching “a new partnership with sub-Saharan Africa to improve democracy, economic growth, security and trade in the region.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that “we can and must do better by deepening our cooperation and improving our performance” while increasing trade and investment in the region, improving economic governance, promoting regional integration and expanding African access to global markets. (Scott Stearns)
CNN: Giving each child the chance to live past 5 – This past week, governments, private sector and civil society organizations came together in Washington for a summit focused on ending preventable child deaths. Since 1990, the mortality rate for children under the age of 5 has decreased by 35% worldwide, yet there is still much work to be done, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where child mortality rates are the highest. In order to reach the fourth Millennium Development Goal of reducing the child mortality rate of children younger than five by two-thirds by 2015, we must accelerate our efforts. (Kathy Calvin)
Politico: Opinion: Strategic help for global health care – The Call to Action on Child Survival Summit this week “builds on the history momentum around child health” and “frames the goal as broadly as it should be framed: helping children survive, families thrive and nations develop.” In the U.S., “global health has long been a rare example of bipartisan cooperation,” as administrations and Congress on both sides of the aisle have supported programs like GAVI, which help poor countries to buy vaccines. (Melinda Gates)
CNN: Opinion: Could Africa be world’s next manufacturing hub? – As domestic labor costs increase, many “Asian manufacturing producers are now looking to relocate their factories in other regions of the world,” leading some to question if Africa could replace Asia as the world’s next manufacturing hub. Africa has numerous “manufacturing advantages that it has yet to realize, [including] low labor costs and abundant resources,” yet this may not be enough to offset the region’s generally low labor productivity without the implementation of appropriate supportive policies. (Hinh T. Dinh)
