Marshall Van Valen* The test of President Barack Obama's Africa policies will be if they survive after the next US president takes over in 2017. Obama is focusing on programmes to increase electricity production and distribution, boost agriculture and improve the business climate. Many of the policy initiatives of his predecessors are still in place and form the basis for US-africa cooperation. President Bill clinton signed the african Growth and Opportunities act (AGOA), which provides duty-free access for a series of african products to the Us market, back in may 2000. The White house is sounding out governments and companies on how to improve AGOA when its comes up for re-authorisation in 2015. US companies say a revised AGOA should focus on building African capacity. The corporate council on africa and former officials now in business say AGOA should do more to help Americans competing with European companies benefiting from the new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiated by the European Union. The President's Emergency Plan For Emergency Aids Relief (PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) were President George W. Bush's flagship policies on health, development and accountability. In 2012, PEPFAR was directly supporting 5.1 million people taking anti-retroviral drugs in low- and middle-income countries across the world. *Source theafricareport]]>
