Secretary Dan Glickman

At the request of President Bill Clinton, I recently traveled to Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, where I was shocked at the despair and deprivation that prevail in the daily existence of so many African people--hunger, unemployment, poor health care, limited educational opportunity, and more. It is imperative that the United States and other wealthy nations marshal our resources and do whatever is possible to help Africa beat back these challenges.

But why? Why do we care about Africa? What is the American interest?

For one thing, the United States, as a world superpower, has an obligation to respond to humanitarian crises abroad. On a more pragmatic level, globalization demands that the world’s haves reach out to its have-nots. With the fate of nations inextricably linked, hunger and poverty halfway around the world hit closer to home than ever before. Today’s aid beneficiaries are tomorrow’s strategic allies and trading partners for our farmers and other businesses. An investment in Africa is an investment in ourselves.

There is hope for African renewal in the coming years. For the first time in the continent’s multi-millennia history, the majority of Africans live under democratic governments. More and more, African leaders are releasing their economies from the shackles of state control, opening their borders and adhering to international trade standards.

For all the suffering we saw, we also witnessed our share of successes, examples of African communities empowering themselves with the help of international development assistance. In Kenya, some members of our delegation visited the Nutribusiness Development Project, a woman-owned and operated cooperative that produces nutritious baby food, which is in short supply in Kenya.

The United States has an important role to play in helping Africa move toward continued modernization. We are a key source of food aid, for example. This year, USDA will make approximately one million metric tons of commodity donations to Africa, nearly triple last year’s total.

We will continue to be aggressive in our food aid efforts, but I want to challenge other developed, agriculturally abundant nations to take on more of that responsibility.

We also have to go beyond food assistance to promote overall food security and agricultural self-reliance in Africa. That means encouraging the use of biotechnology, with its ability to generate greater agricultural yields without exploiting natural resources. It means providing technical assistance on dry-land agriculture. And it means transferring our knowledge on everything from land conservation to rural infrastructure to community gardens.

Africa’s challenges are immense but not insurmountable. As a matter of both moral urgency and practical self-interest, the entire global community--not just the United States--must redouble its efforts to help Africa find stability and prosperity in the years to come.