Jennifer G. Cooke – författare

Africa’s changing economic landscape is prompting a shift in how U.S. policymakers view the continent. High growth rates, new technologies, and a rapidly expanding consumer class are driving greater global competition for investment and access to potential export markets, and the United States is recognizing that it will need to step up its game to remain relevant and influential in an increasingly crowded and competitive environment. This will mean placing a stronger emphasis on strengthening trade and investment ties and encouraging U.S. companies to take fuller advantage of expanding opportunities. Playing up these opportunities will not only serve long-term U.S. commercial interests in Africa but will serve U.S. development and diplomatic objectives as well. U.S. investments, done right, can have long-term development impacts in Africa, through technology and knowledge transfer, training, systems development, and partnerships. And a new, more optimistic engagement with Africa’s citizens and entrepreneurs will have strong resonance with the continent’s up-and-coming generation, creating links based on enduring mutual interest.

Many of Africa’s economies are at a crossroads, with an unprecedented opportunity for sustained growth, structural change, and accelerated development. Each will face a unique set of economic and political circumstances, but key to the success of all will be building critically needed infrastructure, deepening regional integration, and building a skilled workforce. Across these three challenges there are new possibilities for corporate and public actors to work in partnership to overcome barriers to investment and structural transformation. This report highlights examples of progress and positive collaboration and identifies areas where African governments can do more to make the most of current opportunities.

Sub-Saharan Africa is on the verge of an energy boom. New discoveries off the East and West coasts have raised hopes of significant revenues that can accelerate poverty reduction and enhance Africa’s status as a destination for industrial investment. The question that African governments, citizens, and international partners confront is whether this time will—or can—be different. Can the harsh lessons offered by Africa’s more established producers and the continent’s previous energy booms be learned?

Sub-Saharan Africa is on the verge of an energy boom. New discoveries off the East and West coasts have raised hopes of significant revenues that can accelerate poverty reduction and enhance Africa’s status as a destination for industrial investment. The question that African governments, citizens, and international partners confront is whether this time will—or can—be different. Can the harsh lessons offered by Africa’s more established producers and the continent’s previous energy booms be learned?

During the last decade, sub-Saharan Africa enjoyed unprecedented rates of economic growth, with new technologies, better governance, and increasing investment flows creating new opportunities for innovation and economic and human development. Yet across the continent, vulnerable populations continue to contend with recurrent crises and stresses that leave them in a cycle of fragility and risk, struggling to recover and unable to expand economic opportunities or to improve well-being. This report examines resilience from the perspective of vulnerable communities across Africa and identifies the most promising entry points for innovations that can increase resilience capacity.

Two important dynamics have driven political and social change in sub-Saharan Africa during the past 25 years. New religious trends have emerged within the main faiths of Islam and Christianity, in particular the emergence of more charismatic, assertive forms of religious expression. Meanwhile, political space has opened in scores of countries as one-party rule has given way to a process of democratization, yet to be completed. Based on their field work in each country, the authors examine the various ways in which religious actors have chosen to engage with the state. They also consider how governments and political actors respond to, and seek to manage, these interactions.

Two important dynamics have driven political and social change in sub-Saharan Africa during the past 25 years. New religious trends have emerged within the main faiths of Islam and Christianity, in particular the emergence of more charismatic, assertive forms of religious expression. Meanwhile, political space has opened in scores of countries as one-party rule has given way to a process of democratization, yet to be completed. Based on their field work in each country, the authors examine the various ways in which religious actors have chosen to engage with the state. They also consider how governments and political actors respond to, and seek to manage, these interactions.

An arc of instability stretching across Africa’s Sahel region, an area of strategic interest for the United States and its allies, is plagued by violent extremist organizations (VEOs). These organizations, including Boko Haram, al Qaeda, and other terror groups, have metastasized and present a serious threat to regional stability. Now these VEOs are transitioning. Under sustained pressure from French and regional security forces, and reeling from the loss of senior leaders, many of these groups feel backed into a corner. Despite setbacks, these groups continue to plague the region. To enhance policymakers’ understanding of these threats and how to respond to them, CSIS experts from the Africa Program and Transnational Threats Project conducted field-based and scholarly research examining the broad range of factors at play in the region. This research provides little ground for optimism. Chronic underdevelopment, political alienation, failed governance and corruption, organized crime, and spillover from Libya help foster and sustain violent extremists throughout the Sahel.