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Since its inception, the Africa Program has served as a forum for informed debate about both the multiple challenges and opportunities that face Africa, and about American interests in – and policy toward – the continent. The Africa Program proceeds from the perspective that Africa is important to the United States. Economically, the United States will be drawing an ever-increasing share of oil imports from African oil producers; and the vast African market holds important economic potential for American commerce and industry. Moreover, such challenges as failed and failing states, AIDS, and the loss of biodiversity impact U.S. national security. International contributions to the resolution of African conflicts, and to democratization and economic revival, will serve the interests not only of the continent but of the entire globe.
An ongoing series of conferences and public policy forums seeks to engage policymakers and the wider community in a sustained dialogue about African issues and about United States policy toward Africa. The Center has provided a place where diverse viewpoints can be expressed on issues such as the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the humanitarian crisis in Darfur; justice for war criminals in Liberia; the challenges facing post-apartheid South Africa; the linkages between women, religion and human rights in an ever-changing Africa; and the interface between African economies and the pressures of globalization.
With the support of the World Bank’s Post-Conflict Fund, the Center’s Africa Program has launched a major capacity-building initiative in Burundi, designed to increase the ability of the country’s ethnically polarized leadership to work together in consolidating its post-war transition and advancing Burundi’s post-war economic reconstruction. Under this program, a core group of approximately one hundred Burundian leaders, drawn from diverse ethnic, social and institutional backgrounds, is receiving intensive training in a broad range of leadership skills required in the implementation of projects of economic recovery. Workshops in communications, visioning, group problem-solving, consensus-building, and strategic planning are designed to assist in the restoration of trust and confidence among Burundian leaders, and to encourage participatory and collaborative decision-making.
The Africa Program also oversees the Africanist Doctoral Candidate Summer Fellowship Program, which brings advanced doctoral students who have not yet completed their dissertations to the Center for a three-month residency. Through this program, the Project seeks to provide Africanist doctoral candidates an opportunity to interact with Washington-based policy makers and organizations, and to become acquainted with the vast research and policy resources of the Smithsonian and other Washington area institutions.
The "Congressional Staff Forum on Africa" series, launched with the financial backing of the Ford Foundation, seeks to respond to increased policymaker interest in the African continent. Congress will shortly be confronted with the need to make decisions about how to allocate large sums of money to Africa - but its Members and staff currently possess minimal knowledge of the political, social and economic dynamics at play on the continent. The Congressional Staff Program has two purposes: first, to increase the critical mass of knowledge and expertise on Africa among Congressional staff who are involved in foreign policymaking and appropriations; and, second, drawing not only on American but also on African and European resources, to deepen the international policy dialogue on how to more effectively address the myriad of problems confronting the African continent.
Finally, within the Center, the Africa Program supports residential fellows whose research focuses on this important region and works closely with the Center's other projects and programs on cross-regional issues, such as governance, the development of state capacity, crime and corruption, and pressing health and social problems such as the AIDS pandemic.
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