Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa comes down to the recognition that the United States must find ways to cooperate and coordinate with those countries, making it what the U.S. does with Africa, not for it.
He said not a single issue affecting the lives of the U.S. and African people, from COVID-19 to climate change, can be addressed alone, according to an Aug. 15 news release.
“And precisely because Africa represents so much of the future as well as the present, it’s in our interest to find ways to deepen our cooperation,” Blinken said in the release. "The partnership we're looking for extends well beyond government. It goes to civil society and NGOs; it goes to the private sector; it goes to citizens more broadly."
The State Department had a chance on the trip to connect with many different groups, which was part of the reason Blinken was anxious to extend the trip, the release reported.
"One of the opportunities that I had during the trip was to lay out our Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa, and we tried to focus on a simple proposition," Blinken said in the release. "For us now, this is not about what we do for Africa; it’s what we do with Africa. And it comes down to a – I think a simple, powerful recognition."
The main point of the strategy for Sub-Sahara Africa doesn’t treat democracy as an issue where the United States has solutions for Africa’s problems. It recognizes all have the challenges in strengthening their democracies to make them resilient, with everything from misinformation to inequity, Blinken said, according to the release.
“We have a real stake in learning from each other,” he said in the release.
