TRANSCRIPT
Interviewer: We asked visitors to our site all Africa.com what they might be interested in. Conflict resolutions, trade resolutions, etc. But the main question was how is it you decided to pick Ghana as your first visit to sub-saharan Africa?
President Obama: Well, part of the reason is because Ghana has undergone a couple of successful elections where power was transferred peacefully. Even a very close election, I think the new President , President Mills has shown himself committed to rule of law ,to the kinds of democratic commitments that ensure stability in a country. And I think there is a direct correlation between governance and prosperity. Countries that are governed well that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people. That institutions are stronger than any one person, have a track record of producing the results for the people. And we want to encourage that.
I: I assume you want to see a lot more African countries follow the model of Ghana and part of your policy would be to encourage that, how would you do that?
O: Part of that would be lifting up successful models and so by traveling to Ghana we hope to lift up the effective governance they have in place. We don't feel all nations will undergo these transitions the same way at the same time. We have seen progress in democracy and transparency and rule of law and the protection property rights and anti corruption rights. In some cases we we are also seeing some backsliding. In my father's home country of Kenya, I'm concerned about how the political parties do not seem to be moving into a permanent reconciliation, that would allow the country to move forward. And Kenya is not alone in some of the problems that we have seen of late. Post election or pre-election and we want to ensure that people are mindful that this isn't some abstract notion we are trying to impose on Africa. There is a very practical, pragmatic consequence to political instability and corruption. When it comes to people being able to feed their families, educate their children and we think that the African continent is a place of extraordinary promise as well as challenges. We are not going to be able to fulfill those promises unless we see better governance.
I: Do you have with respect to that priorities in terms of countries and regions, for instance West Africa is important in terms of oil or East Africa in terms of strategic concerns of the US.
O: I think the entire continent is important and keep in mind even though I am visiting Ghana on this trip, I have had already had visits from Changeri of Zimbabwe in the oval office and Kikwete of Tanzania in my office. And in each case I'm trying to send the same message. You've seen some very good work by the administration in Tanzania in how to deliver concrete services to the people. Wherever folks want to help themselves, we want to be their as a partner. You got some very strong leadership in Africa and we want to be there with them. ON the economic front that means opening up better trade opportunities. It means that we are interested not just in foreign aid, but in how we strengthen the capacity for development internally in these countries. We want to work in a multi-lateral context, as well as bi-lateral strengthening relations with many of these countries. But as you point out there are both strategic, national security and environmental and economic reasons that we think this region is important. Part of the reason we are here, even though we are only visiting Ghana this time. I think that it made sense to connect a trip to Ghana to a previous trip to the G8 and we'd be meeting with a number of African countries in Italy during the G8 meeting and before that a meeting in Russia. To show that Africa is directly connected to our foreign policy approach and not some isolated thing that once every term you go visit Africa to check that box. But rather it is an ongoing part of a broader discussion of how we move a lot of these international challenges forward.
I: Development assistance will be an important piece of your African policy. Now development assistance is pretty fragmented wherever in terms of the US or globally where different countries have different responses. Now you more than any other President are associated with technological tools. And I can't help but wonder if you have thought of using technological tools to bring some coherence like tracking how aid works, or where it goes. O: Well, just with in the US government our aid policies have been split between a variety of agencies, different theories dependent upon who is in office at a particular time. Trying to develop something steady and focused and always basing our policies on what works. And not on some ideological pre-disposition is going to be very important. And technology can play a very important role, in streamlining our aid to countries. Making sure we're tracking how that aid is applied. Making sure is reaching people it is intended to reach. One of my concerns with are aid policy in generally, is that western consultants and administrative costs end up gaveling up our aid overall. And it seems to me that what we should be doing is trying to minimize our footprint and maximize who train people to do for themselves. I think using the internet, using software to improve delivery systems is important. Now on the ground at a low tech level, for example improved food production is vitally important. I'm still frustrated over the fact that the green revolution we introduced to India in the 60s, still isn't introduced to Africa in 2009. In some countries we have declining agricultural product, which makes absolutely no sense. And we don't need fancy computers to solve those problems, we need some tried and true agricultural methods that are tried and true agricultural methods that are cheap, but could have could huge impact in regard to peoples well being.
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