On June 14, 2012, the White House announced a new U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa that provides a proactive and forward looking vision grounded in partnership. The new strategy sets forth four strategic objectives, as described below, and commits the United States to elevate its efforts on the first two of these four pillars: strengthening democratic institutions and spurring economic growth, trade and investment.

* Strengthen Democratic Institutions: The new strategy commits the United States to work to advance democracy by strengthening institutions at every level, supporting and building upon the aspirations throughout the continent for more open and accountable governance, promoting human rights and the rule of law, and challenging leaders whose actions threaten the credibility of democratic processes. As the President said in Ghana, "Africa does not need strong men, it needs strong institutions."

* Spur Economic Growth, Trade, and Investment: Through greater focus, engagement, and the deployment of additional resources, the new strategy commits the United States to work to promote economic growth, including through increased trade and investment in sub-Saharan Africa. The United States will promote an enabling environment for trade and investment; improve economic governance; promote regional integration; expand African capacity to effectively access and benefit from global markets; and encourage U.S. companies to trade with and invest in Africa.

* Advance Peace and Security: The new strategy calls on the United States to deepen its security partnership with African countries and regional organizations to meet the basic security needs of its people. Only Africa’s governments and people can sustainably resolve the security challenges and internal divisions that have plagued the continent, but the United States can make a positive difference.

* Promote Opportunity and Development: Nowhere in the world are our development efforts more central to our engagement as they are in Africa. We will continue working to focus on sustainable development outcomes and the new operational model for U.S. development assistance outlined in the 2010 Presidential Policy on Global Development.

Source: The White House – June 15, 2012. Originally titled “Fact Sheet: The New Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa”.

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Related: "What is behind Obama’s new Africa strategy?"  Aljazeera, June 19, 2012 (Watch here).

You can download the U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa (here) [PDF | size: 430kb].