Africa matters, especially for American policy priorities. The rights and well-being of Africans across the continent have a direct impact on peace and prosperity around the world and can curb mass migration, bolster security and resilience, and promote trade and economic growth. The U.S. has a long history of effective engagement across Africa and should designate the continent as a foreign policy priority.
Recommendations:
- The U.S. government should expand on existing efforts in ways that directly confront evolving barriers to security, opportunity, and well-being for key populations (like young people) across the continent.
- Congress should continue to support programs like the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to bolster security, well-being, democratic values, and commercial possibilities in Africa and beyond.
Investment and Development: Reprioritizing U.S. Partnership in Africa
With an emphasis on advancing national security and strategic economic relationships throughout Africa, U.S. investment and trade development efforts have directly stimulated opportunity and growth across the continent. This includes:
- The generation of 300,000 African jobs, indirectly sustaining over 1.3 million employment opportunities via African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)-related businesses. This in turn bolsters supply chain diversification and new consumer markets for American businesses.
- The establishment of over 1,800 deals in 49 countries that facilitated an estimated $86 billion in exports and investments between the U.S. and Africa through the Prosper Africa program.
- U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) investments have impacted over seven million lives and supported over 1,000 African businesses and entrepreneurs. By enhancing economic stability, these investments also expand
opportunities for U.S. trade.
- U.S. International Development Finance Corporation investments in sub-Saharan Africa total more than $13 billion and have advanced stability, development, commercial interests, and other U.S. foreign policy goals.
- PEPFAR has saved over 26 million lives and advanced healthcare infrastructure, good governance, and an economic benefit of over $1 trillion, engendering good will toward the U.S.
- MCC has helped lift over 300 million people out of poverty, emphasizing data-informed results-based investment opportunities.
- The PMI has prevented two billion malaria infections in countries across Africa which shoulders more than 90% of the world’s malaria burden.
- Catalyzing U.S. government and partner investments, Power Africa has delivered new or improved electricity to more than 213.4 million Africans, creating business opportunities for U.S. companies.
Investment and Development: Countering Russia and China in Africa
Russia and China are actively spreading their authoritarian influence across the African continent — to the detriment of regional and global stability, peace, and prosperity. These adversaries are filling a void left from the lack of American engagement over the past decade to advance their interests at the expense of U.S. national security.
Russia 
- Russia’s International Agency for Sovereign Development has little-to-no transparency on its budget or its projects and is headed by Konstantin Malofeyev, who was sanctioned by the U.S. for helping Russia skirt sanctions.
- Although Russian humanitarian assistance in Africa remains limited, there is little visibility or reporting on the resources provided or where aid is distributed, opening the door for corruption.
- Russia prioritizes access to and exploitation of Africa’s valuable natural resources, working with intermediaries, like private military companies or local political allies, to extract resources for its own gain.
- In 2023, over 70% of Russia’s trade with Africa was strategically concentrated in just four countries — Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and South Africa.
- Russia views global health engagement as an opportunity to increase its international influence, typically through inferior products and services. Russian officials have increasingly visited African Ministers of Health to couple their security investments with health.
China
- China spent an estimated $1.34 trillion on nearly 18,000 overseas development projects between 2000 and 2021 — greatly increasing its influence on the continent.
- Chinese predatory loans — amounting to more than $182 billion since 2000 — exacerbate crippling debt burdens for African countries.
- Chinese lending continues at its highest level since 2016, while 900 million Africans live in nations that contribute more resources to interest payments than to essential services like education and health, according to The New York Times.
- China is the continent’s largest bilateral trade partner, with around 20% of sub-Saharan Africa’s exports going to China and about 16% of imports coming from China.
- China’s prioritization of Africa is evident through its foreign direct investment (FDI) in the continent, which peaked in 2022, amounting to approximately $5 billion and representing about 4.4% of Africa’s total FDI.
- The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is focused on aligning key investment projects with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 — a strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years.
