Todd Moss, the Chief Operating Officer of the Center for Global Development came last week to the Bush School, check out the summary of his presentation, Africa on the Rise. Last week, Todd Moss, the Chief Operating Officer for the Center for Global Development, visited the Bush School to give a presentation titled, “Africa on the Rise: How the forgotten continent is more important than ever to the United States.” Moss addressed the all too common and outdated vision that much of the world holds of Africa: rural, tribal, lacking development of any kind, and primitive. According to Moss, however, Africa is rapidly changing, and these ideas are completely outdated; African nations have become home to major cultural centers of commerce and business. While they still face problems with political instability and humanitarian crises, these cases vary greatly across countries and should not discredit the great potential for growth across the continent. With an average sustained growth of 5% per year in half of the countries across the African continent, many are making the move away from commodity production and extractive economies. Now popular and increasing in size and number, service economies with banking, finance, and technology sectors draw international attention and investment. Along with the economic growth, many countries are seeing positive political change after years of turmoil, civil wars, or oppression. Some of these changes, according to Moss, come from the infrastructure projects funded by the Chinese government, providing roads and financing for developmental projects. Moss also discussed the growing importance of African growth and development on the U.S. Presidential agenda; after President Obama’s first term hardly addressed Africa, the country is now seeing the emergence of Africa on the docket with trips to Africa, the Power Africa initiative, and the US-African leaders’ summit. Moss believes that Africa’s growth and development thus far have earned it the ability to step into the spotlight of international relations; all that’s needed is further investment and interaction with the rest of the world to encourage and sustain economic growth and development.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 22:23:28 +0000
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