Advancing Democracy, Human

Rights, Gender Equality, Wildlife

Conservation, and Governance in
Africa
The United States is committed to supporting African countries efforts to
strengthen democratic institutions, support civil society, advance gender
equality, improve governance, and protect human rights. We view these
efforts as priorities not just because they are vital by themselves, but also
because good governance and human rights underpin sustainable economic
growth and peaceful and just societies. The United States pursues these
goals through our development assistance, high-level diplomatic
engagement, partnership with like-minded stakeholders, and public
diplomacy that engages directly with citizens across the continent. Several
of President Obamas signature initiatives directly promote and elevate
inclusive, transparent, and democratic governance in Africa.
Our efforts include:

Promoting Inclusive, Transparent and Accountable Governance: The

United States is committed to building more effective and legitimate state
institutions and will continue to support African governments in promoting
efficiency, accountability, transparency, and in combating corruption.
Accountable and efficient institutions improve the delivery of public and
social services and create an enabling environment for attracting
investment.
The Partnership on Illicit Finance, announced during the 2014 U.S.Africa Leaders Summit, brings African partners and the United States
together to jointly address the generation and transfer of proceeds from
corruption and other financial crimes. The United States and several African
nations met in late June to discuss challenges in stemming corruption-related
illicit finance in Africa, and several African countries including Burkina
Faso, Kenya, Mauritius, Liberia, Niger, and Senegal - recently

announced their membership and a commitment to develop tailored national

action plans by the end of the year.
Since the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in 2014, Cabo Verde has
become the newest member of the Open Government Partnership
(OGP), a global initiative launched by President Obama with seven other
heads of state in 2011 to increase transparency, bolster citizen engagement,
and harness new technologies to improve governance. Ghana, Kenya,
Liberia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and South Africa are also OGP
members, and continue to make good on their commitments to open
government. Kenya is reinvigorating its process of consultations with civil
society on OGP, Sierra Leone has launched an open data portal and
established an Access to Information Commission, while in Sierra Leone
five ministries have signed integrity pacts with their Anticorruption
Commission to promote government transparency and
accountability. Liberia has published and Malawi is close to releasing new
national action plans. Mozambique and Nigerrecently became eligible to
join OGP and Benin announced it will complete reforms to become OGP
eligible by April 2016. The United States will continue to provide bilateral
assistance for such efforts, will partner with the American Bar Association to
offer additional support, and looks forward to working with South
Africa during its chairmanship of OGP to promote open government across
the continent.
Through the Security Governance Initiative, announced last year at
the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the United States is working with six African
countries to strengthen accountable and effective security and justice sector
management.
Through Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compacts we
have made control of corruption a benchmark for passing the MCC scorecard
and a key criteria for partner eligibility. In Africa, MCC has approved
compacts totaling nearly $6.8 billion over the past 10 years.
We will continue to support the Stolen Asset Recovery
Initiative and the Global Asset Recovery Focal Point Initiative, and to
work with our partners on recovering assets stolen by corrupt actors. The
United States has worked directly with a number of African countries,
including Nigeria, to provide on-the-ground assistance from U.S. investigators
and prosecutors to trace the proceeds of corruption and to build cases to
recover stolen public revenue.

Supporting Free and Fair Elections and Political

Processes:Competitive elections are essential to providing citizens the
opportunity to choose their leadership and chart the future for their
countries. U.S. support for elections and political transitions promotes voter
registration and civic and voter education, capacity building for election
commissions, support for political parties, training for election observers,
and programs designed to foster transparency, reconciliation and peace.
The United States will provide $21 million in new assistance to support
the conduct of elections and political processes in 2015, 2016 and 2017 in
Africa. In Kenya, our support will encourage participation in the electoral
process with an emphasis on women, youth and disabled individuals.
In Somalia, these resources will help Somalias parliament develop electoral
legal frameworks, improve civic engagement, provide technical assistance to
election management bodies, and support the development of inclusive
political parties. In Uganda, U.S. resources aim to strengthen political
parties and civic engagement in political processes. This support will also
extend the regional elections training program in Southern Africa to
improve the capacity of election administration officials across the region.
The United States will continue to stand up for the fundamental
importance of respecting constitutionally-mandated term limits in
Africa, as we do around the world.
Promoting Wildlife Conservation: With Africas rich wildlife resources
under increasing threat from poaching, in 2014 President Obama launched
the National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. In 2015, the United
States unveiled its Implementation Plan to direct the efforts of the U.S.
government in executing the Strategy, resulting in a number of initiatives
that will build African governments capacity to protect wildlife. In addition,
the United States will:
Provide $800,000 to protect wildlife in East Africa, including for a threeyear wildlife poaching and trafficking assessment program
in Kenyaconducted in partnership with the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and TRAFFIC.
Provide $7,000,000 in annual assistance to the National Park Agency
ofGabon as part of a five-year partnership to secure the largest remaining
population of forest elephants in Africa and to institutionalize natural
resource management capacity.

Provide $300,000 to sponsor a study on illicit financial flows related to

wildlife trafficking in Eastern and Southern Africa and provide training to
fill gaps identified by the study.
Assign international wildlife law enforcement attachs to key countries
of Botswana and Tanzania.
Continue to support the training of international conservation law
enforcement officers at the International Law Enforcement Academy
inBotswana.
Implement a nearly complete ban on the export and domestic trade of
African elephant ivory in the United States, which expands upon the existing
U.S. ban on ivory imports.
The formation of a new voluntary partnership between major
companies and non-profit organizations to reduce U.S. demand for ivory,
rhino horn and other illegal wildlife products.
Supporting Civil Society and Promoting Civic Engagement: An
empowered civil society is essential to good governance and is the lifeblood
of democracy. As we do around the world, the United States supports the
continued development of a vibrant and diverse civil society in African
countries so citizens can freely organize, advocate, and communicate with
one another and their governments.
In 2013, President Obama announced Stand With Civil Society in
partnership with civil society organizations and other donors as a global call
to action to support, defend, and sustain civil society. In 2014, President
Obama announced the United States will launch regional Civil Society
Innovation Hubs to facilitate civil society networking and partnerships,
including two hubs in sub-Saharan Africa.
To monitor the strength of the civil society sector, development, and
democratic trends across the continent, we will expand our support for
the Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index so it can cover six
additional African countries for the 2015 reports.
The United States recognizes the importance of providing opportunities
for youth to strengthen civil society across Africa. Through the Young
African Leaders Initiative (YALI), the United States provides innovative
leadership training opportunities in both the United States and Africa for
young Africans working in civic leadership, business and entrepreneurship,
and public management.

The U.S. Legal Enabling Environment Program is providing

technical assistance to government and civil society in selected countries in
Africa to limit the issuance of restrictive laws and to minimize the negative
effects of such laws that are already in place.
As reflected during the White House Summit on Countering
Violent Extremism, the United States strongly believes a healthy civil
society can act as a counterweight to violent extremist groups. We are
developing innovative programs in partnership with civil society to bolster
communities to resist and reduce the threat of radicalization, alienation and
violence, including in Kenya where we are supporting civil society, promoting
dispute resolution, and empowering youth with employment skills in
communities that are at risk for radicalization.
Strengthening the Rule of Law, Advancing Gender Equality and
Protecting Human Rights: Protecting the rights of all people and
promoting the rule of law is critical to democratic governance and long-term
political stability. The United States engages across the continent to
expand access to justice, strengthen judicial institutions, empower women
and girls and advance human rights, including through the following
activities:
Five African countries Benin, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra
Leone, andTunisia are members of the United States-led Equal Futures
Partnership, through which countries undertake domestic reforms to
remove barriers to womens economic and political
empowerment. Tanzania has also expressed its intent to join the
Partnership. The United States will work with the Equal Futures Partnerships
International Steering Committee to double membership in Africa by 2017.
In support of the U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to
Gender-Based Violence Globally, the United States has supported over
884,326 survivors of gender-based violence in Africa, since 2012, with
medical, psychosocial, legal, and economic assistance. During that period
the United States has also invested $108.6 million from 2012 to 2014 to
prevent gender-based violence in 26 countries throughout sub-Saharan
Africa.
Consistent with the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace
and Security, the United States will provide $1.4 million to help multiple
countries in sub-Saharan Africa develop or implement national action plans
for women, peace, and security. In Mali, for example, we will partner

to strengthen the role of Malian women and youth in political and peace
processes. Since 2012, the United States has supported the participation of
over 34,000 women in peacebuilding and political transition processes in
Africa since 2012. This includes assistance that helps build the capacity of
individual women and women's organizations in negotiation, mediation,
leadership, advocacy, and coalition-building.
To advance the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) persons and promote their inclusion in development programs,
USAID's Global Development Partnership and Human Rights Grant Program,
and the Department of State's Global Equality Fund, support national and
regional efforts that amplify local voices, protect persons from violence, and
document human rights violations based on the principle of equal protection
for all.
In the coming months, the United States will begin an effort to help
rebuild key security and justice sector institutions in Mali, including the
Ministry of Justice, the courts, the National Judicial Training Institute, and the
Attorney Generals Office, to help ensure that citizens have information and
access to formal and informal dispute resolution mechanisms.
In March 2015 President and Mrs. Obama launched the Let Girls
Learninitiative, which brings together the Department of State, USAID,
PEPFAR, the Peace Corps, the MCC, and other agencies to address the range
of challenges preventing adolescent girls from attending and completing
school and from realizing their potential as adults. These activities include:
the development of Learning Centers, in NorthernNigeria to help youth,
especially adolescent girls, displaced by conflict continue their education; the
Girls Empowerment Movement inZimbabwe to establish clubs in schools
and encourage girls to be educated, empowered decision-makers; and the
Global Give Back Circle in Kenya to guide disadvantaged girls to complete
their education from upper secondary to university, gain employability skills,
and become agents of change.
Through the efforts of the First Lady and working with the Peace
Corps,Let Girls Learn also supports community-generated and communityled girls education and empowerment projects worldwide. The first
11 Peace Corps countries include six African countries: Benin, Burkina
Faso, Ghana, Mozambique, Togo, and Uganda. In October
2015,Ethiopia will become a Peace Corps Let Girls Learn country.

The United States response to global HIV/AIDS is saving lives and

changing the very course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. PEPFAR and private
sector partners are investing $210 million in African countries through
the Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and
Safe (DREAMS) partnership, which will aim to reduce HIV infections in
adolescent girls and young women in Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi,
Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia,
and Zimbabwe.
In Tanzania and Malawi, the United States will undertake a new
multifaceted effort to empower adolescent girls. Both Malawi and Tanzania
are DREAMS countries and will be designated as priority countries under
the U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based
Violence and Executive Order 13623. They will also be eligible for
additional funding through a Challenge Fund to be created under the Let
Girls Learn initiative, which will bring together education stakeholders from
the private sector, academia and civil society to help design and implement
innovative programs in these countries and others to ensure that girls are
able to both remain in and succeed in school.