JOIN USIndia, Africa and USAID
Last week, more than 50 African leaders travelled to New Delhi to publicly affirm the enduring importance of relations between India and Africa. That relationship has been built upon strong historic roots and vibrant trade ties extending from Indian ports in Gujarat and elsewhere to the East African coast via Oman and Zanzibar. More recently, officials in India have noted that India’s own development experience is relevant in other contexts, including Africa.
We were pleased to see that viewpoint expressed during the US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. India and the United States explicitly acknowledged that working together can also benefit third countries across the entire spectrum of strategic cooperation.
At the dialogue, we agreed to help maintain international peace and security by jointly training UN peacekeepers in Africa as well as expanding on our already robust cooperative efforts to counter piracy efforts off the Horn of Africa.
In development, the United States sought to deepen and expand its partnership with India to improve the lives and prospects of Africans by pooling our expertise for a more stable and prosperous continent.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission to India has played a key role in this pioneering effort. Between 2003 and 2015, USAID partnered with the Government of India to train more than 200 agricultural professionals from Kenya, Liberia and Malawi at the National Institutes of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM) and Extension Management (MANAGE) in Jaipur and Hyderabad, respectively.
In addition, the USAID partnered with private Indian companies to launch Indian agricultural innovations in Africa. One early example includes the pilot testing of a cost effective solar drier now being used by wom-en’s groups in Kenya. At the sa-me time, the USAID is working with an Indian NGO to transfer appropriate technology including multi-purpose food processing units and low cost mechanised machinery to Kenya.
The USAID and an Indian NGO are working together to expand the Women’s Entrepreneurship in Global Energy to several African countries like Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria. Starting with the laun-ch of a regional energy “hub” in Maharashtra in October 2013, the intent is to support female entrepreneurs as they start new business and introduce new energy-related technologies.
Cooperation between India and the United States that benefits Africa is also reflected in our ongoing health partnership. For example, since 2012, the USAID has invested $3.5 million to help identify, develop, and transfer health-related innovations and “best practices” from India to other countries, including some in Africa.
Benefitting Africa
It partnered with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to assess the market for HIV/AIDS products and services in South Africa, Nigeria, and Tanzania. In addition, more than 30 Indian companies participated in a “Go to Africa” initiative aimed at fostering partnership with health-related firms in Africa.
Working with the UNAIDS, the USAID helped organise a “Global Cities Initiatives” in May 2015, bringing policy makers and programme managers from 15 cities including African cities such as Dar-es-Salaam, Durban, Johannesburg, Lusaka, and Nairobi to Mumbai to review successful approaches to HIV/AIDS programme in a variety of global urban contexts.
More than 150 policy makers and programme managers from 10 Africa countries including Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Angola, Cameroon, Togo, and Burkina Faso have participated in various HIV/AIDS management programmes funded through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), followed in some cases by visits from India to a number of African countries to introduce Indian innovations and best practices.
Finally, the USAID will shortly launch a $5 million programme called “Global Linkages,” in this case aimed at applying the Indian experience in dramatically lowering its mother and infant mortality rates to third countries including in Africa.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted at the August 2015 “Call to Action” Summit in Delhi which involved ministers and heads of nations delegations of 22 African and Asian countries, India has much to offer the rest of the world in health as well as in other areas.
Over the last half century, the partnership between USAID and India has made a number of notable contributions across India, including in key sectors such as health, agriculture, and energy. Now India’s own experience in these and other areas can in turn offer much to the rest of the world – and, most notably, to Africa.
As Prime Minister Modi has said in his interview with Time magazine earlier this year - the US-India relationship isn’t just about finding ways where we can help each other, but rather what India and the US can together do for the world. The extension of our partnership crossing over to Africa’s borders is an example of this spirit.
(Ambassador Addleton is USAID Mission Director to India)