U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris opened the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit yesterday with an optimistic message focusing on Africa’s youth. President Joe Biden is scheduled to join the summit today, and his administration has leaned into new cooperation initiatives. These include an additional $100 million to expand the Obama-era Youth African Leaders Initiative and a U.S. Exim Bank commitment to facilitate $1 billion in new financing to the continent.
On Monday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced that the Biden administration plans to allocate $55 billion to Africa over three years, focusing on health and climate issues. However, that amount is significantly made up of earlier allocations. African press coverage of the allocation has so far been muted.
