WORLD BRIDGE BLOG

President Obama could have amplified the impact of his speech in Africa last week, if he had invited two prominent Africans—Kofi Annan and Dr. Mo Ibrahim-- to Ghana with him.  Both illustrate his central theme that “Africa’s future is up to Africans.” 

Kofi Annan, who served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2007, is, of course well known in Africa and Ghana, his home country.  But the reason for singling him out is to focus on his two greatest achievements as UN Secretary General. 

The first was his relentless commitment to conflict prevention (as in Iraq), and conflict termination (as in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo), as well as his commitment to improved peacekeeping capacity in Sudan, the DRC and East Timor.   The second was his creation of the Millennium Development Goals, a global partnership designed to reduce poverty, hunger and disease in developing countries.  Success in both these initiatives is crucial to Africa’s future. 

Dr. Mo Ibrahim, is perhaps Africa’s best known entrepreneur.  He brought mobile phone service to Africa, thus, reweaving the social, political and commercial fabrics of the continent.  Born and raised in Sudan, educated in Egypt and the UK, Dr. Ibrahim continues to express confidence that Africa is a rich environment for investment.  When he sold his company, Celtel, for several billion dollars, he set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to promote better governance in Africa.  His daughter, Hadeel Ibrahim, is the Executive Director of the foundation and recently joined Refugees Internatioal’s Board of Directors. Dr. Ibrahim is also actively pursuing investment opportunities in Africa and encouraging others to do the same.

In all three of his talks in Ghana, President Obama stressed America’s commitment to supporting democracy and development in Africa.  This is exactly what Kofi Annan and Dr. Mo Ibrahim represent.