Sunday, June 7, 2015

“Africa Forward” in Sustained Economics & Community Development



Good People,


In Africa Forward Strategy for which President Obama is expanding the 2014 USA African Leadership Summit into 2015 and beyond going forward , Diaspora must concentrate in a Coalition for Africa Diaspora Investment through the following Zones...................

e.g.


ZONES OF ENGAGEMENT FACING AFRICAN LEADERSHIP SUMMIT AND THE DIASPORA MOVING FORWARD INTO GES (THE GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT OF JULY 25-27 IN NAIROBI) PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN AFRICA AND AMERICA

It is about time where all sector, political, economic and social welfare programs in business and non-business organizations to make their own contributions to the African Narratives within the zones of progressive agenda for Africa. There are seven zones of engagement facing the leaders of the Africa Summit in light of these differing views about "What must be done." Here are the zones for your attention and retention.
1. The first zone is that of Diplomatic Cooperation and Political Communication to address the needs of both Americans and Africans simultaneously
2. The second zone is that which calls for harmonization of contending views about Africa among American parties on the one hand and African parties on the other hand.
3. The third zone of engagement deals with the role and place of the non-governmental parties in America and in Africa who wish to add to the growing body of knowledge about American-African relations over the last one hundred years. More particularly, since the beginning of Africa's independence from colonial rule and the recognition of African states as members of the United Nations. 
4. The fourth zone of engagement deals with the realms of diplomatic and political protocols that define how Americans and Africans could, and must  negotiate on a wide range of issues. Take for example, the Kennedy Administration and its decision to reach out to African youths and peoples through the Peace-Corp Program. Not only did the U.S. engage Africa's peoples but she provided a number of educational, cultural and political program to foster the strategies of engagement and cooperation between the two parts of the world.
5. The fifth zone relates to American interest in Africa and to Africa's interest in America. These two concepts about American-African relations are problematic. The United States of America is a federation of fifty states who can act singly in the service of American interest nationally and globally. Africa consists of fifty-four states that are diplomatically called African Union, but the bottom line here is that, these political entities are not likely to fashion a draft document that equalizes their collective interest to the American President who made the call for this Summit. Hopefully, the African leaders would do their expected “home-work” before the Summit in August. 
6. The sixth zone of engagement between the United States of America and the African Union revolves around geopolitical understanding of Africans with their natural resources on the one hand, and political economic understanding on the other hand. What do we mean by geopolitical understanding?  Here, we mean the nature of land ownership at individual African countries with national sovereignty of these countries as is understood abroad. For Africa, the question of land ownership is becoming more and more critical. This is largely as a result of the growing penetration (in the Scramble for African’s Lands= Land Grabbing) by outside forces searching for lands to purchase for private business mining and for farming. Land Grabbing is a new concept and new phenomenon. It robs Africans indigenous of rightful ownership as stakeholders and deprives fair shared interest for development purposes.  On the same same strength, it terrorizes, denies justice, manipulates and impoverishes Africans to an extend it reduces African people to succumb to extreme poverty, pain and sufferings with all forms of crime, abuse and violation of human rights.  There are numerous Witness news with documented reports from many African countries to this effect.  This phenomenon is affecting the Economic and Political conditions with social lifestyle of millions of people across African Continent. 
With respect to how the Summit is going to harmonize or provide immediate effect in both Short and Long term for American-African relations, to meet challenges from other competing Countries like China is crucial and is fundamentally most necessary factor requiring to be considered and shared broadly between stakeholders and shareholders to avoid and reduce Poverty, Pain and Sufferings, a condition that arose from the Scramble to Africa and which are viewed as Crimes, Abuse and Violations of Human Rights exploding in Africa as a result of “Land Grabbing”.  
Two points deserve our attention here:
1.   The first deals with the Human Factor in American-African relations. The lives of countless millions are at stake. How?
Well, the paradox in American-African relations, when it comes to human relations, is most obvious in terms of labor, production and exchange value in the international markets.
2.   Because of the percentage of African immigrants living and working in the United States of America, the annual remittances of dollars going to Africa, as studied by the World Bank and other interested parties records, greater than the total foreign invest in Africa. This is to say, African governments collect more dollars in their central banks than foreign investments from overseas coming into their economies. This African Summit is going to face these realities. In this zone of engagement, what must be done will be an issue. 
7. The seven and last zone of engagement relates to the  "broken wings" in the American-African Plane of Social, Political and Economic collaboration. The missing parts in this equation consists of the following items on our list of necessities: Good Governance and the  Democratic Pills for political communication between the leaders and the led; Political Transparency and the Medicine against Political Kleptocracy; Political Innovations with respect to humanity aspects as in:
a)   minority rights, human rights, gender rights and religious pluralism, with its
b)   Social amenities that adds value to peace and Liberty and where;
c)    Economic Trading Entrepreneurship has conducive environment to thrive.
At the summit, those who seek to shed some light on what must be done will have a serious challenge before them. Both the Americans and the Africans must demonstrate political sagacity with creative imagination that are able to shed some lights, if they want to make a serious impression on their peers.      
After presenting these seven zones of engagement, we the people in “Africa Forward” must ask our colleagues in the different organizations routing for the summit to come up with their own. Perhaps, they might very well see their ideas embodied in the points identified here. With this challenge, let us start with what we know and humbly ask others to augment our narrative and footnote our text appropriately.
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com


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“Africa Forward” in Sustained Economics & Community Development
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc., is a Non-Profit making for Social, Political and Economic development undertaking in Africa for sustainability in a conducive environment.  The organization strives to create awareness on educational information with cultural social heritage values and virtues and provides voice of reason social media and through advocacy for the Refugee and Displaced persons.  Our intervention is not limited, but goes beyond to offer meditation for rehabilitation to realize Economics advantage with Community Development programs that motivates peace. We engage in promoting increased prosperity and economic security for all African oriented communities, individuals and families, small farmers and also, ranchers, entrepreneurs’ traders, and consumers across the People of African Descent. Working together with African America Diasporas with University Professors and gives us an edge to provide leadership securely. 
We wish to collaborate with Government staff to assist in facilitating our organizational team to realize preparation for the coming meeting in August 2014, where we expect to formalize areas of interests for research, education, capacity building and in extending our activities that shall help participants at the forum to be prepared and engage effectively incorporating sound collaborative strategies that will make African Leadership Forum a success story.   This will include discovering historical new economic opportunities for Africa Moving Forward.  It shall also engage effectiveness of Energy/Water Proposal, develop successful agricultural and nonagricultural enterprises cooperative enterprising and take advantage of new and consumer-driven markets at both the local and international levels, and understand the implications of public policy on these and other activities of progressive development.
We take the opportunity of the coming Summit as a necessary leverage and an advantage against our competitors with example to China’s scramble to Africa.
I must reiterate and emphasize that, in partnering with diverse African Diaspora in America, we collaboration in consultations alongside other African NGO groups, Faith Based and Community Leaders under “One Stop Service Center Coordination” to make sure we avoid duplication of work, we shall engage the local community in the affairs of their Social Welfare Development towards fulfilling African historical values on “African Forward” where African Diaspora have comparative advantage with more leverage.
Consequently, looking forward to our US President's invitation of African Leaders Summit in August, we anticipate great opportunity for his legacy with African Diaspora to undertake serious involvement to make deliberations from the summit a success story.  I must reiterate and emphasize that, in partnering with diverse African Diaspora in America, we collaboration in consultations alongside other African NGO groups, Faith Based and Community Leaders under “One Stop Service Center Coordination” to make sure we avoid duplication of work, we shall engage the local community in the affairs of their Social Welfare Development towards fulfilling African historical values on “African Forward” where African Diaspora have comparative advantage with more leverage.
We therefore want to be fully involved in the US/Africa Partnership Development at the African Presidential Summit so that we shall provide an economic booster with reliable and sustainable better and improved prospects moving forward.   The U.S. President Obama's foreign policy for mutually fair and balanced economic development provides a shared and balanced organized program that is suitable for USA/Africa business and Social Welfare Partnership engagement capable of moving “Africa forward”.  The African Presidential Summit in August therefore, is more promising with historical values that we cannot afford to be left behind without capturing the essence for:
a)   Obama Legacy, 
b)   The Obama Prestige on African Historical values
c)   Post Obama Presidency

Our priorities therefore shall be:

1)   Water, Natural Minerals and Energy
2)   Agriculture and land ownership
3)   Education, Science and Technology for Industrialization
4)   Foreign Direct Investment
5)   Health projects
6)   Transportation infrastructure linking Africa Nations.
7)   Diaspora Franchising with Supply chains and Investments in Africa
With the vast experience and knowledge in Science, Engineering and Technology that America has shared with other advanced European and Eastern blocks countries, the US African American (Americans of African descent) shall be our bargain leverage investment Partnership with Africa for exchange in Technology transfer an industrialization in Africa.
Preparing for the same, it is crucially important and more fundamental to effectively prepare ourselves sufficiently at the African Leadership Forum by visiting Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, DRC Congo, South Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Guinea and South Africa in advance of African Leadership Summit in order to fully provide good promises for the Summit breakthrough in this August 2014.
Partnering with Social, Economic and Political drivers as a team, we shall create a harmonious better understanding of things with greater fundamental rewarding impact. We believe and it has been tested that, the prospects can be made promising in a fast turnover, as impacts are readily felt and realized, since the people are involved in their business of participating, engaging and improving their own lifestyle and economic development according to their own cultural values and tradition and at the same time, the development process slowly adopts diversity without negative force as has been the case. Together, we shall make good inroad to a sustainable progressive development in economic security and sufficiency and at the same time, improve on Environmental protection.
We must prepare to do business differently that give people hope and are with good return and better sustainable prospects, an engagement that provides competitive education with good health and as well promotes local peasant cooperative agriculture which is the prescription for income generating job creation, innovative expansion with sustainable economic opportunities will nurture peace and harmony for common good of all.

Participating and engaging in Cooperative Partnership for development inclusively, we cannot go wrong in Democratizing efficiency and supply vs. demand and at the same time, cushioning the African Government Leadership to realize its development promise to its Citizen and the larger business community in a shared effective fair manner favorable to all thus:
1)   Energy/Water Supply and Management that shall ease the burden of fetching water long distances and energy to provide lighting, cooking and small industrial for economic prospects. Rural Community Development with Related Stakeholders Input and Information
2)   Sustainable Cooperative Agriculture shall provide with job creation, improved education with economic growth and expansion with Social Welfare improvement from capacity of financial flow from job creation with economic financial advantages.
3)   Community Welfare for Social Development will engage preservation of Wild Life, Environment and great lakes protection from adverse Industrial pollution with other mismanagement.  The stakeholders and shareholders will have opportunity to work closely in harmony together.
4)   Small-scale and peasant farming cooperative entrepreneurship will provide sustainability of Development agenda with both short and long-term diversity and expansion.  The Cooperative Partnership between USA and Africa and as well offer training to both the Socially Disadvantaged African Farmers to realize economic sustainability as well as built the capacity in social welfare agenda. This will boost the financial Security Promoting Family and Small Farms into Cooperative management  through Social Welfare Integration on sustainable agriculture
5)   Hospital and Schools (Health, Early School Learning including Reading as well as Higher Education with Scholarships and Internships) for Foreign Assistance to American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA)
6) Diversify Cultural Heritage Values and also harmonize Exchange Network through Agriculture, Art and Sports (traditional foods, music and physical sporting activities
As a result of the above, it is crucial that we make advance feasible negotiation in order that we present competitive Partnership proposal before the Forum hence the advance funding request.  
While we shall involve Politicians in Africa to provide enabling environment with good policy and security, we aim to strengthen expert and professional consultation to set standardization for a secured progressive business complex in order to meet the challenges of other existing business players at the Global Emerging Market Place.  The Diaspora Engagement in Public Private Partnership for effective Development Management in Africa, shall require expert design and implementation on standardized, effective and efficient strategies of projects to promote Counties, National and Regional cooperation. Its intended outcome is for civil servants effectiveness to public Service Delivery and to apply the acquired knowledge,  skills in the workplace with good policies that shall protect and secure the success of business partnership capacity development.
I am delighted that, as the Executive Director for Confederation Council Foundation for Africa, I am fortunate to have been endorsed by a group of Diaspora members to provide leadership to make this program for Diaspora Project investment in Africa a success. I look forward to building upon that African Union legacy for Diaspora by focusing on key strategic issues of critical importance to Africa and to US-Africa Diaspora relationship.  This by no means shall consolidate and expand our diverse engagement, and will elevate Africans credentials that impact Africa business community with its social welfare, a success. We shall engage to stimulate public engagement as stakeholders and favorably share in the Partnership with shareholders in order to improve the quality of life and increase prosperity in Africa, since vibrant economies excite entrepreneurial initiatives in the business world platform.
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
 
 
Email: socioeconomicforum50@gmail.com
        jbatec@yahoo.com
 
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Kenya to host Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES)

The Government of Kenya has agreed to co-host the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) this July.  Organized annually since 2009, the GES has emerged as a global platform connecting emerging entrepreneurs with leaders from business, international organizations, and governments looking to support them.  This will be the first time the GES will take place in sub-Saharan Africa.
President Obama will travel to Kenya in July, where he will hold bilateral meetings and participate in the GES.  His trip will build on the success of the August 2014 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and continue our efforts to work with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, to accelerate economic growth, strengthen democratic institutions, and improve security.  This will be President Obama’s fourth trip to sub-Saharan Africa during his presidency.


Kenya to co-host the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2015 in Nairobi

by kingatmo •  April 14, 2015

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Nairobi, is intended to bring together entrepreneurs, leading business personalities, government officials, investors to strengthen ties and to focus on the contribution of entrepreneurship to economic prosperity.
GES is an initiative by the White House in the U.S that aims to partner with host countries to showcase entrepreneur’s capabilities and strengthen entrepreneurial infrastructure.



Spark Initiative: U.S. Government Programs



Date: 03/23/2015 Description: Spark Logo - State Dept Image

U.S. Government Spark Programs

The programs designated as part of the President's Spark initiative represent the best work being done by the U.S. Government to advance entrepreneurship around the world. The following U.S. Government programs are part of the larger SPARK network.
Launched by President Obama in 2009, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) is a preeminent annual gathering that links emerging entrepreneurs from around the world with leaders from business, government, and innovative organizations. GES showcases the latest trends, training, and technology available to emerging or aspiring entrepreneurs, along with providing a powerful platform for policy discussions with government leaders. Past summits, held in the United States, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Morocco, have inspired numerous initiatives, forged collaborations across countries, and helped to increase economic opportunities, particularly amongst marginalized groups.
GIST creates a network of entrepreneurs, angel investors, mentors and others to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems in 86 emerging economies across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. GIST empowers young innovators through networking, skills building, mentoring, and access to financing to develop startup solutions that address economic and development challenges. GIST includes an interactive virtual network with online programming, a global annual Technology-Idea (Tech-I) competition, and startup boot camps.
WECREATE Centers are physical entrepreneurial community centers in a safe and centralized location. At these centers, women gain access to vital resources that both enable established business to build capacity and allow microenterprises to move from the informal sector into the formal sector.
The Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between America’s most inspiring and prominent entrepreneurs and the White House, Department of Commerce, Department of State, and U.S. Agency for International Development. The goal is to harness the energy, ideas, and experience of successful American entrepreneurs to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs both at home and abroad. Members participate in outreach and mentorship activities to help promote start-up culture, and energize their own personal and professional networks to challenge and inspire budding entrepreneurs and raise awareness of the many resources available to them.
U.S. Global Development Lab's Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) Initiative aims to catalyze private-sector investment into early-stage enterprises and test financially sustainable approaches to enterprise incubation – unlocking the potential of thousands of promising enterprises around the world. Through six public-private partnerships, PACE partners are already reaching more than 200 enterprises and mobilizing more than $80 million in private capital in the first year.
U.S. Global Development Lab's Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) is an open innovation fund at USAID that sources, tests, and scales breakthrough solutions to global development challenges. Through a year-round grant competition for innovative ideas in any sector and nearly any country, DIV invests funding and hands-on support in solutions with the potential to deliver more impact, for lower cost, at sustainable scale. Since 2011, DIV has supported over 115 innovations spanning 35 countries.
The Office of Commercial and Business Affairs at the State Department develops binational initiatives through the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP) to significantly enhance the conditions in which entrepreneurial endeavors can thrive. EIP is currently active in two countries, Poland and Mexico. The U.S.-Poland Innovation Program (PLUS-IP) is a collaborative initiative between the U.S. Department of State and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland. The program will strengthen Poland’s entrepreneurship ecosystem by promoting innovation through U.S.-Polish joint ventures and joint research and development projects. The Mexico-U.S. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council (MUSEIC) aims to enhance regional competitiveness by strengthening the North American entrepreneurship ecosystem. MUSEIC is made up of public and private sector representatives from both countries who are working to develop new initiatives along with public policies to promote entrepreneurship and innovation.
Through YALI, the United States Government is investing in the next generation of African leaders, and has committed significant resources to enhance leadership skills, bolster entrepreneurship, and connect young African leaders with one another and the United States. The initiative includes the Mandela Washington Fellowship, which brings 500 of Africa’s most dynamic young leaders to the United States each year for six weeks of leadership training, networking, and mentoring at top U.S. universities. Four Regional Leadership Centers being established in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa, as part of YALI, will improve the availability and quality of leadership training programs and professional development opportunities for young African leaders. In addition to in-person training and opportunities, the YALI Network provides more than 130,000 members with virtual resources and vibrant physical spaces that equip young African leaders with the skills and connections they need to improve their communities and their countries.
YSEALI is President Obama’s signature program to strengthen leadership development and networking in Southeast Asia. Through a variety of programs and engagements, including U.S. educational exchanges, regional exchanges, and seed funding, YSEALI seeks to build the leadership capabilities of youth in the region, strengthen ties between the United States and Southeast Asia, and nurture an ASEAN community. YSEALI focuses on critical topics identified by youth in the region: civic engagement, environment and natural resources management, and entrepreneurship and economic development.
African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP) is an outreach, education, and engagement initiative that targets women entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa to promote business growth, increase trade both regionally and to U.S. markets through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), create better business environments, and empower African women entrepreneurs to become voices of change in their communities. Launched in July 2010, the initiative identifies and builds networks of women entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa poised to transform their societies by owning, running, and operating small and medium businesses.
President Obama launched the WEAmericas initiative at the Summit of the Americas in 2012. WEAmericas leverages public-private partnerships to encourage inclusive economic growth in the Western Hemisphere. The initiative reduces barriers and increases opportunities for women entrepreneurs to start and grow small and medium-size enterprises by improving access to markets, access to capital, skills and capacity building, and leadership opportunities. Through WEAmericas, public, private, and nonprofit partners are working together to build a stronger and more collaborative environ­ment for women entrepreneurs to achieve mutually beneficial goals: inclusive economic growth; social impact from commercial activity/growth; formalization of informal sector work; and enhanced competitiveness for firms and local economies.
The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. Through short-term visits to the United States, current and emerging foreign leaders in a variety of fields experience the United States firsthand and cultivate lasting relationships with their American counterparts. Professional meetings reflect the participants’ professional interests and support the foreign policy goals of the United States. There are over 50 entrepreneurship exchanges each year with more than 450 participants. The business programs explore the role of small business in driving local economic development and examine U.S. efforts to promote small business development and innovation, both domestically and internationally. Social entrepreneurship exchanges look at the growth of this sector in the United States and the impact of technology – particularly social networking – in developing new avenues for civic engagement and participation.
The Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) is a U.S. State Department-led effort to promote and spur entrepreneurship by catalyzing and coordinating private sector and U.S. Government programs to support entrepreneurs around the world. GEP was launched in April 2010 at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. GEP supports integrated entrepreneurial ecosystems by focusing on seven key areas: identifying, training, connecting and sustaining; guiding to financing; facilitating market access; enabling supportive policy; and celebrating entrepreneurs. GEP’s partners include domestic and global NGOs, corporations, foundations, educational institutions and investors. To develop entrepreneurship ecosystems, GEP partner organizations are asked to further their activities, either by expanding current programs to a new country, or deepening existing programs in their current countries of operation.
The Resilient, Entrepreneurial, And Dynamic Youth (READY) Initiative teaches at-risk youth between the ages of 18 to 30 how to code, matches them with a virtual mentor, places them in a pre-arranged internship with a technology company, and prepares them for online employment upon completion of the program.  READY works with key partners in local entrepreneurial ecosystems to showcase the relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth to program participants.



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Spark Initiative: Promoting Global Entrepreneurship


Date: 03/23/2015 Description: Spark Logo - State Dept Image

Get Involved

Answer President Obama’s call to invest in emerging entrepreneurs through Spark: http://www.startthespark.org/
What is Spark?
A common symbol and platform for connecting diverse programs working to promote entrepreneurship around the world.

What is the U.S. Government's Spark initiative?

The programs selected to the President's Spark initiative represent the best work being done by the U.S. Government to advance entrepreneurship around the world. They commit to generate at least $10 million dollars over three years for emerging entrepreneurs, with more than half raised by women and young entrepreneurs. The initial commitments toward this goal totaled over $1 billion dollars that would be generated by the end of 2017. The programs agreed to co-brand their communications with the Spark logo, while working to more closely link their programs to increase their reach and impact. More on the U.S. Government’s Spark Programs»

What is the External Spark consortium?

Representing some of the world’s top organizations working on entrepreneurship, the Spark consortium serves as the first-ever umbrella organization for connecting, coordinating, and communicating about their programs.  The Spark consortium chose to focus their initial work on creating a unified communications capacity about entrepreneurship across their organizations, developing a searchable inventory of programs, resources, and investment opportunities for entrepreneurs, coordinating their events and major programs, collaborating on the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, as well as working to prioritize key policies and issues facing entrepreneurs.  The Spark consortium is supported by some of America’s top marketing firms, who have dedicated significant time and resources to developing a universal symbol to represent the hope and opportunity offered by entrepreneurship. More on the external Spark consortium»

Where did Spark Start?

At the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Vice President Biden announced a bold goal for the best work being done by the U.S. Government to advance entrepreneurship around the world: help emerging entrepreneurs, including social entrepreneurs generate over $1 billion in new private investments in their businesses, with more than half of the investment being raised by women and youth. As President Obama said in a video address to an entrepreneurship summit in Tunisia, “Over the next three years, we’re aiming to spark more than one billion dollars in new investments in the next generation of entrepreneurs around the world—to help them open a new business, expand into new markets and ignite the next era of innovation and growth.” This ambitious initiative sparked the attention of a number of leading organizations, companies, and figures working on entrepreneurship, who gathered at the White House to discuss how they might collaborate. This coalition is coalescing around a number of key goals, ideas, and actions. Their first step is to open a conversation via #StarttheSpark about the common goals shared by those working to promote entrepreneurship. Together, the effort can help to increase communication, coordination, and collaboration across all our efforts to support entrepreneurs around the world. Connecting these entrepreneurial sparks can help set alight a bright beacon of new hope, shared purpose, and opportunity.



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Partners for a New Beginning


Date: 2011 Description: Partners for a new beginning - State Dept Image
The Opportunity
From Tunisia to Indonesia, the world’s attention is focused on Muslim-majority nations in some of the most critical regions in the world. The “Arab Awakening” has created a new era of collaboration as long-embedded institutions are replaced or changed. Adding pressure to the situation is massive youth unemployment, which reaches upward of 25 percent across the Middle East and North Africa region. This demographic youth bulge has the potential to significantly contribute to long-run economic growth, yet there remains serious underinvestment in education and innovation in many of these communities.
The Alliance
President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech laid out America’s interest in seeking a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim world based on mutual interest and mutual respect. In 2010, the Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP) launched Partners for New Beginnings (PNB) as a new approach toward diplomacy development aimed at bridgebuilding between the United States and key Muslim-majority countries. Since its launch, PNB has grown into a cross-cutting global network of prominent business leaders and civil society actors who are committed to building effective partnerships that promote economic opportunity, foster advances in science and technology, enhance educational opportunities, and catalyze exchanges to enhance mutual understanding in a variety of fields. The Aspen Institute serves as the PNB Secretariat.
The Pillars
PNB’s chapters are located in Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia, and Turkey. These local chapters build partnerships that encourage four central pillars:
1. OPPORTUNITY: Promote economic opportunity by increasing employment, improving access to finance, and building business capacity and development services to enhance livelihoods.
2. INNOVATION: Foster advances in science and technology by improving infrastructure, addressing natural resource challenges, enhancing research capabilities, and funding cutting-edge capabilities to support innovation and economic growth.
3. EDUCATION: Enhance educational opportunities by broadening access to education and enhancing the quality of facilities and equipment.
4. EXCHANGE: Catalyze exchanges in a variety of fields, including education, interfaith, business, and research, while developing programs to enhance human connectedness and build mutual understanding.



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Global Entrepreneurship Summit and the President’s Travel to Africa

Statement by the Press Secretary

GES Nairobi publicity

GES Nairobi publicity

The Government of Kenya has agreed to co-host the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) this July.  Organized annually since 2009, the GES has emerged as a global platform connecting emerging entrepreneurs with leaders from business, international organizations, and governments looking to support them.  This will be the first time the GES will take place in sub-Saharan Africa.

President Obama will travel to Kenya in July, where he will hold bilateral meetings and participate in the GES.  His trip will build on the success of the August 2014 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and continue our efforts to work with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, to accelerate economic growth, strengthen democratic institutions, and improve security.  This will be President Obama’s fourth trip to sub-Saharan Africa during his presidency.

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES)

GES is an annual summit bringing together entrepreneurs – including social entrepreneurs -- business people, venture capitalists and foundations for an intense two-day conference to network, learn from each other, and identify ways to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem.  GES is a White House initiative that partners with a different host country each year to showcase the dynamism of the local environment and hopefully strengthen entrepreneurial infrastructure. 

Last year's U.S.-Africa Leaders' Summit advanced the Administration's focus on trade and investment in Africa and highlighted America's commitment to Africa's security, its democratic development, and its people. The theme of the Summit was "Investing in the Next Generation," and leveraging entrepreneurship throughout the continent is a direct outgrowth of this longstanding support to Africa's next generation of leaders.  During the Leaders' Summit, the President committed to holding the 6th annual GES in sub-Saharan Africa.  Kenya's selection as the location for this year's Summit highlights the country's role as an economic leader in East Africa and the dynamism and innovation that characterizes Kenya's entrepreneurship ecosystem. 

We expect members of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) network and from the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP) to be well represented at GES Nairobi, as well as those from other USG women and youth initiatives. 
More information is available at www.state.gov/e/eb/cba/entrepreneurship 
The Spark Global Entrepreneurship initiative

“Spark” is a common symbol and platform for connecting diverse programs working to promote entrepreneurship around the world.  The programs selected to the President's Spark initiative represent the best work being done by the U.S. Government to advance entrepreneurship around the world. They commit to generate at least $10 million dollars over three years for emerging entrepreneurs, with more than half raised by women and young entrepreneurs. The initial commitments toward this goal totaled over $1 billion dollars that would be generated by the end of 2017. Top entrepreneurship organizations will announce the formation of the Spark coalition in the coming months and have opened a social media conversation about expanding entrepreneurship with #StarttheSpark. 

More information is available at: www.state.gov/e/eb/cba/entrepreneurship/spark





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