U.S., African Countries Must Commit to Continent’s Development, Opinion Piece Says
Although President Bush started his first term "without deep knowledge of the developing world," he now "appears intent on being remembered" as the president who "did much in real terms to secure Africa's future," Africare President Julius Coles writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. Bush has put the U.S. "firmly behind African development" by creating the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and supporting debt-relief plans for the continent's poorest nations, according to Coles. In addition, Bush in June announced a campaign aimed at fighting malaria on the continent, Coles writes. However, there "remains widespread doubt, nonetheless, about whether Africa will take full advantage of the new resources that are beginning to flow" from donor nations, according to Coles. African nations and organizations such as the African Union and New Partnership for Africa's Development must "demonstrate that these new resources will be used effectively," Coles writes, concluding that there will be "no African Renaissance without strong moral and financial support from the world's most powerful nation -- and it's most powerful leader" (Coles, Washington Post, 8/8).
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