Findings

Congress makes the following findings: (1)At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, the United States joined more than 180 other countries in committing to work toward goals to improve life for the world’s poorest people by 2015. (2)Such goals include reducing the proportion of people living on less than $1 per day by 1/2, reducing child mortality by 2/3, and assuring basic education for all children, while sustaining the environment upon which human life depends. (3)At the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development, the United States representative reiterated the support of the United States for the Millennium Development Goals and advocated, along with other international participants, for a stronger focus on measurable outcomes derived from a global partnership between developed and developing countries. (4)On March 22, 2002, President Bush stated, We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror. We fight against poverty because opportunity is a fundamental right to human dignity. We fight against poverty because faith requires it and conscience demands it. We fight against poverty with a growing conviction that major progress is within our reach.. (5)The 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States notes that a world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 per day, is neither just nor stable. Including all of the world’s poor in an expanding circle of development and opportunity is a moral imperative and one of the top priorities of U.S. international policy. (6)The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States concluded that the Government of the United States must offer an example of moral leadership in the world and offer parents and their children a vision of the future that emphasizes individual educational and economic opportunity as essential to the efforts of the United States to defeat global terrorism. (7)The summit of the Group of Eight scheduled for July 2005, the United Nations summit scheduled for September 2005, and the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization scheduled for December 2005 will provide opportunities to measure and continue to pursue progress on the Millennium Development Goals. (8)The summit of the Group of Eight scheduled for July 6 through July 8, 2005, in Gleneagles, Scotland, will bring together the countries that can make the greatest contribution to alleviating extreme poverty in Africa, the region of the world where extreme poverty is most prevalent. (9)On June 11, 2005, the United States helped secure the agreement of the Group of Eight Finance Ministers to cancel 100 percent of the debt obligations owed to the World Bank, African Development Bank, and International Monetary Fund by countries that are eligible for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, the initiative established in 1996 by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for the purpose of reducing the debt burdens of the world’s poorest countries, or under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, as defined in section 1625 of the International Financial Institutions Act (22 U.S.C. 262p–8), which are poor countries that are on the path to reform. (10)The report prepared by the Commission for Africa and issued by Prime Minister Tony Blair on March 11, 2005, entitled Our Common Interest, called for coherence and coordination in the development of an overarching package of actions to be carried out by the countries of Africa and the international community to address the complex interlocking issues that challenge the continent, many of which have already been addressed individually in previous summits and under the Africa Action Plan enacted by the Group of Eight. (11)The United States has recognized the need for strengthened economic and trade opportunities, as well as increased financial and technical assistance to Africa and other countries burdened by extreme poverty, through significant initiatives in recent years, including— (A)the African Growth and Opportunity Act (19 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) that has opened United States markets to thousands of products from Africa; (B)the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief developed under section 101 of the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7611), the major focus of which has been on African countries; (C)the Millennium Challenge Corporation established under section 604 of the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7703) that is in the process of committing new and significant levels of assistance to countries, including countries in Africa, that are poor but show great promise for boosting economic growth and bettering the lives of their people; and (D)the United States has canceled 100 percent of the bilateral debt owed to the Untied States by countries eligible for debt relief under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative. (12)The report prepared by the Commission for Africa entitled Our Common Interest includes the following findings: (A)The people of Africa must demonstrate the leadership necessary to address the governance challenges they face, setting priorities that ensure the development of effective civil and police services, independent judiciaries, and strong parliaments, all of which reinforce a stable and predictable economic environment attractive to investment. (B)Many leaders in Africa have pursued personal self-interest rather than national goals, a tendency that has been in some instances exacerbated and abetted by the manipulation of foreign governments pursuing their own agenda in the region to the detriment of the people of Africa. (C)More violent conflict has occurred in Africa during the period between 1965 and 2005 than occurred in any other continent during that period, and the countries of Africa must engage on the individual, national, and regional level to prevent and manage conflict. (D)The capacity to trade is constrained by a derelict or nonexistent infrastructure in most African countries as well as by the double-edged sword of tariff and nontariff barriers to trade that complicate markets and discourage investment both within and beyond the continent. (E)The local resources for investment in people and the institutions necessary for good governance have been squandered, misappropriated, and, to an increasingly devastating effect, spent on servicing debt to the developed world. Such resources should be reoriented to serve the needs of the people through the use of debt forgiveness and support for institutional reform and internal capacity building. (F)Failing to prevent conflict in Africa results in incalculable costs to African development and expense to the international community and the investment in preventing conflict is a fraction of such costs and expenses, in human, security, and financial terms. (G)Despite difficulties, there is optimism and energy reflected in the scope of activities of individuals such as 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Wangari Maathai, as well as those of improved regional organizations such as the African Union and the New Partnership for Economic Development’s Peer Review Mechanism, and subregional entities such as the Economic Community of West African States, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, and the potential of the Southern African Development Community. (H)Political reform in Africa has produced results. For example, while in 1985 countries of sub-Saharan Africa ruled by dictators were the norm, by 2005 dictatorships are a minority and democracy has new life with governments chosen by the people increasing fourfold since 1991. (13)The report prepared by the Commission for Africa entitled Our Common Interest includes the following recommendations: (A)At this vital moment when globalization and growth, technology and trade, and mutual security concerns allow, and common humanity demands, a substantial tangible and coherent package of actions should immediately be taken by the international community, led by the most industrialized countries, in partnership with the countries of Africa, to address the poverty and underdevelopment of the African continent. (B)The people of Africa must take responsibility and show courageous leadership in addressing problems and taking ownership of solutions as the means for ensuring sustainable development, while implementing governance reform as an underlying prerequisite for foreign assistance effectiveness. (C)Each developed country has unique strengths and capacity to add value to a comprehensive assistance plan and should join their individual efforts to a coherent whole that is more efficient and responsive to Africa and the people of Africa. (D)The international community must honor existing commitments to strengthen African peacekeeping capacity and go beyond those commitments to invest in more effective prevention and nonmilitary means to resolve conflict through such regional organizations as the African Union and the subregional Economic Community for West African States. (E)A massive investment in physical infrastructure should be made to support commerce, extend governance, and provide opportunities for education, healthcare, investment and growth. (F)Donors and the governments of the countries of Africa should devote substantial investment in the men and women of Africa through the education and health sectors, enabling and extending recent gains made to reach far more broadly into remote regions. (G)The public sector should actively engage the private sector in driving growth through partnerships by reforming the laws, bureaucracy, and infrastructure necessary to maintain a climate that fosters investment by developing public-private centers of excellence to pursue such reforms. (H)The countries of Africa must maximize the participation of women in both business and government, protect the rights of women, and work to increase the number of women in leadership positions so as to capitalize on the ability of women to deliver scarce resources effectively and fairly. (I)The international community must work together to dismantle trade barriers, including the immediate elimination of trade-distorting commodity support. (J)International donors should strengthen multilateral institutions in Africa to respond appropriately to local and regional crises as well as to promote economic development and ensure the people of Africa are granted a stronger voice in international forums. (K)The international community must join in providing creative incentives for commercial firms to research and develop products that improve water, sanitation, health, and the environment in ways that would dramatically reduce suffering and increase productive life-spans in Africa.