III 109th CONGRESS 1st Session S. CON. RES. 47 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 26, 2005 Ms. Landrieu submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Paying tribute to the Africa-America Institute for its more than 50 years of dedicated service, nurturing and unleashing the productive capacities of knowledgeable, capable, and effective African leaders through education.

Whereas the Africa-America Institute (in this resolution referred to as the AAI) was founded in 1953, to help build human and institutional capacity in Africa and to promote mutually beneficial relations between the United States and Africa through education; Whereas 2 of the most prominent founders of AAI were leading African-American educators and intellectuals, Horace Mann Bond, the first Black president of Lincoln University, and Leo Hansberry, the Howard University scholar and historian renowned today as the father of African studies; Whereas with funding from the government, the private sector, and philanthropic sources, AAI has advanced its mission on the dual premises that higher education is the highest leveraging point for achieving sustainable gains all along the education pipeline, and that investments in education generate high rates of return by multiplying the impact of development achievements across sectors of global importance, such as health, education, trade, investment, peace, and security; Whereas the 22,000 education program alumni of AAI come from 52 African countries, including extraordinary individuals such as Wangari Maathai, recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize; Whereas alumni of AAI are leaders in African education, business, government, and nongovernmental organizations working to change economic and social structures in African communities, societies, and nations for the better; Whereas a 2004 impact assessment commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (in this resolution referred to as USAID) found USAID's multi-million dollar investment in long-term training programs that were managed and run by AAI for over 40 years produced significant and sustained changes that furthered African development in measurable ways; Whereas, as a corollary to its work aimed at expanding educational opportunities for Africans, AAI has also served as a source of reliable and balanced information on Africa for American public and private sector leaders; Whereas Members of Congress and their staff are among those who have helped achieve and continue to build on this legacy, fulfilling the education mission of AAI by working with partners in Africa, the United States, and other parts of the world on behalf of Africa; Whereas competing in the information age requires high levels of technical knowledge and skills, but the level of need and demand for higher education and technical training in Africa exceeds the capacities of education sectors in most African countries; Whereas, consistent with the aspirations and goals of the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development, AAI has stepped up to meet these new challenges with the creation of the African Technology for Education and Workforce Development initiative (in this resolution referred to as AFTECH), a collaborative effort designed to harness the power of information technologies to deliver the highest quality global educational content to Africans where they live; Whereas, in order to improve and expand upon the reach and impact of AFTECH, and to raise awareness in the United States of the converging global interests that warrant greater United States public and private engagement with, and investment in Africa, AAI used the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2003, to launch the AAI Education Partnership Campaign: 50,000 New Leaders in Five Years, with a goal of raising $25,000,000 in private and public sector support to educate and train 50,000 Africans during the 5-year campaign; Whereas, with the Republic of Namibia in the vanguard, a growing number of African nations are choosing to invest in their people by directly supporting the advanced education, professional training programs, and other education resources that AAI has to offer; Whereas AAI works with sponsoring African governments to identify and leverage additional funding wherever feasible, and assists countries with making the case to multinational companies doing business within their borders that investing in the human capital of African countries through education is in their mutual interest; and Whereas AAI can boast of a remarkable history and unparalleled program track record, and is building on its past to meet current and future challenges facing Africa as well as the United States: Now, therefore, be it

That Congress— (1)pays tribute to the Africa-America Institute for its more than 50 years of dedicated service, nurturing and unleashing the productive capacities of knowledgeable, capable, and effective African leaders through education; (2)embraces the mission and supports the work of AAI; and (3)urges Members of Congress and others to join the AAI Education Partnership Campaign: 50,000 New Leaders in Five Years, a major initiative toward achieving closer United States-Africa relations that advance mutual national and global interests and a high yield investment in Africa's capacity to build a future.