[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



 
       THE YOUTH BULGE IN AFRICA: CONSIDERATIONS FOR U.S. POLICY

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                 SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
                        GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
                      INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                     ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                           FEBRUARY 13, 2020

                               __________

                           Serial No. 116-98

                               __________

        Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
        
        
        
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             U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
39-653PDF           WASHINGTON : 2022       
                       
                       
                       
                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

                   ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York, Chairman

BRAD SHERMAN, California             MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas, Ranking 
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York               Member
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey              CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia         STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida          JOE WILSON, South Carolina
KAREN BASS, California               SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts       TED S. YOHO, Florida
DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island        ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
AMI BERA, California                 LEE ZELDIN, New York
JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas                JIM SENSENBRENNER, Wisconsin
DINA TITUS, Nevada                   ANN WAGNER, Missouri
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York          BRIAN MAST, Florida
TED LIEU, California                 FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania             BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota             JOHN CURTIS, Utah
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota                KEN BUCK, Colorado
COLIN ALLRED, Texas                  RON WRIGHT, Texas
ANDY LEVIN, Michigan                 GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia         TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania       GREG PENCE, Indiana
TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey           STEVE WATKINS, Kansas
DAVID TRONE, Maryland                MIKE GUEST, Mississippi
JIM COSTA, California
JUAN VARGAS, California
VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas



                    Jason Steinbaum, Staff Director

               Brandon Shields, Republican Staff Director
                                 ------                                

    Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and 
                      International Organizations

                     KAREN BASS, California, Chair

SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania             CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey, 
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota                 Ranking Member
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota                JIM SENSENBRENNER, Wisconsin
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania       RON WRIGHT, Texas
                                     TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
                                     
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                               WITNESSES

Strong, Dr. Krystal, Assistant Professor, University of 
  Pennsylvania...................................................     7
Toungara, Ms. Macani, African Affairs Consultant.................    16
Dongala, Mr. Thierry, Founder, Accountable Africa................    25

                                APPENDIX

Hearing Notice...................................................    40
Hearing Minutes..................................................    41
Hearing Attendance...............................................    42

               OPENING STATEMENT SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

Opening statement submitted for the record from Chair Bass.......    43


       THE YOUTH BULGE IN AFRICA: CONSIDERATIONS FOR U.S. POLICY

                      Thursday, February 13, 2020

                       House of Representatives,

                 Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,

                 Global Human Rights, and International

                             Organizations,

                     Committee on Foreign Affairs,

                                     Washington, DC

    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in 
room 2200 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Karen Bass 
[chairwoman of the subcommittee] presiding.
    Ms. Bass. Good morning, everyone, and let me thank in 
advance our witnesses for being here.
    The hearing for the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, 
Global Human Rights and International Organizations will come 
to order.
    I note that a quorum is present because the ranking member 
and I agree and that makes it real.
    So we are meeting today to hear testimony on the youth 
bulge in Africa and policy recommendations from our panel on 
the best ways to engage African youth and, hopefully, to also 
hear your policy recommendations.
    Without objection, all members have 5 days to submit 
statements, questions, and extraneous materials for the record, 
subject to the length limitation in the rules.
    I recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening 
statement.
    Almost 60 percent of Africa's population in 2019 was under 
the age of 25, making Africa the youngest continent. Social 
scientists label this demographic profile as a youth bulge. The 
theory contends that societies with rapidly growing young 
populations often end up with rampant unemployment and large 
pools of disaffected youth, who are more susceptible to 
recruitment into rebel or terrorist groups. Countries with weak 
political institutions are most vulnerable to youth bulge-
related violence and social unrest.
    In contrast to this perspective, the African Union's 
African Youth Charter States that Africa's youth is the biggest 
resource in Africa's growing young population, offers enormous 
potential, improvements in health and education on the 
continent, put Africa's youth in a more advantageous position 
than the generations before, offering better conditions for 
advancing human capital.
    I do not believe that it is rocket science to figure out 
how to deal with a burgeoning youth population. I think young 
people are the same all over the world, which means young 
people need education and opportunities. Some would say in many 
poor communities in the United States we have a youth bulge, 
too.
    And I have found, when I first started in Congress and 
would travel to Africa, a lot of similarities between the inner 
city youth in Africa and the inner city areas where people 
feels there is not an economic opportunity, the education 
system is poor, really little access to transportation and 
jobs. Then, surprise, surprise, what happens? In the United 
States, our way of dealing with that, though, has been a 
contributing factor to mass incarceration. If you look at who 
is in prison in the United States, you will talk about poor 
people, young people of color.
    So I do not like the perspective that sees a youth bulge as 
being a problem and something that is very negative. And in 
many situations, in talking about Africa, young people are 
almost to blame for the youth bulge, which is kind of funny. We 
are left asking: What should we do with these potential 
destabilizers or what about the responsibility of the leaders? 
We do have leaders in office for 15, 20, 30, or longer. We have 
leaders that are manipulating their constitutions, rigging 
elections, jailing the potential opposition or activists to 
stay in office.
    In the face of Democratic backsliding, I have been 
impressed by the pro-democracy activists across the continent, 
who nonviolently protest and risk their lives for political 
change because, ironically, we will talk about youth as being a 
problem but, historically, young people have always been at the 
forefront of positive social change and I think Africa is no 
exception to that.
    We saw this most recently in Sudan during the citizen 
uprising that pushed for a civilian-led transitional government 
after 30 years of autocratic and dictatorial rule but there are 
examples, including Nigeria's Not Too Young to Run campaign, 
which seeks to reduce the age limit for running for elected 
office in Nigeria. There was LUCHA in DRC and Burkina Faso and 
Senegal, among many, many others.
    I cite these examples to show, again, just to verify that I 
believe that young people are the drivers of nonviolent 
political and social change.
    I was recently in Darfur, meeting with a group of young 
activists, who played a significant role in Sudan's transition, 
and it was interesting talking to them because they have strong 
opinions about the leadership but, yet at the same time, they 
did not see themselves participating in the leadership. They 
saw themselves as standing on the outside. And so we tried to 
encourage them to actually be a part of the process and not 
just be an outside critic but to, in fact, run for office.
    My colleagues and I here in Congress know that it is in the 
best interest of the United States for the African continent to 
be strong. And for the African continent to be strong, we need 
to do whatever is necessary to make sure that young people have 
opportunities and that African countries stabilize and thrive.
    I now recognize the ranking member for the purpose of 
making an opening statement.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I will be 
brief because we will have some votes very shortly. I want to 
thank you for convening this very important hearing.
    Africa, as we all know, is a continent of great hope and 
extraordinary promise. Unlike Western Europe, especially China 
and countries of East Asia, and, in deed our own country, where 
we see demographic decline in aging populations in Africa, we 
see youthfulness and opportunity.
    True, there are many countervailing winds with which Africa 
and its youth must contend many challenges--war, disease, 
tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, extremism, and corruption--but all too 
often, there is a focus on these negative factors without 
looking at the enormous positive things that are happening on 
the subcontinent.
    Africa is a faith-based continent. I have had the privilege 
of meeting with many faith leaders in Africa--Christian, 
Muslim, Traditional--and I always walk away impressed on how 
much the faith of the average African sustains them and gives 
them hope for the future. You know it says in the Old Testament 
without faith, there is no hope. And I believe that and we see 
it on how they, the people of Africa, do carry themselves. It 
is extraordinary.
    I very much look forward to hearing today's testimony and 
also welcome back an old friend, Mr. Dongala, who worked on 
this subcommittee when I was chairman. Thank you for your 
service then, as well as now. And I welcome the other witnesses 
as well.
    I yield back.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you. Well, we are going to move forward and 
hear from the witnesses. And just so you know, we have been 
told votes could be called between 10:20 and 10:40, although we 
never really know. So we thought we would just forge ahead and 
see how far we could get. Hopefully, we will not be interrupted 
but we never know.
    Dr. Krystal Strong is an assistant professor in the 
Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, 
with faculty affiliations in the Departments of Anthropology 
and Africana Studies. Dr. Strong holds a Ph.D. in anthropology 
from UC, Berkeley--I like that. Her research in teaching 
focuses on youth, education, activism, new media, and popular 
culture in Africa and the African Diaspora.
    She has 15 years of experience as an educator, and scholar, 
and is currently completely multiple research projects related 
to African youth.
    Macani Toungara currently runs a youth leadership--a 
leadership capacity-building program for emerging African 
leaders.
    Previously, Ms. Toungara was the senior director for 
program development at TechnoServe in Washington, DC. In this 
role, she managed the development of strategic bids, led donor 
engagement with the Gates Foundation, the Department of 
Agriculture, and U.K. Department for International Development, 
and supported program development capacity-building.
    She has expertise in subjects including public-private 
partnerships, SME development, market systems development, food 
security, and job creation.
    Thierry Dongala is the founder of Accountable Africa, a 
consulting firm that advises on African accountability efforts 
and management of African sovereign wealth.
    Mr. Dongala is a former senior advisor for Africa at the 
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs under the leadership of 
Mr. Smith.
    Prior to working on Congress, he co-chaired forums on 
accountability with Doctor--with David Walker, former U.S. 
Comptroller General and former CEO of the U.S. Government 
Accountability Office.
    We will take your testimony now, ask that you speak for 5 
minutes, and we do have your full testimony. You can summarize.
    Dr. Strong.

     STATEMENT OF DR. KRYSTAL STRONG, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, 
                   UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

    Dr. Strong. Distinguished Chair, Ranking Member, and 
members of the subcommittee, in 30 years, one-quarter of the 
world's youth population will live in Africa. The future of 
Africa is tied to whether this population is able to transition 
into sustainable livelihoods and societal roles in which youth 
are valued and supported.
    Over the past 15 years, I have studied the leadership and 
activism of youth across the continent. I have personally 
engaged with hundreds of youth in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, 
and Kenya, learning about the challenges they face and their 
perspectives on what is needed to bring transformation to their 
communities.
    An overwhelming source of frustration youth expressed was 
the gap in power between youth and elder leaders in the 
workplace, schools, and especially in government. Though youth 
under the age of 30 makes up 70 percent of Africa's population, 
the average age of leaders is 70 years old.
    Fred Swaniker, co-founder of the African Leadership Academy 
describes the current generation of African youth as the 
generation that will fix what past leaders have broken. My 
research experiences affirm this as a tangible possibility if 
youth are given the social supports they need.
    I have found that youth are not waiting for political 
leaders to hand over power in order to assume leadership roles. 
On the contrary, youth are taking on the work that governments 
and social institutions are meant to do, without adequate 
resources but with great creativity.
    I would like to highlight two contexts where we can see 
progressive youth leadership emerging: organized student 
politics and civic protests, and youth leadership development 
initiatives.
    First, organized student politics and civic protests. In 
2010, I researched organized student politics at the University 
of Ibadan, Nigeria's flagship university, after the end of 
decades of military rule. I studied the effect that the opening 
of student leadership opportunities had on this first cohort of 
youth to grow up under democracy.
    I found that with the opportunity to engage in student 
politics, students began to see themselves as political actors 
and to imagine future careers in public service. Student 
leaders devised ambitious projects to improve school 
conditions, such as buying a generator for the library, so that 
students would have electricity to study during frequent campus 
blackouts, and providing Wi-Fi access to residents of a 
dormitory in the absence of stable internet service on campus.
    We see here that student leaders are taking the initiative 
to provide basic necessities that, in other context, would be 
provided by the government. Yet in most cases, student leaders 
were unable to execute such goals because they lacked access to 
resources and because student authorities--because school 
authorities are often hostile to student leadership. When 
students spoke out against school authorities or engaged in 
peaceful protests about these conditions, they were met with 
disciplinary punishment and even expulsion.
    Witnessing Nigerian students engaged in protests in 
response to school conditions and government inaction prompted 
me to research the causes of school protests in other African 
countries. After studying 1,100 incidents of school protests 
that have occurred since 2000, I have learned that most 
protests are caused by infrastructural issues like lack of 
water and electricity and by policies that negatively affect 
students, such as tuition fee hikes.
    Similar to organized student politics, these civic protests 
have long-term positive effects on youth. Participation teaches 
youth how to articulate demands for societal changes and 
affirms their agency in seeing to it that such changes are 
implemented. These activities show that schools are rare social 
institutions, where youth have opportunities to gain practical 
experience in leadership and representative governance.
    In the second context where progressive youth leadership is 
developing is youth leadership development initiatives. Many of 
the Nigerian students I formed relationships with have 
participated increasingly in international leadership 
development programs designed to support African youth.
    On graduate, Timi Olagunju, was part of the 2015 cohort of 
the Mandela Washington Program within the Young African 
Leadership Initiative established under President Obama. After 
the program, Timi wrote a book entitled, Yes, African Can, 
which describes his YALI experience. And when Timi returned to 
Nigeria, he helped lead a campaign called Not Too Young to Run, 
which advocated for lowering the age limit for elected office. 
And in 2019, Timi ran, unsuccessfully, for the Federal House of 
Representatives of the Young Nigerian's Party. This is one 
person's experience but we have identified 250 other such 
programs that support African youth leadership globally.
    I have emphasized these activities that illustrate 
grassroots youth leadership because they offer a rubric for 
meaningfully and respectfully shifting our approaches toward 
Africa in ways that will benefit youth.
    My recommendations are that we better engage with young 
people where they are already socially and politically engaged, 
and that we leverage relationships with African Governments to 
persuade current leaders to create youth-centered policies and 
leadership opportunities. This can be accomplished with three 
approaches.
    Yes--first, expand educational and leadership opportunities 
in the United States. The recent increase that we have seen in 
travel restrictions for Nigerians, Eritreans, and citizens of 
other African countries undermines young people's ability to 
take advantage of such opportunities. Lifting these 
restrictions is a needed step.
    Second, support youth leadership development in African 
countries, themselves.
    And finally, pressure leaders to create youth-centered 
policies and leadership opportunities.
    I thank you for the opportunity to speak and look forward 
to offering more context in the Q and A.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Strong follows:]
    
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    Ms. Bass. Thank you. I appreciate that.
    And since we do not have a clock here, I did not realize 
that--I will go like this when you have a minute left. Okay?
    Ms. Toungara.

  STATEMENT OF MS> MACANI TOUNGARA, AFRICAN AFFAIRS CONSULTANT

    Ms. Toungara. Thank you, Chairwoman Bass, Ranking Member 
Smith, and members of the subcommittee for providing the 
opportunity to address the panel on the youth bulge in Africa.
    In my current work, I run a leadership development program 
that provides training for 200 emerging African leaders from 45 
countries. I see every day the incredible challenges they face 
to start and grown businesses, advocate for change, and invest 
in their community's children. I am proud to represent them and 
their needs in today's testimony.
    Moreover, as the child of an African American mother and 
Ivorian father, I have had the privilege of living in both West 
Africa and the United States, while working on issues of 
economic development and business growth. I am passionate about 
promoting policies that uplift this generation of young people 
and unleash their innovation and creativity.
    By 2030, one-quarter of the world's total under 25 
population will be in Africa. African youth are global change-
makers. They will ensure that the African continent fulfills 
its potential to lift its citizens out of poverty and power the 
global economy. But for that to happen, those who care about a 
stable Africa must coordinate their investment in today's 
youth.
    Key challenges facing them include access to education, 
work force development, and job creation. And policies targeted 
at promoting education, supporting the small and medium 
enterprise sector, the SME sector, growing the digital economy, 
and growing trade will have positive impacts on young people 
but also support access to African goods for American consumers 
and create larger markets for U.S. exports.
    First, I would like to focus on the education piece. Across 
the continent, the capacity of educational assistance to 
educate young people does not meet demand. Millions have had 
their education cut short by lack of access, financial 
challenges, and civil conflict. Separately, there are very 
educated youth unable to find formal jobs. For some, their 
skills do not align with labor demand, a challenge exacerbated 
by lack of access to STEM education and digital skills. And for 
others, highly prized government jobs just are not available.
    As a result, there is a need to invest in educational 
systems that open opportunities for entrepreneurship, entry 
into skilled trades, and entry into the digital economy. 
Complementing technical and vocational training with personal 
and professional effectiveness training, otherwise known as 
soft skills training, is a powerful way to increase the impact 
of programs already taking place because they create greater 
confidence by young people in their ability to engage the 
marketplace.
    Shifting to a focus on the SME sector, it is worth nothing 
that 75 percent of new entrants to the labor market will work 
in self-employment or in microenterprise. U.S. foreign policy 
already contributes to the development of formal private sector 
jobs by creating opportunities for U.S. companies to do more 
business on the continent. Nonetheless, we can do more to 
address the African SME sector that is populated by young 
entrepreneurs, support supply chain connections between urban 
and rural areas, and particularly to rural farmers, and drives 
income generation.
    The solutions that are working involve bringing technical 
knowledge together with local expertise to develop approaches 
appropriately tailored and targeted to the needs of young 
people and their national context. And public-private 
partnerships are one way of doing this effectively.
    In light of this, I have four policy recommendations.
    First, leverage Peace Corps to channel U.S. expertise on 
STEM education, the digital economy, and soft skills training 
into the networks of youth-focused organizations on the 
continent.
    Second, continue to support public-private partnerships 
that bring knowledge, and expertise, and market access to 
African communities and youth-led enterprises, and particularly 
through the USAID Global Development Alliance Program.
    Third, leverage U.S. programming to center youth engagement 
more broadly. They want to influence their governments but they 
also want to influence the programming that is happening in 
their communities.
    And fourth, adapt the lessons learned from the Small 
Business Administration to help build the capacity of African 
institutions and organizations supporting SMEs on the 
continent.
    Going forward, U.S. policy toward Africa needs to take the 
long view and not be subject to short-term political whims. The 
Chinese have been effective in positioning themselves as 
investment partners to African Governments through their 
persistent presence and a strategy that engages the private 
sector, local communities, and governments. The U.S. response 
to this dynamic should be to lean into the competition. A 
strong reservoir of good will exists toward the United States 
among young leaders in Africa. We can tap into that enthusiasm 
to ensure that American businesses, goods, and services are 
part of the economic fabric of a competitive African economy, 
one led by its youth.
    Thank you very much.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Toungara follows:]
    
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    Ms. Bass. Thank you.
    Mr. Dongala.

   STATEMENT OF THIERRY DONGALA, FOUNDER, ACCOUNTABLE AFRICA

    Mr. Dongala. Good morning and thank you again, Chairwoman 
Bass, Ranking Member Smith, and distinguished members of the 
committee. Thank you for the invitation to testify on the youth 
bulge in Africa and considerations for U.S. policy.
    I would like to start by acknowledging the work of Dr. Jack 
Goldstone of George Mason University. He actually coined the 
term youth bulge. He has been a resource to me for over a 
decade and others, as we have mostly been working with 
corporations and U.S. investors who want to understand the 
demographic shift happening in Africa.
    What is important--you know I do not want to over-simplify 
the term youth bulge but I kind of compare it to, when I 
explained it to investors and businesses that want to install 
themselves in Africa, I compare it to the North Atlantic 
Current, you know a sort of wind. You know it is a force of 
nature, really what is happening in Africa. It is a force of 
nature that any serious actor must take into account.
    You know when you think of the North Atlantic winds, you 
know it is pilots and sailors. They account for where the wind 
is blowing and adjust course accordingly. I hope that my 
testimony, and even the testimony of these other witnesses, 
will help U.S. policy adjust accordingly, too.
    Africa has the potential to be important for investors 
today, and investors, and business, and entrepreneurs for a 
different reason that it has been important in the past. The 
demographic winds that are blowing in Africa, or the 
demographic change of the youth population, can actually be 
harnessed. If it is harnessed correctly, Africa is poised to 
become one of the largest consumer markets in the world and 
even an engine of global economic growth.
    This means that if I am an investor or a business and I am 
looking for the next sales destination, you know for my 
American goods, I am increasingly looking to Africa. This shift 
is important because rather than just having investors value 
Africa for its raw materials and resources, they can now value 
Africa for being a traditional or a trading partner first. 
Companies like Apple--you know what does this mean? It means 
that companies like Apple won't be looking at the Congo as just 
a source for coltan and cobalt but, actually, a sales hub for 
its products. This means that Apple will now consider the 
standard of living of the Congolese consumers as an integral 
part of their profit-making equation.
    You know NBA Africa, to continue along the corporate 
perspective, NBA Africa is actually evidence of this shift in 
thinking toward the continent. You know Africa, for a long 
time, has been a source of young talent for the NBA. I mean 
just watch the finals and you will see a whole bunch of young 
African players. But you know it is now becoming--it has the 
potential to become a profit center for the NBA. This means 
they can build stadiums, sell tickets, bring more advertising 
there.
    And so this is evidence of the shift that is happening. It 
is not an easy shift you know because you know you need to 
protect purchasing power. There is a lot of growth that needs 
to happen for it to be the final--that large destination for 
consumer goods.
    But this is why this hearing is important. And for U.S. 
policymakers to get it right and African leaders to pay 
attention to this wind, we can encourage this transition to 
be--to harness the winds of this demographic change. You know 
if it is not harnessed correctly, this is where--and I really 
appreciated Chairwoman Bass' comment that this where it turns 
into a negative. I mean it does not have to.
    So what we must do to prevent these forces from becoming a 
negative, we must prevent the youth bulge from aligning with 
disenfranchisement and the despair that a lot of youth have.
    As I am closing my remarks, I wanted to mention you know I 
was in Senegal on vacation with my wife over the holidays. My 
wife is Senegalese. And we had a driver and he was explaining 
to us the predicament of his son. His son finished with an 
engineering degree and he was explaining you know how his son 
you know he was discouraged because he couldn't find a job for 
years, actually. And in French, he said mort vivant, which 
means kind of a zombie you know. And it is this despair that we 
have to prevent the youth bulge from coupling with because this 
is what drives delinquent activities. Even here in the U.S., it 
is the same case.
    But you know to prevent this from becoming negative, a 
negative trend, I want to conclude my remarks by saying--by 
giving one recommendation. And this recommendation is for U.S. 
policy to empower African countries and even regional bodies to 
protect themselves.
    Why do I say that? It is because African youth are the most 
vulnerable and require strong institutions and effective 
governments to cultivate, and nurture, and protect their 
economic potential. You know youth are the first to suffer when 
governments and institutions are weak and inept. Africa's most 
vulnerable are preyed upon when Africa is not capable to 
protect itself.
    So U.S. policy should work toward positioning Africa to 
protect itself militarily and also economically. So there is 
two ways that this could happen. One--just to get through the 
two ways, is one is if the U.S. could--if we could hold 
hearings to reconsider U.S. opposition to the African Union 
0.02 percent levy that allows it to self-finance and take care 
of itself; and the second one is the African Continental Free 
Trade Area should have a component to protect economic 
potential of youth.
    So thank you again for this----
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Dongala follows:]
    
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]     

        
    Ms. Bass. Thank you. And we will have more time for 
discussion but I want to go ahead and begin questioning. And I 
will ask my questions last so my colleagues have an 
opportunity, especially since this is a fly out day.
    We will ask questions for 5 minutes. Everybody gets 5 
minutes and then, if you want a second round, we will do a 
second round. So, I will go to my ranking member.
    Mr. Smith. Madam Chair, thank you very much and, again, 
thanks for calling this important hearing.
    Mr. Dongala, you really emphasized the importance of 
tackling the unemployment issue. I think one of your comments 
about if we do not encourage Africa's transition to becoming 
the next largest consumer market in the world, the force of the 
youth bulge will likely turn Africa into the world's main 
conflict zone. That is very--an ominous warning about if we do 
not do what we can do to help encourage that youth employment.
    You also point out Chinese investors displaced local labor. 
Maybe you want to speak to that issue. I thought your comment 
about--and all of your testimoneys are fantastic but there is 
only 5 minutes--your comment about being in Senegal and you 
know that the impact of having the training but not being able 
to find that job, and how discouraging that truly is to that 
young man that you spoke about, having spoken to his father.
    If you could speak to those issues, I would appreciate it 
and maybe you could elaborate a little bit on the 0.02 percent 
levy. I mean that is one of your two recommendations.
    And then when you talk about free trade, you know we have a 
few things, like AGOA, but that is very limited but it is very 
important. We just had the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Free Trade 
Agreement, which I think is the best trade agreement I have 
ever seen. When the AFL/CIO and the Chamber of Commerce both 
agree to it, it is historic. It has labor rights, environmental 
protections. And I voted against NAFTA and held several 
hearings when NAFTA was being considered and it had none of 
those things. It had admonishments. It had you know feckless 
language that did not do any of that. This one has all of that. 
So hopefully, that could become a model for a greater African--
Pan-African Free Trade Agreement.
    Mr. Dongala. Ranking Member Smith, thank you for the 
question.
    Yes, to start on the free trade and the economic potential, 
you know I think what is very interesting, so Dr. Strong 
mentioned about some--actually you know Ms. Toungara had 
mentioned about the Chinese investment. You know a lot of 
foreign investors, when they come into Africa, they can 
displace, actually, the economic opportunities for the local 
youth. So this is where trade agreements should have these 
sorts of protections.
    And in my recommendations, I recommended even you know here 
in the U.S. we have the CFIUS, which is the Committee for 
Foreign Investment in the U.S. We actually review foreign 
capital coming into the U.S., making sure it does not--you know 
for national security purposes that they are not buying--
African bodies should have these sorts of review committees 
that are seeing the capital that is coming in. Is it actually 
achieving--is it not--OK, yes, you are building a bridge here, 
and you are doing this and that, but are you doing it the right 
way? Are you affecting our youth--our local youth? This is a 
sort of policy that we should encourage to happen in the 
region.
    On the 0.02 percent levy, I think, I believe it was 2015 or 
2016 that the U.S. Government opposed the 0.02 percent levy for 
the African Union to self-finance. The reason was about WTO 
rules. But really I mean this is something that can be 
negotiated because, if Africa is going to be the next largest 
destination for consumer goods, and also if you want Africa to 
be self-sustaining, protect itself, even fund the Sahel, it 
needs to have its own way to finance itself.
    So even holding a hearing as to what are the workable 
solutions for the U.S. to support this self-sustaining would be 
good.
    And then thank you again for that comment on despair. You 
know we stay in touch with our driver. And this is very 
important because the human component of this, you know the 
dignity of working is so important. You know these young--and I 
hate to make it a young man issue but a lot of them are the 
ones that go and join these militia groups, these young men, 
because they do not have the money to buy dowry, to buy a wife, 
or to pay for health care, you know they feel like they are not 
fulfilling a stage in their adulthood, in their manhood, even. 
And this is what even becomes the human force behind a lot of 
the conflict. So if we could address some of that, it would be 
very--if policy could address some of that, it would be very 
helpful.
    Mr. Smith. Thank you.
    I like the idea of trade being emphasized. Some people say 
trade, not aid. I think we need to provide the aid, 
particularly on the humanitarian basis, but Africa is poised to 
matriculate into the biggest market in the world, as you 
indicated.
    And I think I am the only baby boomer sitting on this 
panel----
    Ms. Bass. No you are not.
    Mr. Smith [continuing]. But whole group in our country 
certainly led to an unprecedented building of homes and home 
ownership. And of course, it is still ongoing and we are still 
growing as an economy. So I want to thank you for you 
testimony.
    I thank all three of you for your wonderful testimoneys.
    I yield back.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member, and other baby 
boomer. And I hope they do not use a dowry to buy a wife. That 
kind of sounded terrible. And I hope, as we are having this 
discussion, we think about gangs in inner city areas.
    Ms. Houlahan.
    Ms. Houlahan. Oh, thank you. I actually did not expect to 
talk. Thank you very much for coming.
    My questions are largely about women and girls, and their 
health, and making sure that we are addressing those 
particular--that particular population, and primarily for Dr. 
Strong.
    My first question is: Complications from pregnancy and 
childbirth are the leading cause of death in adolescent girls 
15 to 19 and it is, obviously, especially concerning in Africa. 
So thinking about the potential of young African women, I just 
wanted to note that we are supporting their health, and rights, 
and ensuring that girls that can remain in school. How can the 
U.S. best support those goals? Can you give us some concrete 
examples of how we can be more helpful for that 15-to 19-year-
old young women population?
    Dr. Strong. I am afraid that, Committee Member Houlahan, 
that is a bit outside of my expertise, in terms of reproductive 
issues.
    However, what I have seen in my work around education and 
girls' access to education is that there is a transformative 
quality and experience of attending school. In Nigeria and many 
other parts of the continent, girls' education is highly 
politicized and restricted. If we think about the incident in 
2014 with the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in Chibok 
in Northern Nigeria, I think that gives us an understanding of 
the political and humanitarian stakes of restricting access to 
girls' education.
    And what I have seen outside of the reproductive realm is 
the ways that young women are given access to leadership 
development through education, through organized student 
politics and these should be expanded as one access of the 
empowerment of girls and young women.
    Ms. Houlahan. Thank you.
    And my next question is for Mister--is it Dongala?
    Mr. Dongala. Yes.
    Ms. Houlahan. Hi. The Sahel is simultaneously experiencing 
a severe refugee crisis and a spike in extremism. The U.N. High 
Commissioner for Refugees made an emergency declaration for 
Burkina, Faso, Mali, and Niger as millions are fleeing from 
their homes. And according to the Center for Strategic and 
International Studies, there has been a rapid expansion of 
extremist attacks.
    How can we better engage the young people, young women in 
particular, in this region as part of our counterterrorism 
efforts?
    I guess, if you can probably tell, my angle is on women and 
empowering women. For a little bit of background on me, I sit 
on this committee but I also serve on Armed Services as well. 
And I really am very intrigued by empowering women, in 
particular, to be part of the solution to extremism and extreme 
violence.
    Mr. Dongala. I can think of--I was recently in--thank you, 
Congresswoman.
    I was recently in Ethiopia and I can think of--you know 
Ethiopia is one of the biggest contributors to peacekeepers. 
And they have a lot of--they have women--like they have a lot 
of women in the military, actually. And you know one component 
that we are not looking at when we are looking at the Sahel is 
yes, is the role that women can play.
    In a lot of these communities, women, you know they are not 
as much combatants but they are the ones that hold the 
communities together. I think you know as Dr. Strong said, you 
know we need to encourage some of our African counterpart 
governments to consider ways to see women as assets in the 
field.
    One particular organization that I know that I was working 
with in Ethiopia, they were working the menstrual cups that you 
are washing and reusing. And when she was trying to educate the 
Health Ministry, they were like oh, no, our women are--they do 
not need that. And so they were not seeing some of the needs of 
women as even kind of as co-equals.
    So on that note, I just wanted to also say that from the 
Sahel terrorism part, youth are--employment is just as 
important as military.
    Ms. Houlahan. Absolutely. Is that a minute or am I out of 
time?
    Ms. Bass. No, you have 30 more seconds.
    Ms. Houlahan. And with my last kind of minute, if I could 
ask a little bit more about your personal experience or your 
professional experience with the influence of China in Africa, 
particularly in terms of taking away or potentially taking away 
jobs from Africans, is there some experience that you can 
reflect on that would be helpful as well to this committee?
    Ms. Toungara. So I think a lot of Chinese contractors 
contract to bring their own employees from China because they 
have a certain way of working in a work force that they are 
wanting to engage with to do that work.
    Ideally, in those negotiations, when governments are making 
those negotiations, they need to negotiate to ensure that 
Africans are also getting a certain amount of employment out of 
those contracts.
    So it is I think more of a situation of you know the 
Chinese are very present across the continent. They are already 
there. They are working. They are finding deals and they are 
being sort of aggressive in pursuing opportunities.
    And I think where we want to support African workers is in 
supporting the governments, first of all, to understand the 
universe of options that are negotiable, when it comes to these 
deals, whether they are talking about with the Chinese, or 
Middle Eastern partners, or European partners, frankly. This is 
about empowering the ability to negotiate on behalf of their 
populations, and ensure that the knowledge transfer happens so 
that African subcontractors get some of those contracts, and 
their employees get the benefits, and that Africans are working 
and learning how to also do this kind of work in their own 
communities.
    Ms. Houlahan. Thank you. I yield back.
    Ms. Bass. In inner city America, we fight for local hire 
because lots of times in areas with high unemployment, the 
people that are working do not reflect the folks that live 
there.
    Mr. Burchett, it is your turn.
    Mr. Burchett. Thank you, Chairlady, and thank for foregoing 
your questions. I always enjoy your questions a lot more than 
mine. So I appreciate you doing that, though. And thank you all 
for being here.
    I am an odd person. You can ask anybody up here. I am 
really into bamboo. I make bamboo skateboards and all kinds of 
crazy stuff out of bamboo. It is like God's carbon fiber. But 
in Africa, they make bamboo bicycles. We are trying to do that 
here but the bamboo is not native. It is called an iron bamboo, 
I believe, is the species. There are over a thousand species of 
bamboo, oddly enough, but the ones that are native to Africa 
are the ones that are conducive to making that.
    And there are people that are making that over there and 
some businessmen are over there doing it and teaching folks. 
And I am concerned folks are being taken advantage of because 
you know some poor fellow or lady does not actually know the 
value of the American dollar, or whatever the country of origin 
that these business people are coming in from, and I worry that 
they maybe do not pay them a decent wage. And what I would like 
to see is to teach the folks how to start their own businesses 
and learn how to do that kind of thing. I mean that is 
generational. That is what will change.
    Because too, when you go into these countries where the 
poor folks are, that is where a lot of the bad people in this 
world take advantage of them. And I do not dig that at all. And 
I am concerned also about the unemployment rates.
    Which countries do you all feel like have made the most 
progress to create jobs and which ones are lagging behind? You 
know we always talk about Africa and you know, that is a big 
country. And I go no, I think it is a continent.
    But you know go ahead, brother. I am sorry.
    Mr. Dongala. I would have to review the numbers but I can 
just go anecdotally, based on the countries that I have been 
visiting. I am really impressed by Senegal.
    Mr. Burchett. That is fine. We are in Congress. We make 
stuff up every day, brother. So you just go right ahead.
    Mr. Dongala. I was recently--when I was in Senegal, so I 
was impressed by the infrastructure investments that they have 
made because what they are doing is decongesting the urban 
centers. And that is actually a big problem because if you have 
a lot of youth, young people in cities that are under-invested, 
you know there is over capacity and that just makes room for 
conflict.
    So I think Senegal, they have done well in investing in the 
roads, and building cities outside of the main city. I do not 
know how that reflects too much on the unemployment rate.
    Also, I think Ethiopia, I think Prime Minister Abiy is 
definitely trying to address unemployment, especially among the 
youth in Addis and Oromia because, if you look at where a lot 
of the protests and a lot of the conflicts are coming from, you 
could overlap the two populations. And so you know idle hands 
are the devil's playground, right? That is what my grandma used 
to say.
    Mr. Burchett. My mama would say that many times.
    Mr. Dongala. So these sorts of things, it is important--
these are the numbers that are important to look and you can 
also overlap them with the conflict zones.
    Ms. Bass. That is your 1 minute.
    Mr. Burchett. One minute, Okay.
    Would any of the rest of you all like to address that? Go 
ahead, ma'am.
    Ms. Toungara. Sure, I mean also anecdotally, you know I 
think Rwanda has been rewarded by having a very systematic 
investment program to bring in dollars and to bring in 
investors. And that has led to positive economic growth for 
them recently.
    Another country that has done well at a high level has been 
Cote D'Ivoire, which has achieved seven, eight, 9 percent 
growth year-on-year through significant investment, and also 
large road construction programs, and such that have helped 
create jobs for a lot of people.
    The challenges that even in that context people are still 
struggling and they are still hungry. You know in Cote 
D'Ivoire, for example, you know the people say on ne mange pas 
pont, we cannot eat the bridge that we just built. You know we 
are still hungry.
    And so even when there is significant investment, even when 
things are good, the need is still there to try to create 
opportunities for entrepreneurship, and other ways for people 
to gain, and come and support their families.
    Ms. Bass. Mr. Phillips.
    Mr. Phillips. Thank you, Chairwoman Bass, and to our 
witnesses. I will confess, I did not think we would be talking 
about bamboo bikes today and that is why I love this job. I 
learn something new every day and, in fact, I already found a 
vendor on my phone.
    I would like to think that youth bulge is not just a 
challenge but an opportunity. And as an entrepreneur, myself, I 
am very focused on programs, and initiatives, and best 
practices relative to developing young entrepreneurs.
    Ms. Toungara, you referenced leveraging the Peace Corps for 
STEM training, and public-private partnerships, the SBA, I know 
we have the Prosper Africa and the AGOA programs. But if you 
could, speak with a little bit more detail about countries and 
particularly initiatives, whether they are our own or others, 
that are really cultivating small business development and 
entrepreneurship.
    Ms. Toungara. Well, I think that there are a number of 
initiatives. The real challenge is scaling. How do we actually 
get more people served and how do we make access to services 
and information systematic?
    You know one program that I co-developed in my previous 
life was a program sponsored by the U.K. Department for 
National Development called ENGINE, which was meant to serve 
about a thousand small and medium enterprises in Ghana and 
support them to scale their small businesses.
    We were talking about a context where entrepreneurs are not 
seen as positively, necessarily, as people who have government 
jobs. So it is also about changing the culture of self-
employment and valuing people who are engaged in self-
employment and are creating formal and informal systems.
    The way to channel those services and scale the channeling 
of those services is really the challenge. You have 
organizations, like a TechnoServe or others, who are good at 
service delivery, but they can only hit so many people. And so 
my policy prescriptions are about how do you create a more 
systemic fashion to work with both governmental and 
nongovernmental institutions to standardize access to 
information and to be able to get small businesses the 
information they need to scale?
    Actually, there is a bamboo bike manufacturer in Ghana----
    Mr. Phillips. Yes, I just read about it.
    Ms. Toungara [continuing]. That participated in this ENGINE 
program, actually----
    Mr. Phillips. Oh.
    Ms. Toungara [continuing]. And that I know and came to 
visit the United States a couple years ago. He----
    Mr. Phillips. Is it called Booomers?
    Ms. Toungara. Yes.
    Mr. Phillips. Okay.
    Ms. Toungara. Exactly. You know so but he is working with 
other alumni of that program to create a small business alumni 
association that is advocating for policies that benefit small 
businesses because their interests are very different from a 
chamber of commerce and what they need is very different from 
what a chamber of commerce, that is advocating for larger 
business, requires.
    And so I think by supporting the ability of these small 
entrepreneurs to come together and advocate, to organize, and 
by supporting the sort of coterie and sort of infrastructure of 
organizations that are touching these small entrepreneurs, I 
think that can be effective in empowering people with the 
information they need to build their businesses, to change the 
culture around recognizing entrepreneurship as a legitimate 
economic trajectory, and to help them to then for--scale their 
business, and scale the jobs that they create.
    Mr. Phillips. I cannot help but think it just took me 3 
seconds to find this bamboo bike maker in Ghana. And it just 
makes me wonder if there is not a better way also to connect 
entrepreneurs in small business in Africa with American 
consumers. You know it took 3 seconds but part of it is just 
how do you connect the dots. And that is some food for thought.
    Mr. Dongala, any comments on entrepreneurship? And I am 
particularly focused on I want to know countries that seem to 
be doing it better or particular initiatives that seem to be 
showing signs of success.
    Mr. Dongala. The immediate--the country that I can think 
that comes to mind is actually one that Ms. Toungara already 
mentioned. Rwanda is doing a really good job with their Rwanda, 
I think, Development Board, RDB. And actually, there is a lady, 
a Clare Akamanzi, who leads it. She deals at a very high level 
but I was really impressed by the granularity of how they think 
of--I think it takes like 2 days to open a business in Rwanda, 
which is, for Africa, it is actually pretty fast.
    Mr. Phillips. It takes about 200 days here.
    Mr. Dongala. Yes. And so they make it very--they are 
thinking about not only the big investors but even the small 
investors and the small entrepreneurs. And this matters 
because, when you talk to the young people out there, they are 
actually--they are interconnected. They have the social media. 
They see everybody doing that and they want to participate in 
the global economy.
    Mr. Phillips. Thank you.
    And Dr. Strong, any perspectives to share?
    Dr. Strong. Sure, I think my colleagues have done a great 
job of pointing us to some really exciting possibilities but 
two things that I would like to offer is that I think we can 
look at schools and educational institutions as sites where 
entrepreneurship and business growing are also developed.
    A lot of educational focus at the higher ed level is 
focused on universities but polytechnics, vocational 
institutions have been systematically defunded over the years 
and yet, these are places where young people develop trade 
skills. Many of them run businesses while students without 
capital. And so these are opportunities to, in a sort of 
structured way, partner with and lend support to young people.
    I would also like to direct your attention to the African 
Leadership Academy in South Africa, which is a 2-year high 
school. And part of what they do is they have students 
develop--they incubate businesses over the course of 2 years 
and they have a microeconomy within the school itself.
    Mr. Phillips. The African Leadership Academy.
    Dr. Strong. Yes.
    Mr. Phillips. Okay, thank you very much to all of you. I 
appreciate it.
    Ms. Bass. Mr. Smith.
    Mr. Smith. Madam Chair, you know I see representatives of 
the African Development Foundation in the audience, Cliff 
Stammerman and Mark O'Neil. Cliff used to work on this 
committee, as well, years ago. Great to see you.
    And I am wondering if you could tell us what can and what 
role could ADF, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the 
Development Finance Corporation play in creating opportunity 
for African youth? What have they done and what more can they 
be doing so that those jobs are created?
    Mr. Dongala. I was impressed at the amount of--so the 
African Development Foundation actually does smaller grants, 
you know around $10,000 to $50,000. And I was actually 
impressed at the parity that they have with women entrepreneurs 
and male entrepreneurs. They actually, if you look at their--I 
mean I would have to look again at the numbers but last time I 
was with C.D., the president of the foundation, and I was 
reviewing the numbers, they were investing in young women 
entrepreneurs as much as they were in young men. And I think 
that matters a lot because if you go into Congo Kinshasa, you 
will notice that a lot of the merchants are women and they run 
the market economy. I mean if you want to go the market, I 
would take my sister with me because she would help me get the 
best deal.
    And so I think the African Development Foundation is one of 
the few American agencies that understands this nuance and is 
pushing the envelope in that regard.
    Ms. Toungara. I think in terms of U.S. agencies, in 
general, there is an opportunity for them to talk more to each 
other and to share learnings. I mean USAID is doing a lot of 
work on the ground. MCC is doing a lot of work on the ground. 
There are a lot of small lessons learned, out of all of that 
programming, that could use some cross-fertilization in 
learning.
    So for example, you know even in the MCC, I mentioned in my 
testimony the program that they are doing in Cote D'Ivoire that 
is supporting TVET programming in building educational and 
secondary schools. They should be talking to USAID because they 
have also built schools. And even though that is an attempt to 
do that in a separate marketplace, their approach is that 
engage young people and make sure that their voices are heard, 
as that programming is rolling out, ways to integrate and 
ensure gender parity, and make sure that women are well-
represented as both trainers and trainees in these programs, 
and to ensure that there is a feedback mechanism where people 
in these communities are able to talk directly back to the 
donor and not just be so far away and just have the businesses 
interacting directly with us and our programming.
    And so there are ways to have engagement from communities 
to ensure that programming is demand-led and that we are also 
sharing best practices across agencies.
    Mr. Smith. Finally, one trip to the D.R. Congo and to your 
point, Mr. Dongala, I will never forget it. It was Kinshasa 20 
years ago. And there was a big, big project, building project. 
So, we went to it. I went with the State Department people. And 
I looked around and I said, where are the Africans? Where are 
the Congolese? They were all Chinese workers and it was so 
oppressive; I think they may have been coerced labor, probably 
from the laogai, that were doing the work there. I cannot--they 
thought that might be the case as well but we could not prove 
it. But it was no Africans.
    I yield back.
    Ms. Bass. Let me--I know we will be called to votes soon. 
But I want to begin my questions kind of how I started by 
saying that when I first went to Africa and I first learned 
about you know the so-called youth bulge, it just felt like 
home because we have some of these same issues.
    You can go to one community I represent called South 
Central Los Angeles that has a very, very high unemployment, 
and you see all kinds of people working but they are not from 
the area. So in our communities here, when we have large 
unemployment in areas where people do not feel they have an 
economic opportunity, it is not surprising to see an overlay of 
gang issues.
    And so I do not think any of this is rocket science. We 
know how to solve these problems in the United States. We just 
choose not to, so young people are criminalized.
    This situation is a little different on the African 
continent but we do know how to solve these problems. It is a 
question of political will. And so I just want to cut to the 
chase and find out from your three, very specifically, what can 
we do legislatively.
    I think YALI is a great program. So what do we need to do 
to strengthen YALI? What are the weaknesses and strengths of 
YALI? What kind of support can we provide to African countries, 
in terms of leadership development? Because you can get a young 
person--and I think, Dr. Strong, I believe in your testimony 
you talked about programs that focused on leadership 
development and you can direct people into politics, civil 
society, a variety of things that are positive.
    So I would like for you each to give us specific 
legislative recommendations. Votes have been called. There is 
just one vote but we have a few minutes before we all have to 
run.
    Dr. Strong.
    Dr. Strong. Thank you very much for that question. So I 
talked in my testimony about three different areas that I think 
there are opportunities for legislative policies. You mentioned 
YALI. There is the Fulbright Program, TechWomen. I think there 
is room for the U.S. to expand that to additional sectors, to 
additional focus areas, particular initiatives that invite 
young people to come to the U.S. to benefit from the resources, 
the skills, et cetera.
    Right now, many of these programs have quite a limited 
capacity. So if there is an opportunity to expand that and to 
include young people who may not be the quote, unquote, best 
and the brightest. These programs tend to focus on people who 
are ready, relatively more educated----
    Ms. Bass. Exactly.
    Ms. Strong [continuing]. Skilled. And so I think if there 
is a real interest here in being holistic, that we might think 
about ways to not target those who are already relatively more 
privileged.
    Additionally with the YALI program, there are currently 
four leadership regional hubs. There is capacity to do more. 
Again, many of those focus on people who are already into 
careers. But if there was an effort to focus on primary 
schools, secondary schools, where we are seeing much less sort 
of capacity building around leadership development, I think 
that would be quite wise.
    And additionally, you know there is, I think, an important 
role that countries like the U.S. can play in leveraging our 
relationships with African Governments to persuade them to, No. 
1, for example, not stay--overstay in office or you know change 
their constitution so that they can run for third terms; but 
also, to ensure that there is youth representation in 
Government, that things like Not Too Young to Run might have a 
chance of taking on or getting taken up.
    And I think those are my broad areas of----
    Ms. Bass. Thank you. Thank you.
    Ms. Toungara.
    Ms. Toungara. Great. So building on the regional hubs, we 
cannot bring everybody here. I mean the demand is just too 
high. And so I think there is an opportunity to expand on the 
regional hubs for YALI to ensure that more people can get 
access to programming via those hubs but that those hubs are 
structured to capacitate people to replicate the programming in 
their own communities.
    So it is not just enough to give a person training.
    Ms. Bass. Right.
    Ms. Toungara. We should be empowering those people to 
replicate, and to go out, and to do more.
    And so Dr. Strong mentioned the African Leadership Academy. 
The founders of that, I mean their goal, when they are 
educating folks through their learning programs, is for those 
folks to go out and educate more programming----
    Ms. Bass. Right.
    Ms. Toungara [continuing]. More people, and establish new 
educational institutions across the continent.
    And so I think the approach to this programming cannot just 
be to train one person. It is a train one person to train ten 
thousand people and that is the way that you get Africans 
shaping the agenda in their own countries and shaping the 
training of their future generations.
    Ms. Bass. Do you think there is enough organizations in 
Africa that, instead of us funding our own organizations to do 
that, we can fund African organizations?
    Ms. Toungara. Absolutely.
    Ms. Bass. And then maybe you could give us a list of names 
of those countries--I mean companies, organizations, you know 
NGO's that we can directly fund? That is how you get it to 
work.
    Ms. Toungara. So I will say absolutely yes, with one 
caveat, right? When we give money to organizations, the 
standards of procurement, the internal regulatory systems and 
processes that they need to have to respond to reporting and 
the financial reporting, they are lacking. And so when we give 
this money, we also have to be willing to build their 
capacity----
    Ms. Bass. Yes.
    Ms. Toungara [continuing]. To meet our reporting needs. 
Because it is not just enough to say oh, here is the bar; you 
have to jump this far to get our funding.
    So there is an ecosystem there, where we can channel those 
funds, but we have to be willing to support the buildup of 
their internal infrastructure to be able to receive those funds 
as well.
    Ms. Bass. Another example that is consistent with here.
    Yes.
    Mr. Dongala. And I just want to second Ms. Toungara's 
comments. You know YALI is a great program but we need to make 
sure that it becomes an internalized program.
    Ms. Bass. Right.
    Mr. Dongala. It is more organic.
    Ms. Bass. And that is a good general statement but I will 
ask you later to be specific about that.
    Mr. Dongala. Okay.
    Ms. Bass. I know we fund a major contractor here----
    Mr. Dongala. Yes.
    Ms. Bass [continuing]. That goes and does YALI.
    Mr. Dongala. Yes.
    Ms. Bass. But how do we move it so that it becomes African?
    Mr. Dongala. Yes. More specifically, I think an 
organization that is--if it was in a position financially 
better, the African Union could actually execute it, should 
have a component or a parallel component to the YALI.
    So in that segue, something specifically again, I bring up 
the 0.02 percent levy.
    Ms. Bass. Yes.
    Mr. Dongala. If legislatively we could talk to the--we 
could encourage the U.S. Trade Representative to reconsider----
    Ms. Bass. Why do we have that?
    Mr. Dongala. Huh?
    Ms. Bass. Why do we have that 2 percent levy?
    Mr. Dongala. So the African Union wants to have the 2-
percent--0.02 percent levy on imports. It is somewhat of a--
under WTO rules, it could qualify as a protective measure.
    Ms. Bass. Oh, I see. Okay.
    Mr. Dongala. Right. But if we are talking about youth, 
youth need protection. They are the most vulnerable.
    And so Africa needs to figure out how it is going to 
incubate, and nurture, and protect the youth economic potential 
in the region.
    And the reason why the 0.02 percent matters is that it 
gives Africa--the African Union capacity--when we are talking 
about capacity-building--to actually act and do it. And so you 
know I think if there were more accountability measures, maybe 
it would give other people more confidence that this sort of 
self-funding measures would go toward what we think it will. 
But again, that is one thing that I would stress. I think it 
goes a long way into building the capacity to nurture, invest, 
and protect the youth of the region.
    Ms. Bass. Thank you. Any closing comments that any of you 
have? We could start with Dr. Strong.
    Dr. Strong. Thank you very much, once again, for the 
opportunity to advocate for youth here.
    So I think I would just like to echo what I have said all 
along, which is that I think you know there is a very needed 
focus on jobs, and unemployment, and you know economic 
development but I think education cannot be left out of these 
conversations.
    And the way I tend to think about education is not just 
about knowledge, growing, and learning but schools are such 
important, historically and certainly in the current moment, 
institutions where young people are learning what it means to 
be a citizen, where they are developing political identities, 
where they are learning the extent to which their governments 
and societies will support them. And I think in expanding 
opportunities and supporting ways of growing and developing 
institutions to be more receptive to young people's leadership, 
that will go a very long way in ensuring that youth, when they 
become adults, when they move on into positions of leadership 
within their societies, that they are equipped with the tools 
to do so in a way that is transformative.
    Ms. Bass. Okay, I think we better conclude.
    Thank you very much for the time. I appreciate it very 
much. And I want to continue with your recommendations.
    Thank you. We are adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
    
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