    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [February 17, 2000]
    [Pages 273-279]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Opening of the National Summit on Africa
    February 17, 2000

        Thank you very, very much. It's a wonderful thing to be introduced
    by an old friend. Old friends and people you
    have appointed to office will tell false, good stories about you every
    time. [Laughter]
        Africa never had a better friend in America than Andrew
    Young, and I thank him. I want to say I'm
    honored to be in the presence today of so many distinguished Africans.
    Secretary Salim, thank you for your
    visionary remarks and your leadership. President Moi, thank you for coming to the United States and for giving
    me another chance to visit with you and for the work we have done
    together. Vice President Abubakar, thank you
    for what you are doing in Nigeria to give that great country its true
    promise at long last. We thank you, sir.
        I welcome all our distinguished guests from Africa: Mrs.
    Taylor, Foreign Ministers, Ambassadors. I
    thank all the Americans who are here, beginning with Andy's wife, who puts up with this relentless travel of his around
    Africa. Mayor Williams, thank you for
    welcoming us to Washington. There are three Members of our Congress here
    today representing what I hope will be a stronger and stronger
    bipartisan commitment to the future of Africa, Congressman Royce and Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, I thank you for being here.
        I want to thank Leonard Robinson and Herschelle Challenor and all the people responsible for this remarkable
    conference. Thank you, Noah Samara, and thank
    you, Bishop Ricard,

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    for being here. And I want to say a special word of appreciation to all
    the people in our administration who have worked so hard to give us an
    Africa policy that we can be proud of, that I hope will light up the
    path for America's future.
        I know that Secretary Slater has
    already spoken here. Our AID Director, Brady Anderson, will speak. Our Vice President will be here. You said, Secretary Salim, you hope future
    administrations will follow our lead in Africa. I know one that would.
    [Laughter]
        I want to thank Susan Rice at the State
    Department, Sandy Berger, Gayle
    Smith, all the people in our White House, all
    the ones who have helped us here.
        Secretary Salim said Africa lacks a strong constituency in the
    United States. Well, I open this National Summit on Africa with a simple
    message: Africa does matter to the United States.
        Of whatever background Americans claim--Leonard Robinson told me when I came here, we even have 17
    delegates from Utah here. [Laughter and applause] There they are, you
    see? Africa matters, not simply because 30 million Americans trace their
    heritage to Africa--though that is profoundly important; not simply
    because we have a strong interest in a stable and prosperous Africa--
    though 13 percent of our oil comes from Africa, and there are 700
    million producers and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa, though that is
    important. Africa's future matters because the 21st century world has
    been transformed, and our views and actions must be transformed
    accordingly.
        For most of history, the central reality in international relations
    was that size and location matter most. If you were a big country or on
    a trade or invasion route, you mattered. If not, you were marginalized.
    The average American child growing up in the past saw African nations as
    colorful flags and exotic names on a map, perhaps read books about the
    wonderful animals and great adventures. When colonialism ended, the
    colors on the flags were changed and there were more names on the map.
    But the countries did not seem nearer to most Americans.
        That has all changed now, for the central reality of our time is
    globalization. It is tearing down barriers between nations and people.
    Knowledge, contact, and trade across borders within and between every
    continent are exploding. And all this globalization is also, as the
    barriers come down, making us more vulnerable to one another's problems:
    to the shock of economic turmoil, to the spread of conflict, to
    pollution, and, as we have painfully seen, to disease, to terrorists, to
    drug traffickers, to criminals who can also take advantage of new
    technologies and globalization, the openness of societies and borders.
        Globalization means we know more about one another than ever before.
    You may see the Discovery Channel in Africa. I was thinking of that when
    that little film was on. The Discovery Channel followed me to Africa and
    talked about how they were building communications networks in African
    schools to share knowledge and information. We can find out within
    seconds now what the weather is in Nairobi, how a referendum turned out
    in Zimbabwe, how Cameroon's indomitable Lions performed in the latest
    soccer match. [Laughter] We can go on-line and read the Addis Tribune,
    the Mirror of Ghana, the East African, or dozens of other African
    newspapers. We sit in front of a television and watch people in a South
    African township line up to vote. We also now bear witness to the
    slaughter of innocents in Rwanda or the ravages of AIDS in scores of
    lands or the painful coincidence of remarkable growth and abject poverty
    in nation after nation.
        In other words, it is no longer an option for us to choose not to
    know about the triumphs and the trials of the people with whom we share
    this small planet. Not just America and Africa; I would imagine millions
    of Africans identified with the Muslims of Kosovo when they were run out
    of their country, all of them at one time. We know about each other. We
    can no longer choose not to know. We can only choose not to act, or to
    act.
        In this world, we can be indifferent or we can make a difference.
    America must choose, when it comes to Africa, to make a difference.
    Because we want to live in a world which is not dominated by a division
    of people who live on the cutting edge of a new economy and others who
    live on the bare edge of survival, we must be involved in Africa.
    Because we want to broaden global growth and expand markets for our own
    people, we must be involved in Africa. Because we want to build a world
    in which our security is not threatened by the spread of armed conflict,
    in which bitter ethnic and religious differences are resolved by the
    force of argument, not the force of arms, we

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    must be involved in Africa. Because we want to build a world where
    terrorists and criminals have no place to hide and where those who wish
    harm to ordinary people cannot acquire the means to do them harm, we
    must be involved in Africa. Because we want to build a world in which we
    can harness our natural resources for economic growth without destroying
    the environment, so that future generations will also have the chance to
    do the same, we must be involved in Africa.
        That is why I set out in 1993, at the beginning of my Presidency, to
    build new ties between the United States and Africa, why we had the
    first White House conference, the ministerial, and that wonderful trip
    in the spring of 1998 that I will remember for the rest of my life. I
    went to Africa as a friend, to create a partnership. And we have made
    significant progress. There are challenges that are profound, but in the
    last 2 years we have seen thousands of triumphs, large and small. Often
    they don't make the headlines because the slow, steady progress of
    democracy and prosperity is not the stuff of headlines.
        But for example, I wish every American knew that last year the
    world's fastest growing economy was Mozambique; Botswana was second;
    Angola, fourth. I wish every American knew that and understood that that
    potential is in every African nation. It would make a difference. We
    must know these things about one another.
        People know all about Africa's conflicts, but how many know that
    thousands of African soldiers are trying to end those conflicts as
    peacekeepers and that Nigeria alone, amidst all its difficulties, has
    spent $10 billion in these peacekeeping efforts?
        For years, Africa's wealthiest country, South Africa, and its most
    populous, Nigeria, cast long, forbidding shadows across the continent.
    Last year South Africa's remarkable turnaround continued as its people
    transferred power from one elected President
    to another. Nigeria inaugurated a democratically
    elected President for the first time in
    decades. It is working to ensure that its wealth strengthens its people,
    not their oppressors. These are good news stories. They may not be in
    the headlines, but they should be in our hearts and our minds as we
    think of the future.
        No one here, no one in our Government, is under any illusions. There
    is still a lot of work to be done. Hardly anyone disagrees about what is
    needed: genuine democracy, good government, open markets, sustained
    investment in education and health and the environment and, more than
    anything, widespread peace. All depend, fundamentally and first, on
    African leadership. These things cannot be imported, and they certainly
    cannot be imposed from outside.
        But we must also face a clear reality: Even countries making the
    right policy choices still have to struggle to deliver for their people.
    Each African government has to walk down its own road to reform and
    renewal, but it is a hard road. And those of us who are in a position to
    do so must do our part to smooth that road, to remove some of the larger
    barriers so that Africa can fully share in the benefits and the
    responsibilities of globalization.
        I tell the American people all the time, and they're probably tired
    of hearing it now, that I have a very simple political philosophy:
    Everybody counts; everybody has a role to play; everybody deserves a
    chance; and we all do better when we help each other. That is a rule we
    ought to follow with Africa.
        There are five steps in particular I believe we must take. First, we
    must build an open world trading system which will benefit Africa
    alongside every other region in the world. Open markets are
    indispensable to raising living standards. From the 1970's to the
    1990's, developing countries that chose trade grew at least twice as
    fast as those that chose not to open to the world.
        Now, there are some who doubt that the poorest countries will
    benefit if we continue to open markets, but they should ask themselves:
    What will happen to workers in South Africa and Kenya without the jobs
    that come from selling the fruit of their labors abroad? What will
    happen to farmers in Zimbabwe and Ghana if protectionist farm subsidies
    make it impossible for them to sell beyond their borders?
        Trade must not be a race to the bottom, whether we're talking about
    child labor, harsh working conditions, or environmental degradation. But
    neither can we use fear to keep the poorest part of the global community
    stuck at the bottom forever. Africa has already taken important steps,
    forming regional trade blocks like ECOWAS, the East Africa Community,
    and SADC. But we can do more. That is why our Overseas Private
    Investment Corporation in Africa is working to support 3 times as many
    business projects in 1999 than it did in 1998, to

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    create jobs for Africans and, yes, for Americans as well. That is why we
    are working with African nations to develop the institutions to sustain
    future growth, from efficient telecommunications to the financial
    sector.
        And that is why, as soon as possible, we must enact in our Congress
    the bipartisan ``African Growth and Opportunity Act.'' This bill has
    passed in one version in our House and another version in our Senate. I
    urge the Congress to resolve the differences and send me a bill for
    signature by next month. [Applause] And I ask every one of you here who
    just clapped--and those who didn't, but sympathize with the clapped--
    [laughter]--to contact anyone you know in the United States Congress and
    ask them to do this. This is a job that needs to be done.
        We must also realize the trade alone cannot conquer poverty or build
    a partnership we need. For that reason, a second step we must take is to
    continue the work now underway to provide debt relief to African nations
    committed to sound policies. Struggling democratic governments should
    not have to choose between feeding and educating their children and
    paying interest on a debt. Last March I suggested a way we could expand
    debt relief for the world's poorest and most indebted countries, most of
    which are African, and ensure the resources would be used to improve
    economic opportunity for ordinary African citizens. Our G-7 partners
    embraced that plan.
        Still, I felt we should do more. So in September I announced that we
    would completely write off all the debts owed to us by the countries
    that qualified for the G-7 program, as many as 27 African nations in
    all. The first countries, including Uganda and Mauritania, have begun to
    receive the benefits; Mozambique, Benin, Senegal, and Tanzania are
    expected to receive benefits soon. Mozambique's debt is expected to go
    down by more than $3 billion. The money saved will be twice the health
    budget--twice the health budget--in a country where children are more
    likely to die before the age of 5 than they are to go on to secondary
    school.
        Last year I asked Congress for $970 million for debt relief. Many of
    you helped to persuade our Congress to appropriate a big share of that.
    Keep in mind, this is a program religious leaders say is a moral
    imperative and leading economists say is a practical imperative. It's
    not so often that you get the religious leaders and the economists
    telling us that good business is good morals. It's probably always true,
    but they don't say it all that often. [Laughter] We must finish the job
    this year. We must continue this work to provide aggressive debt relief
    to the countries that are doing the right thing, that will take the
    money and reinvest it in their people and their future. I ask you,
    especially the Americans in this audience: If you believe in what
    brought you here, help us to continue this important effort.
        A third step we must take is to give better and deeper support to
    African education. Literacy is crucial to economic growth, to health, to
    democracy, to securing the benefits of globalization. Sub-Saharan Africa
    has the developing world's lowest school enrollment rate. In Zambia,
    over half the schoolchildren lack a simple notebook. In rural parts of
    Tanzania, there is one textbook for every 20 children. That's why I
    proposed in our budget to increase by more than 50 percent the
    assistance we provide to developing countries to improve basic
    education, targeting areas where child labor is prevalent. I ask other
    nations to join us in this.
        I'll never forget the schools I visited on my trip to Africa, the
    bright lights in the eyes of the children, how intelligent they were,
    how eager they were. It is wrong for them to have to look at maps of
    nations that no longer exist, without maps of nations in their own
    continent that do exist. It is wrong for them to be deprived of the same
    opportunities to learn that our young people have here. If intelligence
    is equally distributed throughout the human race--and I believe it is--
    then every child in the human race ought to have a chance to develop his
    or her intelligence in every country in the world.
        A fourth step we must take is to fight the terrible diseases that
    have afflicted so many millions of Africans, especially AIDS and also TB
    and malaria. Last year 10 times as many people died of AIDS in Africa as
    were killed in all the continent's wars combined. It will soon double
    child mortality and reduce life expectancy by 20 years.
        You all laughed when Andy Young said that I was going to get out of
    the Presidency as a young man. Depending on the day, I sometimes feel
    young, or I feel that I'm the oldest man my age in America. [Laughter]
    The life expectancy in this country has gone from 47

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    to 77 in the 20th century. An American who lives to be 65 has a life
    expectancy in excess of 82 years. AIDS is going to reduce the life
    expectancy in Africa by 20 years. And even that understates the problem,
    because the people that escape it will live longer lives as African
    economies grow and strengthen.
        The worst burden in life any adult can bear is to see a child die
    before you. The worst problem in Africa now is that so many of these
    children with AIDS have also already lost their parents. We must do
    something about this. In Africa there are companies that are hiring two
    employees for every job on the assumption that one of them will die.
    This is a humanitarian issue, a political issue, and an economic issue.
        Last month Vice President Gore opened
    the first-ever United Nations Security Council session on health issues,
    on a health issue, by addressing the AIDS crisis in Africa. I've asked
    Congress for another $100 million to fight the epidemic, bringing our
    total to $325 million. I've asked my administration to develop a plan
    for new initiatives to address prevention, the financial dimensions of
    fighting AIDS, the needs of those affected, so that we can make it clear
    to our African partners that we consider AIDS not just their burden but
    ours, as well. But even that will not be enough.
        Recently, Uganda's Health Minister pointed out that to provide access to currently
    available treatments to every Ugandan afflicted with AIDS would cost $24
    billion. The annual budget of Uganda is $2 billion. The solution to this
    crisis and to other killer diseases like malaria and TB has to include
    effective, inexpensive vaccines.
        Now, there are four major companies in the world that develop
    vaccines, two in the United States and two in Europe. They have little
    incentive to make costly investments in developing vaccines for people
    who cannot afford to pay for them. So in my State of the Union Address,
    I proposed a generous tax credit that would enable us to say to private
    industry, ``If you develop vaccines for AIDS, malaria, and TB, we will
    help to pay for them. So go on and develop them, and we'll save millions
    of lives.''
        But I have to tell you, my speech--and I don't want anybody else but
    me to be responsible--my speechwriters were so sensitive, they didn't
    put this in the speech, but I want to say this: AIDS was a bigger
    problem in the United States a few years ago than it is today. AIDS
    rates are not going up in African countries--all African countries;
    they're actually going down in a couple of African countries.
        Now, I know that this is a difficult and sensitive issue. I know
    there are cultural and religious factors that make it very difficult to
    tackle this issue from a preventive point of view. We don't have an AIDS
    vaccine yet. We have drugs that will help to prevent the transmission
    from pregnant mothers to their children, which I want to be able to give
    out. We have other drugs that have given people with AIDS in our country
    normal lives, in terms of their health and the length of their lives. I
    want those to be available. But the real answer is to stop people from
    getting the HIV virus in the first place.
        I got to see firsthand some of the things that were being done in
    Uganda that were instrumental in driving down the AIDS rate. Now, I
    don't care how hard or delicate or difficult this is; this is your
    children's lives we're talking about. You know, we who are adults, when
    our children's lives are at stake, have to get over whatever our hangups
    or problems are and go out there and do what is necessary to save the
    lives of our children.
        And I'll help you do that, too. That's not free; that costs money.
    Systems have to be set up. But we shouldn't pretend that we can give
    injections and work our way out of this. We have to change behavior,
    attitudes, and it has to be done in an organized, disciplined,
    systematic way. And you can do more in less time for less money in a
    preventive way, to give the children of Africa their lives back and the
    nations of Africa their futures back, with an aggressive prevention
    campaign than anything else. And there is no excuse for not doing it. It
    has to be done.
        Finally, let me say there is one more huge obstacle to progress in
    Africa, that we are committed to doing our part to overcome. We must
    build on the leadership of Africans to end the bloody conflicts killing
    people and killing progress. You know the toll: tens of thousands of
    young lives lost in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea; thousands
    killed and disfigured at unbelievably young ages in the civil war that
    nearly destroyed Sierra Leone; 2 million killed by famine and war in
    Sudan, where government sees diversity as a threat rather than a
    strength and denies basic relief to citizens it claims to represent.

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        Most of the world's conflicts pale in complexity before the
    situation in the Congo. At least seven nations and countless armed
    groups are pitted there against each other in a desperate struggle that
    seems to bring no one victory and everyone misery, especially the
    innocent people of the Congo. They deserve a better chance. Secretary
    Albright has called the Congo struggle
    Africa's first world war. As we search for an end to the conflict, let
    us remember the central lesson of the First World War: the need for a
    good peace. If you mess up the peace, you get another World War.
        A year ago I said if the nations of the region reached an agreement
    that the international community could support, I would support a
    peacekeeping operation in the Congo. The region has now done so. The
    Lusaka cease-fire agreement takes into account the sovereignty and
    territorial integrity of Congo, the withdrawal of foreign forces, the
    security of Congo's neighbors, the need for dialog within the nation,
    and most important, the need for the countries within central Africa to
    cooperate in managing the region's security. It is more than a cease-
    fire; it is a blueprint for building peace. Best of all, it is a
    genuinely African solution to an African problem.
        There is still fighting in Congo. Peace will not happen overnight.
    It will require a steady commitment from the parties and the unwavering
    support of the international community. I have told our Congress that
    America intends to do its part by supporting the next phase of the
    U.N.'s peacekeeping operation in the Congo, which will send observers to
    oversee the implementation of the agreement.
        We need to think hard about what is at stake here. African countries
    have taken the lead, not just the countries directly affected, either.
    They are not asking us to solve their problems or to deploy our
    military. All they have asked is that we support their own efforts to
    build peace and to make it last. We in the United States should be
    willing to do this. It is principled and practical.
        I know--I see the Members of Congress here. I say again--I see
    Congressman Payne, Congresswoman Sheila
    Jackson Lee, Congresswoman Barbara
    Lee, Congressman
    Royce--we need to stand by the people of Africa who have decided how to
    solve this most complex and troubling problem. We have learned the hard
    way in the United States, over decades and decades, that the costliest
    peace is far cheaper than the cheapest war. And we need to remember that
    as we approach our common responsibilities in central Africa.
        Finally, let me say that I intend to continue to work hard on these
    things for every day that I am President. For me, the remarkable decade
    of the 1990's began with the liberation symbolized by Nelson Mandela's
    first steps from Robben Island. In a few days, I will have the
    opportunity to join by satellite the conference in Tanzania that
    President Mandela is organizing to build
    peace in Burundi.
        A lot of people look at Africa and think, oh, these problems are
    just too complicated. I look at Africa, and I see the promise of Africa
    and think, if the problems are complicated now, think how much worse
    they'll be if we continue to ignore them.
        Other people grow frustrated by bad news and wish only to hear good
    news. But empty optimism does Africa no more service than groundless
    cynicism. What we need is not empty optimism or groundless cynicism but
    realistic hope. We need to see the promise, the beauty, the dreams of
    Africa. We need to see the problems clear and plain and stop ignoring
    the evident responses. We in the United States need to understand that
    our obligations to be good partners with Africa are not because we are
    certain that everything will turn out all right but because it is
    important. Because we're human beings, we can never expect everything to
    turn out all right.
        Africa is so incredibly diverse. Its people speak nearly 3,000
    languages. It is not a single, monolithic place with single, monolithic
    truths. A place of many places, each defined by its own history and
    aspirations, its own successes and failures. I was struck on my trip to
    Africa by the differences between Ghana and Uganda, Botswana, and
    Senegal, between Capetown and Soweto. I was also struck by what bound
    people together in these places.
        In George Washington's first draft of his Farewell Address, he
    wrote, ``We may all be considered as the children of one common
    country.'' The more I think about globalization and the interdependence
    it promises and demands, the more I share that sentiment. Now we must
    think of ourselves as children of one common world. If we wish to deepen
    peace and prosperity and democracy for ourselves, we must wish it also
    for the people of Africa. Africa

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    is the cradle of humanity, but also a big part of humanity's future.
        I leave you with this thought: When I think of the troubles of
    Africa, rooted in tribal differences; when I think of the continuing
    troubles in America across racial lines, rooted in the shameful way we
    brought slaves here from West Africa so long ago, and our continuing
    challenges as we integrate wave after wave after wave of new immigrants
    from new places around the world, I am struck by the fact that life's
    greatest joy is our common humanity, and life's greatest curse is our
    inability to see our common humanity.
        In Africa, life is full of joy and difficulty. But for too long, the
    African people have lacked for friends and allies to help the joys
    overcome the difficulties. The United States will be a friend for life.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:50 a.m. at the Washington Convention
    Center. In his remarks, he referred to master of ceremonies and summit
    national cochair Andrew Young and his wife, Carolyn; Salim A. Salim,
    Secretary General, Organization for African Unity; President Daniel T.
    Moi of Kenya; President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku
    Abubakar of Nigeria; Mayor Anthony A. Williams of Washington, DC; Noah
    Samara, chairman and chief executive officer, WorldSpace Corp.; Gayle
    Smith, Director of African Affairs, National Security Council; Minister
    of Health Crispus W.C.B. Kiyonga of Uganda; former President Nelson
    Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa; and the following
    National Summit on Africa officers: national cochair Bishop John Ricard,
    board of directors members Andrea L. Taylor and Herschelle S. Challenor,
    and president and chief executive officer Leonard H. Robinson, Jr. The
    President also referred to ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West
    African States, and SADC, the South African Development Community.