Africa Center Visiting Fellow Aubrey Hruby cowrites for the Huffington Post on how President Obama handled the US-Africa Leaders Summit:
On these pages last month, we offered the President and his team some friendly advice and “Dos” and “Don’ts” on the first ever US-Africa Summit. (“How Obama Can Get The Africa Summit Right.”) Now, a week after the leaders of 45 African nations and over 100 companies returned to their countries, it’s fair to ask just how President Obama did.
Our grade is B+, and from what we heard during the three days of Washington meetings, most of the participants would agree.
The White House avoided the major “don’ts” — there was little preaching to the Africans; important security meetings were held, and there was enough attention paid to each leader to avoid bruised egos, which is no small feat with over three dozen politicians. And there were some firm financial commitments made by the White House instead of the time-honored trick of merely reprogramming existing funds.