Dreams of His Father

A president's first trip to Africa:

So I believe that this moment is just as promising for Ghana - and for Africa - as the moment when my father came of age and new nations were being born. This is a new moment of promise. Only this time, we have learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa's future. Instead, it will be you - the men and women in Ghana's Parliament, and the people you represent. Above all, it will be the young people - brimming with talent and energy and hope - who can claim the future that so many in my father's generation never found.

A speech full of rousing rhetoric, unique in the directness of its call to hold African leaders responsible.  Yet the mechanics of Obama's policy in Africa: USAID director and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, have yet to be put into place.

barcamp africa

Just watched the sunrise at Google Mountain View before the start BarCamp Africa. Its always fun to be at an event like this in so many roles. Here are some of them.

scholar- writing my thesis (PhD, book?) on the dense confluence of technical skill, policy and other contingencies that allow technology sectors to explore in emerging markets. How can Nairobi become the next Bangalore, Tel Aviv or Hong Kong? How has IT changed the nature of economic growth such that these recent models are less relevant.

google public policy team member- one thing I learned this summer is the best way to influence governments to take up better technology policies is to know the best entrepreneurs on the ground, who can help guide the process.

entrepreneur- for some time now, I've been interested in getting involved on the financing and management side of a nascent tech venture. I'm working with a group of international business students in Boston to find the right venture to support [not connected w/ Google]. Maybe I'll find it today.

The Best Thinking About Fixing America's Foreign Aid

I've had the chance to view America's foreign aid machine from a few different angles. First, hustling appropriations with a large lobbyist on K Street, then on the ground with USAID in Uganda. It didn't take me long to pick up on the truism that our approach to foreign aid is broken.

Fixing this process is really important. Last week in Berlin, when Barack Obama said “The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow,” he was drawing on the now widely accepted notion that to strengthen our national security, we need to do a better job promoting development around the world.

Today, there are 50 agencies involved in the foreign assistance process [check out this mind-numbing chart], the earmark process is dreadful and there is no single strategy that guides the aid process.

What is to be done? This is a big question, and this blog post is an effort to identify who is thinking about fixing America's approach to foreign aid, and what their best ideas are. To me, this question seems critical to the next Administration, who will have an opportunity to drastically change America’s interactions with the developing world for the first time since the 1960’s.

Nota bene: It is important to make a distinction between development economists, who use econometric analysis to make important generalizations about growth, and policy folks, who think about managing the US institutional approach to aid.

The Brookings-CSIS Task Force for Transforming Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century
Lael Bainard of Brookings, in recent testimony in front of the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, summarized the findings of all 3 of the recent high profile committees on re-shaping foreign aid [HELP Commission, 2006 Task Force on Transforming Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century, and the Smart Power Commission].

All of these efforts call for greater U.S. engagement on development—not less. All call for elevating development on a par with diplomacy and defense-not subordinating it. All emphasize the need for stronger civilian operational capabilities for development, humanitarian, and post conflict missions. All call for coordination of aid with other soft power tools such as trade and debt relief. And all emphasize the urgent need to modernize an aid infrastructure designed for the challenges of a different century—not tweak the status quo.

The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network
A group of high-profile policy thinkers, most based out of center-left Dupont Circle think tanks such as Brookings Institution, Center for Global Development and Academy for Educational Development. Interestingly, the group also contains leading democracy academics, including Michael McFaul, Frank Fukuyama and Larry Diamond. On June 1st, 2008, the group published a short general proposal calling for the ideas in the quotation above.

The HELP Commission
The HELP Commission, the most recent high profile commission on re-vamping aid, published its report in December 2007. The Commission, in addition to hitting the points above, has a strong emphasis on the private sector. The report calls for more assistance to help build private sectors around the world, and the creation of a new business model to engage NGO's.

The Center for Global Development's Modernizing U.S. Foreign Assistance Initiative
A great initiative that attempts to capture the best in analysis and advocacy on U.S. foreign
assistance reform. The most important paper is Steve Radelet's Modernizing Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century: An Agenda for the Next U.S. President, which has one of the strongest presentation of the above points.

The Spence Commission Report
This isn't about the management of foreign assistance, but I couldn't help myself. Published in June 2008, the The Spence Report represents a new Washington Consensus, the best new thinking about growth. Economist Dani Rodrik sums it up best:

It is to Spence's credit that the report manages to avoid both market fundamentalism and institutional fundamentalism. Rather than offering facile answers such as "just let markets work" or "just get governance right," it rightly emphasises that each country must devise its own mix of remedies. Foreign economists and aid agencies can supply some of the ingredients, but only the country itself can provide the recipe.

I would love to find out if I'm missing anything that is out there.

East Africa 'Open Access' and Beyond

My paper, "Embracing Open Access in East Africa: A Common Internet Infrastructure Policy for Human Security and Economic Development" was published last week in Princeton's Journal of Public and International Affairs. The paper is available here.

Abstract:

In East Africa, development practitioners, economists, and
local entrepreneurs believe the Internet can be a catalyst for
economic growth and human development. However, these
three communities lack a common agenda to make increased
access a reality. This article attempts to find common language
among these communities, and suggests they support a policy
framework called Open Access, which aims to provide Internet
access to the most people at the lowest cost through marketbased
solutions and limited public financing.

It's a fact that East Africa will have fiber in the next two years (see cool graph from White African). My next research question is how governments around the continent can promote competition, innovation, local content and ultimately more and cheaper broadband [regardless of the fiber situation.]

Summer at Google Inc.

So, I moved to San Francisco a few weeks ago to start a summer internship at Google Inc. I’m working for Andrew McLaughlin, Google’s Head of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs, researching the best ways that Google can help make internet access cheaper and more widely available throughout Africa.

Needless to say, I’m madly excited about this gig. The crux of my excitement is what Andrew calls the ‘chicken and egg’ paradox of technology in Africa. In other words, while technology has been shown to be a driver of economic development in the poorest countries, there is no incentive for market entry without an established surfeit of users. Thus, many large technology companies are at a point where they get to explore demand and supply opportunities at every level, ranging from major investments in submarine infrastructure to innovative rural-end solutions, as well as perfecting the art of interacting with both host and donor countries on issues of access.

The ‘chicken and egg’ paradox ensures that I won’t get bored this summer. That and the fact that San Francisco was just named one of the top five cycling cities in the US.

Mapping Africa's Humanitarian Situation

“Sometimes there is just nothing more you can do than report what you see.” This was Erik Hersman’s impetus behind creating a tool called Ushahidi, which allows people in Kenya to report acts of violence via mobile phones and theinternet, and have them appear automatically on an online map for others to see.

Ushahidi is a mashup, a blending of two Internet applications to relay information in a visually compelling way. Over the past few months, experimental mashups, particularly those centered on Google Maps, have emerged in an attempt gain a better understanding of humanitarian emergencies and democratic processes.

While Ushahidi is unique in allowing witnesses to report incidents of violence via mobile phone with picture or video, there are three other particularly interesting Africa-centric smashup experiments, each with a slightly different set of functions. This first is Darfur Museum Mapping Initiative|Crisis in Darfur, which is a collaboration of Google Earth and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. This platform allows the user to view professionally collected photos, video and written testimony from Darfur, as well as view images of destroyed villages and IDP camps.

Also, the Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group recently developed the Mapping Electoral Conditions in Zimbabwe project, a map-based collection of reports of everything from voter fraud to looting to vote buying. Understanding that a crackdown from the authorities is more likely in Zimbabwe’s tightly regulated news space, this site is designed as a secondary news source, reporting only reports published by others. Finally, my friends and colleagues at Northwestern University’s Center for Global Engagement launched Assetmap.org/Uganda, which is an effort to map “ongoing community-led philanthropic partnerships in northern Uganda.”

There seems to two be two particularly compelling reasons that mashups are effective. First, reporting an act of violence or voter fraud is an act of participation in a chaotic environment. It’s a way to be a witness, and urge the world to do the same. Daudi of MentalAcrobatics writes:
“We as Kenyans are guilty of having short-term memories. Yesterday’s villains are today’s heroes. We sweep bad news and difficult decision under the carpet; we do not confront the issues in our society and get shocked when the country erupts as it did two months ago.”

Secondly, an interactive map is a remarkably effective way to tell a story. Tragic violence in Kenya’s Rift Valley or Sudan’s Darfur calls for empathy and action, but it is difficult to feel a connection with a place you can’t imagine. C.J Menard’s famous map of Napoleon’s march to Moscow is often hailed as the best statistical graphic ever made, because it powerfully represents the decimation of 470,000 troops in the frigid Russian winter of 1812. Mashups like Ushahidi and This is Zimbabwe do not claim to be statistically complete representations, but like Menard’s drawing they aim to pull the reader into a visually acute experience.

Tools like Ushahidi are created in order to compellingly present crimes that should not be allowed to face impunity. The obvious criticism, perhaps most acutely felt by those who make these tools, is that they do not actually do anything to help prevent crimes or save lives.

However, many are working to change this. Patrick Meier, a PhD candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Doctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Institute (HHI) is attempting to apply the lessons of digital activism to humanitarian early warning systems. Meier is developing a tool called the Humanitarian Sensor Web, which allows community leaders and service providers like the World Food Program to coordinate their efforts in emergency humanitarian situations. Further, the Sensor Web aims to serve as a source of collective intelligence, with a map-based database of places and events, which will help those who are responding to current crisis or planning for future security or humanitarian relief.

Needless to say, all of the tools discussed in this article are in their nascent (in web terms ‘beta’) stage, but they are evidence of an exciting new set of tools that can provide a variety of important functions, from demonstrating the need for a humanitarian intervention to actually implementing one.

cross-posted to Harvard's I&D Blog.

AFRICOM Moving Away From Development Assistance?

On Thursday, General William Ward, Commander of AFRICOM, testified on Capital Hill. According to J Stephen Morrison from CSIS, they takeaway seems to be that AFRICOM is moving away from the development and humanitarian assistance space, and focusing on the more traditional bilateral military partnerships and emergency relief matters where they have unique capacity.

This statement may placate much of the development community who worried about massive Pentagon budgets usurping their turf, but I'm still wondering where AFRICOM will fit into the US counter-terrorism policy that is explicitly about "capturing or killing terrorists and countering the conditions that breed violence and extremism."

Can AFRICOM be a force for good towards the latter goal? For those interested in seeing where the U.S. currently focuses most of its counter-terrorism efforts, check out Al-Qaida's (Mis)Adventures in the Horn of Africa. Spoiler: it's not Somalia.

AFRICOM, the American Military and Public Diplomacy in Africa

For those in DC tomorrow, my dear friend Vanessa is organizing the Annenberg Washington Series:

AFRICOM, the American Military and Public Diplomacy in Africa
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

In 2007, the U.S. established a new military command for the continent of Africa. According to the Department of Defense, AFRICOM recognizes "the emerging strategic importance of Africa, and recognizing that peace and stability on the continent impacts not only Africans, but the interests of the U.S. and international community as well." Led by USC Annenberg journalism and public diplomacy professor Philip Seib, author of the forthcoming The Al Jazeera Effect: How the New Global Media Are Reshaping World Politics, this program offers the first thorough, independent examination of AFRICOM, which promises not only to reshape America's strategic approach to Africa, but also will redefine the role of the military in public diplomacy. Areas for discussion include soft power and American strategy in Africa, the relationship between the military and foreign policy agencies, and African responses to this initiative. 4 p.m., University of Southern California Washington Office. 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C.

Researching AFRICOM

I spent much of last week thinking about the overlap between security and development at a conference called Countering Terrorism in Africa Through Human Security Solutions. Part of the purpose of the conference was to develop a research agenda. Here is a quick napkin sketch of what I see as one critical research need.

Starting from the big picture, U.S. counterterrorism policy is explicitly about "capturing or killing terrorists and countering the conditions that breed violence and extremism." However, the impetus for many recent conferences is that we aren't doing the second half of the equation very well.

In Africa, the experimental grounds for this two-pronged strategy are in two places: Combined Joint Task Force- Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) and the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCPTP). Put aside TSCPTP for a moment, CJTF-HOA aims to "enhance the long-term stability of the region." The research question then becomes:

(i) What is CJTF-HOA actually doing to seek this "long-term stability"?
How do they make decisions about what supports "long term security"?
Who are their partners?
What are the problems they face in attempting to implement this?
How would they measure success?

Then, if that doesn't fill up a research plate, one could add a normative component:

(ii) What could be a good framework for them to decide all of the above questions?

As a final note, I believe the AFRICOM question is interesting (vis a vis development) because of the reality that, as Colin Thomas-Jensen writes, "institutional changes within the U.S. government and a growing American constituency for Africa have coalesced to create a unique moment for Africa — an opportunity for Bush’s successor to take stock of past mistakes and aggressively pursue a coherent approach to Africa that furthers U.S. foreign policy objectives
and improve the lives of millions of Africans."

2007: A Reflection

For most of 2006, I lived in Africa helping to run a small NGO, Global Youth Partnership for Africa (GYPA), and working for USAID. 2006 marked the last of several years that my work has focused nearly exclusively on transitional justice and reconciliation in northern Uganda.

2007 was a wonderful year of transitions. I moved from Kampala to the DC area (briefly) and then to Cambridge/Medford, MA. Predictably for someone in their first year of graduate school, my work shifted in focus from practice to academia. I wrote a lot about Internet & democracy through my work at Harvard's Berkman Center, and found my way around the Fletcher School.

Reading through this year's blog posts, I found that they very much reflect my change in focus, though there are still a few good tales from Africa. Here are some highlights.
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Before I left Kampala, Rebekah and I managed to leave our mark on the Ugandan blogren. I wrote alot for Global Voices, and we started the Uganda Blogger's Happy Hour and the Best of Blog Awards.

I managed to get in some fitful arguments about the state of the global/local soul, what American youth can accomplish by working in Africa, and whether Uganda should send troops to Somalia.

In Cameroon, I had epiphanies with American students in Limbe, ran up mountains in Bamenda, and witnessed the emergence of the Cameroonian film industry in Yaounde. In Cambridge, I walked the streets with nostalgia for hot summer nights.

I've been fortunate to be blessed with health, good family and friends, and time to reflect. Wishing you all the best in a new year.

07.11.07 Wednesday Links

In Joigny, France, Bicycling Magazine has produced a wonderful Tour de France Tracker. In addition to on the road updates, they have a great 3 minute video review of each day of the Tour in the lower left hand corner. Watch yesterday's video, it was a brilliant finish. As one cycling blogger wrote, a new cycling term may have been coined: 'Cancellara'.

In Kampala, the lovely Jackfruity launches The Kampalan new website about cool stuff happening in Kampala. This is a much needed site. Well done! Also, after the completion of our program in Cameroon, you can follow the Global Youth Partnership for Africa summer programs in Uganda here.

In Kigali, Jen Brea meanders through the Genocide Memorial and gives her thoughts on the genocide, French relations with Africa, and the role of the state of the Francophone Blogosphere.

In Washington, the infamous Pat Wu joins Facebook, and writes about ICT's in Cameroon.

World Class Runs Vol. I: Bamenda, Cameroun

Pat, Julie and I jogging high above the town of Bamenda, Cameroun

I love running in foreign countries. I've had some of my most memorable runs in places like Mykonos, Zurich, Kampala and Montevideo. If you get it right, when you run in a foreign country, your endorphins can give you the perfect disposition for traveling: a mix of optimism, happiness, curiosity, with a dash of nostalgia.

I had a world class run in the northwest Cameroon town of Bamenda. The town is surrounded on all sides by steep, lush, green hills. To the east a large waterfall juts out from a rocky mountain face. The hills are so steep that the brakes of many of Cameroon's poorly maintained old vehicles can't handle the downhill and give out. To limit the damage, at the bottom of one of the biggest hills there is a huge sand pit lined with tires.

It is up this hill that I run early one morning with a few colleagues and one of the participants from our program. We got a few encouraging hoots from the cab drivers assembled at the bottom of the hill, who were waiting around to take soldiers and others up the steep switchback roads. I was impressed with the number of people out running on the hill. There were young, ambitious racers, and women who looked like they had done this run every day for years. We also saw whole families walking with baskets of potatoes being carried into town for market.

There is nothing like cooling off under a nature waterfall. I was feeling the steep gradient in my calves, and as the equatorial sun began to rise, I was happy to make a sharp turn and see a waterfall emerge from the thicket of green. After about 20 minutes of this merciless hill, the road began to level off, and we reached a crossroads with a military base and some small shops. This was a good place to stop, stretch, and begin the jog down. Luckily, Julie was smart enough to bring a camera, and we got the above wonderful shot from a massive rock that jutted out from a hill over the entire town of Bamenda.

An Emerging Cameroonian Film Industry

In high school, I happened to be good friends with two amazing actors who went on to Julliard and Tisch acting schools, respectively, in New York. Working for a writer in New York, I spent two summers with them and their friends, meeting some of the most promising young singers, actors and dancers in the city. Zigoto Tchaya Tchameni, a prolific all around entertainer and artist that I became close friends with this month in Yaounde, Cameroon, is easily as talented as any of the performers I met in New York. However, being born in Cameroon instead of America, Zigoto got the short end of resources and support when it comes to the arts and entertainment. To me, this juxtaposition embodies the challenges that young African entrepreneurs with great talents and ideas face.

Zigoto Tchaya Tchameni

The most ambitious project Zigoto has undertaken is to create a Cameroonian film industry out of thin air. Cameroon's neighbor, Nigeria, is famous for producing more films that any other country besides India, but no other Sub-Saharan African country (besides South Africa) has made inroads into the industry. Zoomer's Pictures, Zigoto's company, envisions the Cameroonian film industry as the 'art house' of West African film making, focusing on high quality, thought provoking pictures instead of exclusively on commercializing their content. This is smart, considering that Cameroon has less than 20% of the population of Nigeria and far less of a global reputation.

Zigoto assembled the Zoomers team for our group one night in Yaounde, where we saw a viewing of their premier film, Taboo. Taboo is a film that says a lot, and illustrates the challenging topics of marijuana smoking, lesbianism and more. The movie seems to have successfully struck the nerves of many Cameroonians to whom these issues cause significant tension. However, Zigoto and the Zoomers team recognize the importance of getting into a debate about what the Cameroonian culture values. That's what I like about their work.

In terms of the international networking that unfortunately seems to be obligatory for African entrepreneurs, Zigoto has done quite well for himself, linking up with the British Council, as well as with supporters in Belgium and France (covering both sides of the bilingual support available in Cameroon), but I am certain that Zigoto is only just getting started with what he has to contribute to Cameroonian culture and business.

When I got home from Cameroon, I started catching up with the TED Global talks from last month's landmark conference in Arusha. By far, my favorite talk was by Hans Rosling, a international health professor from Stockholm. At the end of the talk, he elegantly pointed out (through a on-stage sword swallowing demonstration!) that the end of any people's struggle to make life better is not economic development, for this is simply a means. The end, rather, is creating and engaging in culture, the stuff that gives our lives meaning. In this sense, Zigoto and his team at Zoomers are doing some of the most important work taking place in Cameroon.