Folks,

You are all invited and or post and share your ideas on how African Growth and Opportunity Act Civil Society is able to improve African Civil Society’s Public lives, how you can participate in the Progress to boost the same and fill the US/Africa Trade Gap, so to confirm “Africa is Ready for the World”.

Thanks,

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

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African Growth and Opportunity Act Civil Society Forum 2010
“A Decade of Progress in Bridging the U.S.-Africa Trade Gap”
Woodrow Wilson International Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, DC 20004
July 29-30, 2010
Thursday, July 29

9:00 – 9:30am Welcome and Introduction of Speaker
Keynote Speaker: Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Senate Foreign Relations Committee
9:30am Break
9:45 – 11:15am Civil Society and AGOA: 2000-2010
The forum will examine the involvement of civil society in the creation and implementation of AGOA and discussing the recommendations made by civil society forums over the years. In the United States, civil society organizations played a leading role in successfully educating members of Congress on the value of AGOA as a development tool. This education campaign continued through several versions of AGOA in the House and Senate.
Meanwhile, in Africa, civil society organizations formed the AGOA Civil Society Network to bring together the views of advocacy organizations, think tanks, labor unions and other groups to inform their governments on the importance of using AGOA as a tool to enhance U.S.-Africa trade for the benefit of their societies.
Presentations will be made on the respective roles of American and African civil society in the campaign to pass and implement AGOA, and this workshop with be linked to two African venues through direct video connection.
Moderator: Fred Oladeinde, President, Foundation for Democracy in Africa
Panelists: Gregory Simpkins, Vice President, Leon H. Sullivan Foundation
M. Ayoma Matunga, SODNET, Kenya*

11:15am – 12:30pm Energizing AGOA Agriculture Trade
It is widely agreed that AGOA can stand for some renewed energizing in general, and specifically in the area of agriculture. In order to energize this sector we acknowledge and address some areas of concern. The forum will look at the missing links of information, and perceived road blocks on both sides of the ocean-U.S. and Africa. This forum will “drill down” to the core issues that give rise to these misunderstandings that often impede total AGOA access in the agriculture sector. This forum will also look at the intersection of AGOA and the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and how African agriculture can be enhanced as a factor of U.S.-African venues.
Moderator: Patrick Wilson, Ph.D., Administrator, BIG-Africa Partnership Secretariat
Panelists: Dr. Baba Dioum, General Coordinator, CMA/WCA, Conference of West and Central Africa Ministers of Agriculture, CAADP
David Skully, Ph.D., Agricultural economist, formerly with the USDA’s Economic Research Service
Richard Pasco, J.D, M.S., Counselor to farm organizations and food companies on agriculture and trade legislation, regulations and policy approaches.
12:30 – 2:00pm Lunch with speaker Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson, African Union*
2:15 – 3:30pm AGOA and the Importance of Infrastructure, Supply Chains and Regional Integration
While the African Growth and Opportunity Act is widely praised for the extensive access it provides to the U.S. market, one of AGOA’s chief shortcomings continues to be its underutilization. According to the Congressional Research Service, 81% of U.S. imports from sub-Saharan Africa in 2007 were from three countries: Nigeria, Angola and South Africa. Many AGOA beneficiary countries exported less than $1 million worth of goods each to the United States in that same year. For AGOA to more fully deliver on its promise of a robust and development-friendly trading relationship between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa, the issues underlying this underutilization must be addressed.

While technical assistance, training and other forms of capacity building have a vital role to play in increasing exports from AGOA countries, the role that infrastructure, improved value chains and increased regional integration can play in AGOA’s success is less often discussed. This panel will explore the ways in which infrastructure development can be more market-driven; the importance of robust support structures all along a wide variety of supply chains; and the vital role that regional economic integration can play in creating more robust market systems in sub-Saharan Africa and the positive effects these can have on AGOA going forward.

Moderator: Katrin Kuhlmann, Resident Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Panelists: Dr. Gregory Gajewski, Vice President for Economic Development, The Louis Berger Group, Inc.

Richard Tracy, Director of International Programs, The Global Cold Chain Alliance

Jim Thaller, Managing Director, Thaller Trading Group, Inc.

3:30pm Break

3:45 – 5:00pm The Impact of Trade on African Societies
When the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, was first conceived in the mid-1990s, the goal was to create a mechanism through which African and American entrepreneurs could increase their business dealings. Implicit in this goal was the aim of helping people in Africa and America who would benefit from this trade.
In Africa, it is estimated that one worker supports an average of ten family members. That means for every employed person, ten other people have a home, food to eat, school fees for children and other necessities for a health, successful life. However, is this really happening due to increased U.S.-Africa trade through AGOAowefH or any other trade mechanism? We are very good at measuring the strictly economic impact of AGOA.
Still, we must ask ourselves whether the impact of this enhanced trade is benefiting society as its creator and supporters had hoped. Do the economic, political and social indicators demonstrate that trade has been the proverbial tide that lifts all boats, or has its benefits been limited to a relative few? How greater income from trade affect social services and the effort to eliminate poverty while protecting worker rights and the environment is the focus on this forum.
Moderator: David Saunders, Vice President, Constituency for Africa

Panelists: Emira Woods, Director, Foreign Policy in Focus, Institute for Policy Studies
Lawrencia Adams-Simpson, Team Leader, Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme
Elizabeth Sichinga, Zambia NGO Coordinating Committee
5:30 – 7:00pm AGOA Civil Society Forum Reception
Speaker: Congressman Ed Royce, House Foreign Affairs Committee*
Friday, July 30
9:00 – 10:15am Textiles and Beyond
Textiles and apparel was envisioned as the leading non-oil export under AGOA until the Multi-Fiber Agreement expired in 2005. With Asian countries having overtaken African textile trade and outperforming African countries even without preferences, textiles and apparel from Africa became more limited. Intra-African trade is less than 10% even though Africans wear more heritage clothing than do people from other regions.
Moreover, Asian companies relocated to Africa and, assuming local status, took advantage of tariff and quota advantages under AGOA. Many indigenous textile and apparel factories either were taken over by foreign control or were shut down. This forum is an examination of options for stimulating intra-African textile markets and/or retooling textile factories for value added agriculture.
Moderator: Tony Carroll, Partner, Manchester Trade
Panelists: Steve Lande, former professor of trade policy, Georgetown University
Jas Bedi, Chairman, African Cotton Textiles Industry Federation
M. Monyane, Vice chairman, Lesotho Textile Exporters Association
Navdeep Sodhi, Partner, Gherzi Consultants
10:15 Break
10:30 – 11:45am A New Model for Trade Capacity Building
The United States African Development Foundation (USADF) provides grants of up to $250,000 in grants to community groups and small enterprises that benefit under served and marginalized groups in Africa, which are defined as people that have significant needs that are not being currently addressed by existing governments programs, NGOs, or other international development efforts. USADF measures grant success in terms of jobs, increased incomes levels, and improved social conditions. In 2009, USADF funded more than $20 million for 150 project grants in 20 countries. An additional $4 million was used to fund African directed partner organizations that provide design and implementation support for USADF grantees.
AGOA opens the door for Africa producers to access U.S. and foreign export markets. USADF grants provide direct support to local community producer groups and small enterprises to gain the capabilities needed to take advantage of these export opportunities. USADF grants provide capital resources for groups to add new management and production capacity needed to compete in a global market.
This forum will present the USADF model of “Africanizing” operations and eliminating American expatriate managers on the continent to promote sustainability and provide genuine capacity building.
Moderator: Gregory Simpkins, Vice President, Leon H. Sullivan Foundation

Presenter: David Blaine, U.S. African Development Foundation

Panelists: Sadio Diarra, USADF Mauritania Representative

Mary Malanga, National Association of Business Women, Malawi
Timothy Nzioka, USADF, Kenya Representative
* Invited.