16 July 2006
Summit To Focus on Role of Private Enterprise in Africa's Growth
Former President Clinton, World Bank chief to address Leon H. Sullivan summit
Abuja, Nigeria -- A summit focusing on the role of private enterprise in enhancing Africa's long-term economic growth and development is expected to attract dignitaries from more than 30 countries -- including 15 heads of state from Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean -- as well as Africa experts and those of African descent from all parts of the world.
The July 17-20 event in the Nigerian capital, known formally as the Leon H. Sullivan VII Summit, has as its overall theme "Africa: A Continent of Opportunities -- Building Partnership for Success."
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who visited Abuja during his presidency, will be the summit's first keynote speaker at an opening summit luncheon on July 17, where he is expected to focus on Africa's growing role in the world economy. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will host the luncheon at the presidential villa in Abuja.
Clinton sits on the board of the Sullivan Foundation, which is chairing the summit. A host of seminars and workshops will complement Clinton's address that same day by exploring the theme "Private Enterprise: Key to Africa's Renaissance."
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will speak at a luncheon on July 18, when the daily theme will be "Africa's Future: People and Technologies."
Wolfowitz is expected to speak on social and economic development trends across Africa from the World Bank's perspective. Additional seminars will complement his speech: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will speak on investing in post-conflict nations and Rwandan President Paul Kagame will speak on ways in which his country is seeking to revitalize itself in the wake of the genocide it suffered a decade ago.
Day three of the summit will explore the theme “Global Partnerships for Success,” which examines public-private partnerships in energy development and the building of partnerships across Africa by using regional partners like the Economic Community of West African States to help the continent achieve its Millennium Development goals. The summit also will explore leveraging technology to enhance Africa’s higher education goals.
The summit’s concluding sessions will start from the perspective that Africa is a continent of multiple opportunities that, if fulfilled, can help it achieve long-term economic growth and development. The summit will be topped off by a closing gala and dinner.
U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson is leading the U.S. delegation at the summit. Other members of the delegation include John Campbell, U.S. ambassador to Nigeria; John A. Simon, executive vice president of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation; Reverend Herbert H. Lusk II, founder and president of Stand for Africa, and Anita Smith, president of the Children’s AIDS Fund.
SUMMIT SEEKS TO EXPAND PRIVATE-SECTOR WORK IN AFRICA
The Sullivan Summit seeks to marshal resources to expand the private sector to build more economic infrastructure and transfer technologies to African nations; leverage the investment power of those of African descent in support of Africa and promote corporate social responsibility through the Global Sullivan Principles.
The objectives of the Global Sullivan Principles are to support economic, social and political justice by companies wherever they do business worldwide. The late Reverend Leon Sullivan -- founder of the Sullivan Summits -- authored the Global Sullivan Principles of Social Responsibility in 1977 while serving on the board of directors of General Motors, which at that time, was the largest employer of blacks in then apartheid-South Africa.
Reverend Sullivan was born October 16, 1922, in Charleston, West Virginia. Before his death on April 25, 2001, Sullivan received honorary degrees from more than 50 colleges and universities, authored numerous books and articles and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He helped establish a broad array of self-help training, employment and educational organizations for African-Americans and minorities.
Working as part of Reverend Sullivan’s legacy, the Sullivan Summit seeks to create and facilitate the conditions for private-sector economic growth, connect people and technologies to support the development of a productive population, and promote international policies and business practices that assist Africa’s economic development.
The Sullivan Summit in Abuja will be the seventh such summit to be held in Africa. President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice attended Summit VI, which also took place in Abuja, Nigeria. President Bush pledged more than $5 million to help Reverend Sullivan’s Teachers for Africa program.
The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation credits its summits with bringing some $750 million in new investment to Africa.
"The summit is not just another conference, it's a movement of growing potential to bring new resources to the table," says Hope Masters, the president of the Sullivan Foundation.
For more information on U.S. policies, see U.S. Aid to Africa and Global Development and Foreign Aid.
Additional information about the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation and past summits is available on the organization's Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
