 Good morning, everyone. My name is Johnny Carson. I am a senior advisor at the United States Institute of Peace. Welcome to this special program being hosted by the United States Institute of Peace in partnership and collaboration with the African Union Mission to the United States and the African MCs based in Washington, D.C. For those of you who are not familiar with the United States Institute of Peace, USIP was established by the Congress 35 years ago as an independent nonpartisan organization focused on promoting peace. Through a variety of programs and research at home and abroad, USIP is engaged on a daily basis working with individuals and organizations to prevent, mitigate, and resolve conflict around the world. USIP has a robust Africa program working to promote peace, gender equity, and inclusion in countries in South Sudan, Sudan, the Sahel, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic. We also have an active relationship with the African Union where we work with the Peace and Security Commission and several of its specialized bodies. This morning, we are extremely pleased to be partnering again with the African Union's diplomatic mission in Washington to offer our facilities and media platform to host its Africa Day program. Today's event is entitled Harnessing Coronavirus for a Peaceful and Prosperous Africa. This morning's panel discussion will focus on two important themes. How to leverage the coronavirus's pandemic to help silence the guns of war and end some of Africa's most deadly conflicts and how Africa and the United States can work together more effectively to foster greater peace and prosperity around the continent. Africa has not felt the full weight of the coronavirus, but its lethality and fallout have the potential to overwhelm the continent's medical services, undermine its economies, and worsen its conflicts. Our discussion today will focus on how strong and effective African leadership supported by the United States and the international community can use the threat of the coronavirus to mobilize greater resources and commitment to deal not only with the health challenges of COVID-19, but also the fight against poverty and the struggle to end conflict. To start our program this morning, it is my pleasure to introduce the Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps, the Honorable Sadegi Mambuli, the Ambassador from the Republic of the Congo. Ambassador Mambuli is a longtime friend, diplomatic colleague, and a great representative of his country and the African Diplomatic Corps here in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Mambuli will make some opening remarks. Ambassador Dean Mambuli, I turn over to you. Thank you very much, Secretary Carson. In fact, welcome to all my colleagues, and I am pleased about this event, celebrating African unity under the leadership today with the chairman, the president of the Republic of South Africa, and the president of the Commission of the African Union. I am pleased about all the colleagues that are joining this event, and I would like to thank you, Ambassador Carson, for your leadership, promoting and strengthening the relations between the United States and the African continents, not only has the former ambassador many times, and also has the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs. So without going further, I'd like to welcome this event. The United States and Africa have long lasting and deep historic cultural and economic relations. The United States' standing and the perception in Africa are very positive in spite of the fact that other external players continue to expand their economic and political engagement as well as their model of governance and development. Africa, as you know, is grateful for the strong bipartisan support that Africa and its premier continental institution, in fact, the only one, the African Union, have enjoyed over the years in both the executive and legislative branches of the United States. The government, U.S.-African policy is unique, and its bipartisanship, and there has been remarkable continuity in both Congress and the White House on the U.S. engagement with Africa. There are strategic opportunities for the U.S. engagement in the Africa beyond meeting the challenges and the crises of the moment, such as the COVID-19. The African diplomatic corps here in Washington, D.C., is committed to further broaden and deepen our relations and the work with the administration, Congress, the private sector, NGOs, and of course the U.S.P.S. and the think tank community to develop new and innovative policy and program aligned with our shared battle strategic interest for the best interest of our people and nations, both in the United States and in Africa. The opportunity that the continent provides are so vast and diverse, and what is needed is to enhance U.S. engagement, diplomatic, political, and economic, and across multiple levels. Since we are celebrating Africa today, Africa Day, I want to highlight also the importance of regional approaches in the promotion of peace, stability, and economic development, which complement and reinforce the bilateral ones. The African continental free trade area is an eloquent example. In my capacity as a dean of the African diplomatic corps here in Washington, I would like to see the upcoming G7 summit next month here in Washington under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, make Africa one of the priority of the summit. Africa is the last frontier. This will secure healthy, resilient, and prosperous Africa is shared and strategic interest of the whole international community. It is important also to maintain, increase the level of development and security cooperation appropriate annual to Africa, countries, and the African Union. Provide additional urgent funding for combating COVID-19 in Africa. We need to avoid that Africa becomes the next epicenter of the COVID-19. We need really the strong support of the United States. We would like to see increased funding of the US Export and Port Bank and urge it to use more of its funding for Africa. As the new US International Development Finance Corporation to airmark a significant percentage of its funding for Africa. As a former businessman in Houston, Texas, and of course in this country, I know that the US private sector has an immense competitive advantage and it's unmatched globally. It is and America standing on the continent. We would like to see others Africa leaders economic summit in Washington DC. The last one was in 2014. We are still promoting for a new one between Africa and the United States. I really happy about to continue to work on behalf of my colleague, my country, and the continent who continue to promote the US. This is the US and Africa ties in the United States. Thank you very much. Ambassador Rambouli, thank you very much for those very gracious remarks. It is now my pleasure to ask Ambassador Matt Herring to make some remarks on behalf of the State Department. Ambassador Herrington currently serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Africa Bureau. He is also a long-time friend and colleague and one of the State Department's most knowledgeable and experienced diplomats working on Africa today. Ambassador Herrington, the floor is yours. Good morning to all a lot of familiar faces on the line. Let me start by saying what a huge honor it is to be introduced by Ambassador Carson, who is a legend in our business in the foreign service and someone I have looked up to as a mentor for a very, very long time. So thank you Ambassador Carson for those very kind remarks. I'm grateful. A big thanks to our friends at the African Union Mission in Washington at the USIP for bringing all of us together for this important occasion. I'm absolutely delighted to join you today as the Department of State Representative. In the last couple of years I've seen the US relationship with the African Union grow in many fundamentally important ways and it is a partnership that we see as vital to achieving our mutual goals and interests. Whether that involves working together to advance shared security and economic priorities including through our annual high-level dialogue with the AU Commission or whether it is through the lifesaving work performed every day by the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention also known as Africa CDC. Our own CDC in the United States some of you may know was created nearly 74 years ago in response to an epidemic of malaria in the United States and having a strong African counterpart in this critical health sector is essential not just in shaping and supporting the continent's response to COVID-19 but also to help build the systems and the policies effective in handling a broad range of health challenges including including Ebola. The United States is proud to partner with the African Union during this difficult time and I am confident that our collaboration over many years in the health arena in particular will be even stronger and deeper as a result of our work together to address this pandemic. Just to throw some numbers out there just since March of this year the State Department and USAID have committed more than 900 million dollars an emergency bilateral assistance to help communities around the world deal with the pandemic. This funding includes nearly 270 million dollars for Sub-Saharan Africa. I wanted to emphasize that this figure is in addition to the roughly 7 billion dollars in assistance the United States will provide this year alone to Sub-Saharan Africa 70% of that approximately is devoted to health and it doesn't include either the substantial funding we provide to multilateral institutions and non-governmental organizations. U.S. funding is supporting critical activities to support this to control the spread of the pandemic including activities like rapid public health information campaigns water and sanitation and the prevention and control of infections and health care facilities. Looking forward I'm optimistic that the U.S. Africa partnership will emerge from the current extraordinary circumstances even stronger than before. There is a lot to be optimistic about. I'm optimistic about increased U.S. private sector involvement U.S. companies are heavily engaged in COVID-19 recovery efforts and they continue to explore expanding trade and investment ties even now. The tools put in place to bolster Africa's economic growth and prosperity from the African continental free trade area to our collaboration under Prosper Africa to support increased trade and investment create a foundation for a quick economic recovery and brighter future in the days ahead. I am optimistic about the amazing contributions of African women whom we are proud to support through a range of programs including WGDP the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative. African women who despite being critical care providers and engines of family prosperity face particular risks of illness and domestic violence during this pandemic. And perhaps most importantly I am optimistic about Africa's youth who will comprise more than 70% of the continent's population by 2050. Young Africans are building a robust private sector and civil society and they are driving technological and digital transformation across the continent. So as I think about the U.S. partnership with AU and with AU member states I am excited about what the future holds and absolutely confident that we will emerge from the challenge of this pandemic together on a path that leads to greater mutual security innovation and prosperity. It is a very exciting time from my perspective to be working on the U.S. Africa relationship. Before I turn the program back over to Susan to moderate the virtual panel I want to say thank you once again for your time and to congratulate USIP and the African Union mission for organizing this gathering. Happy Africa Day. Thank you Ambassador Harrington. Good morning and good afternoon everybody. My name is Susan Stegant and I'm the director of the Africa program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. I want to add my thanks to the African Diplomatic Corps here in Washington for the partnership this year. For the partnership in past years it's a real honor to join all of the ambassadors today and our distinguished guests from the Department of State and analysts and to bring all of you into the conversation as we mark Africa Day. As Ambassador Carson said we are celebrating Africa Day this year amid the global pandemic and the theme of silencing the guns from the African Union this year coming together with the challenges of the pandemic but also the great possibilities brought us towards the title of our event of how can the response to coronavirus be be harnessed to drive forward the leadership, the peace and prosperity that the African Union and African leaders and African citizens across the continent have called for. I wanted to also note before turning to introducing our guests that we see this as a launch of a longer-term campaign to bring together work on peace and pandemics as well as silencing the guns and over the next several months we will be hearing from young people and women and religious leaders and political leaders from across the continent about where they see the opportunities to drive forward peace, where the opportunities to be creative and innovative in the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that we're already seeing across the continent and what do they expect and hope to see in the partnership between US and Africa to drive towards shared values and priorities. So we look forward to adding many other voices to the conversation that we hear today and bringing people back together sometime later in the fall possibly even in person at that point hopefully. It's now my distinct pleasure to introduce our panelists who are joining us today. We have a wonderful group of people to share their perspectives and their insights related to the intersection of this of this moment. First, we're pleased to be joined by the ambassador of the Republic of South Africa, Her Excellency Mficeto, welcome. We're also pleased to be joined from Addis by the head of the Conflict Prevention and Early Warning team at the AU Commission, Ambassador Fred Getretse and Goga. We're also pleased to have Ambassador Siddique Abubakarwai, who's the ambassador from the Republic of Sierra Leone and the co-chair of the African Ambassadors Committee for Public Affairs. Finally, we have with us Senior Fellow from Brookings Institute and the co-director of the Thunderbird School of Global Imaginement, Professor Landry Signe. So I'm pleased to turn first to Madame Ambassador to share some initial thoughts. As we listen to her, we invite you to join us on Twitter and on Facebook or in the YouTube to send along your questions and your comments. Madame Ambassador, over to you. Okay, thank you very much Susan and Ambassador Cassens for bringing us all here. I hope we will be able as a collective of diplomats here in Africa to walk this road with you, especially if you are inviting and hearing views from all other sectors, including women and the youth. We are encouraged by the theme of this meeting, which enjoins us and recommends all of Africa to our aspirations of silencing the guns whilst we harness court of 19 challenges for a peaceful and prosperous Africa. We join our compatriots to commemorate Africa's defining moment and to make a clarion call for African unity. Africa not only unite us as Africans, but it helps us to understand each other as Africans on the continent and in the diaspora and provide us with an opportunity to work hand in hand towards developing our continent. As African Union, we have already taken a decisive and collaborative steps towards limiting the transmission of court of 19 and increasing the preparedness of our countries to deal with the pandemic through the establishment of the AU joint strategy on COVID-19. Africa affirms her full support for the World Health Organization, which has been key in guiding the international response to the pandemic, and WHO has been instrumental in providing guidance and support to African governments with early detection of the pandemic, training health workers and strengthening surveillance in communities. Program moderator, South Africa remains dedicated to promoting the African agenda and strengthening the African Union institutions and policies. We call on humanity to be bold and courageous in confronting this pandemic. We will continue to collaborate and to act in the best tradition of social solidarity, and we call upon developed countries and multilateral institutions to extend assistance to developing countries which should include dead relief, more special drawing rights, allocations with the international financial institutions, and the provision of comprehensive and robust stimulus packages to the vulnerable countries in particular. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Ambassador. I look forward to returning to some of the themes that you have raised over the course of the conversation, and we've certainly noted how His Excellency President Romaposa has been leading the call for many of these approaches and the need to take a unified approach across the continent. I'd like to turn now to Ambassador Fred Ngooga from the African Union Commission to share some initial reflections. Thank you very much, Susan. It's always good to see you. It's always good to see Johnny Carson as well as a mentor to many. So, Excellencies, allow me first to thank the Africa Diplomatic Corps and the United States Institute of Peace for organizing this important event. The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on the global order impacting our social, economic, and political efforts across the globe, and the African continent has not been spared. According to the latest figures as of yesterday, the Africa Center for Disease and Control has documented over 115,000 Africans who have been infected with almost 3,500 of those succumbing to the disease. The impact of COVID-19 cannot be overstated, with research indicating a potential global recession and even a depression. Africa is predicted to be the most affected due to the loss in revenue streams and declined between 3 to 8 percent in GDP in 2020 alone. The pandemic is not just a health issue. The implications are far-reaching on the socioeconomic, political, and security spheres. The African Union Commission, in collaboration with its partners, and as mentioned by the Ambassador of South Africa, our Chair, has led interventions to contain the spread of COVID-19 on the continent. We've had a three-pronged approach. The first one has been to address it from a health perspective with the AU Center for Disease Control in the lead, facilitating the distribution of test kits and personal protective equipment, and providing advice to our member states. Here, I take this opportunity to thank the United States government who has been providing support to our AUCDC. The AU Strategic Airlift concept moved from theory to practice with member states such as Cameroon, South Africa, Uganda, Algeria, to name a few, availing their air assets to transport AUCDC's experienced disease detectives from one country to another. Secondly, we took an economic approach to this pandemic, where the chair of our union, His Excellency President Serra Ramaphosa, appointed four envoys to mobilize resources to deal with health, emergency, and economic impact of the crisis. The AU estimates that the continent needs an emergency stimulus of about $150 billion to deal with this pandemic. Our central bank governors have also eased monetary policies and 25 African countries secured the deferment of debt payments from the IMF and the World Bank. Third, if you allow me, we are focused on the impact to peace and security. Allow me to briefly touch on the impact of COVID to peace and security. Lockdowns and curfews, in most cases, have resulted in the loss of jobs and revenue streams for 85.5% of Africa that work in the informal sector and who depend on a daily wages, increasing the risk of food insecurity and loss of livelihoods across the continent. This has led to an increase in crime across our continent. In the area in the countries where you have total lockdown, the crime has decreased, such as we've seen in cases like South Africa, but where you have curfews, crime has actually gone up and we've seen also gender-based violence in urban areas. It is also worth noting that a significant number of conflicts on the continent are resource-based, fueled by climatic shocks, structural governance deficit, and the lack of institutionalized dispute resolution mechanism. The COVID-19 environment is likely to exacerbate these tensions as communities grapple with government responses that directly affect their ability to feed their families. The most vulnerable will remain at risk with more than 30 million refugees and internally displaced people spread across our continent. The rise of xenophobia and stigma targeted at infected and recovered patients, as well as their families, are also a security fault line that need to be adequately addressed by states. In the same vein, stance responses to COVID-19 have created a new working method with millions of workers telecommuting. Consequently, the e-working world has reinforced the need for enhanced cybersecurity measures to counter the misuse of cyber spaces in the spread of propaganda, misinformation, hacking, and in some cases, exploitation by extremist groups as a recruitment platform. Your excellencies, as our member states, are stated to hold elections through the end of 2020. In this context, the pandemic has raised crucial concerns over the organizations of the elections within stipulated time and in accordance with constitutional provisions. Some political actors and citizens are concerned that many governments may take advantage of the pandemic to entrench themselves beyond their constitutional limits, while on the other hand, there are calls by citizens, groups, and political parties for governments to postpone elections until the pandemic is contained as part of efforts to reduce and mitigate the spread of the virus. But there is also concern about avoiding the disenfranchisement of citizens, especially those in areas that are most affected by the pandemic. The risk of electoral violence during this time could also result in the flight of people both internally and into neighboring countries increasing the risk of further contamination. Our continent is also faced with what the WHO has called an infodemic. The viral misinformation that is accompanying this pandemic and the rumors that are circulating are far more difficult to get rid of than we thought. We have realized that people don't necessarily trust the information, they trust the source of the information. It is therefore important to build relationships with those most trusted in society, including at the local level, in order for them to relay the science to their own communities because they are the ones who are the most listened to. It is worth mentioning that we are increasingly hearing calls by citizens across our continent calling for a new social contract between the state and the citizens and the need to recreate the state to quote a civil society member in the DRC, people no longer want to serve those who govern, they want those who govern to serve them. While COVID runs its course in Africa, conflict prevention and mediation efforts have been affected. The novel coronavirus has delayed the implementation of critical peace agreements and have amiss some offensives in Somalia and our work that we have continued to do to mobilize 3000 forces to be deployed to support the G5 Sahel. The peace and security council has also adopted new working method to remain seized of the continued efforts of the commission while providing guidance and the much needed policy frameworks to better respond to both security challenges and the impact of the coronavirus. Here allow me to mention that in most of our peace support operations, we have not turned into disaster management operations. So they not only have to carry out their usual duties but they also have to do disaster management and this is something that we were not prepared for but we had to adjust. As the African Union strives for the peaceful prosperous Africa envisioned by agenda 2063, I believe the U.S.-Africa partnership can be further strengthened through addressing the multi-dimensional challenges the continent is facing as a result of COVID-19. Some of the areas we can strengthen our partnership are the continued provision of support in the implementation of the U.N. Secretary General and the AU chairperson's appeal for a ceasefire and silencing the guns in Africa. We also look forward to the U.S. support for African positions in the U.N. Security Council and the AU's overall peacemaking efforts. Number two, we look for support to preserve the principles of multilateralism and promote international partnerships as a tool for addressing global security threats such as terrorism, climate change, pandemics, humanitarian disasters and others. Number three, support efforts by African countries to protect jobs, prevent people from falling into more poverty and the protection of the most vulnerable. Number four, support to AU member states efforts to manage the impact on the supply chain disruption by for example encouraging local and regional suppliers. Lastly, we look forward to encourage U.S. company to partner with African technology companies to provide services in the area of e-government, telemedicine and online education. In conclusion, the threat posed by COVID-19 has highlighted our connectedness and the need to promote multilateral approaches and international cooperation to contain and mitigate the impact of COVID-19. In the search for sustainable peace in these uncertain times, our continental cooperation platforms need to be revitalized, collectively mobilizing efforts towards maintaining global peace while combating the unprecedented effects of the pandemic. Our collective action and cooperation is needed now more than ever to silence the guns on our continent. Happy Africa Day and I thank you for your kind attention. Thank you, Ambassador, and thank you for bringing that message from the African Union Commission and I think for really laying out clearly this multi-dimensional challenge, but also the opportunity that it presents both for partnership and for peace and prosperity on the continent. I'd like now to turn to his Excellency, the Ambassador of Sierra Leone and the Co-Chair of the African Ambassadors Committee for Public Affairs to help us to continue the conversation. Ambassador, I think you're still muted. Thank you very much, Susan, and thank you, Ambassador Ducada and our Dean and Deputy Assistant Secretary Honorable Matthew Harrington and my colleagues, all protocols observed. I want to first of all say I'm honored to be joining this distinguished gathering of panelists who we are going to be discussing some of the challenges that we face. As Sierra Leone's Ambassador, I want to first of all say at this podium because there are a lot of diaspora people listening to this program today. I'm pleased to say that my President, retired Brigadier Julius Madibu, was the first president in our country's history to decide on appointing a Sierra Leone and diaspora in the United States. So this is my home, United States has been my home for 38 years, and what this country has done for me and by extension my country is something that I really, really appreciate. Today, of course, my colleague who is the Ambassador for Swatini, Excellency Yabesu Webu, is not here today because she was stuck in our home country due to COVID. So the event for this celebration today is a little different from what we had last year, but happy African Day. So within the framework of the African Union Agenda 2063, the African Union has been working with our development partners like the United States through its various initiatives to not only resolving conflict, but to prevent conflict to other vulnerable constitutional communities in the continent of Africa. In fact, since they are deaf students of the first 10-year implementation plan in 2015, the AU has given technical support to a good number of member states and five RECs in domesticating Agenda 2063, aligned to the National Regional Development Strategy. For instance, the Median Time National Development Plan of Sierra Leone is aligned with Agenda 2063. In keeping with the commitment of our leaders to silence the guns in 2020 and ensure peaceful and stable, prosperous Africa, the African Union has established several mechanisms, such as the early warning systems, the Pan-African Network, the African Standby Force, the AU Mechanism for Police Corporation, and the African Center. As earlier stated, prior to the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, a lot has been going on in Africa in terms of socioeconomic development. As we are all aware, the pandemic is posing serious challenges to not only the health sector, but also to other areas of human endeavor. COVID-19 is already exacerbating the socioeconomic conditions of countries that we are already going through difficulties. To a very large extent, the pandemic has diverted our attention from most of our plans in the implementation of the continental agenda. Therefore, we need to further strengthen our collaboration with the United States and other development partners that cannot be over-emphasized. With those few introductory remarks, I would just like to give you that our government, the Sierra Leone president, has taken as a signatory to invest in Sierra Leone's human capital development. Through that human capital development, he believes that unless you provide education for this for this generation and the young people, you are only going to be creating more problems. As we know that the youthful population in Africa, let me just give you some numbers. In 2050, by 2050, the largest population of young people are going to come from Africa. That is a fact. So the availability of this labor force, we get like about 10 million of these young people under 18 looking for ready for employment. In fact, nearly one million of them under one million of the young population under 18, one million of them enter the labor force every month. Seventy percent remain unemployed. They are unemployed, they are on scale, they are uneducated, are not only ready for any sustainable future, but those are the entities that some people would other intentions prey on. In Sierra Leone, for instance, the government's priority is to ensure that our youth acquire the skills necessary for training them for meaningful employment. To this, the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education has developed the technical and vocational education training policy and revamped the technical and vocational education training department in the ministry. In addition, government with the support of partners is establishing a technical institute in all 16 districts. Our job creation, given the urgent need for opportunities for youth, we are also now embarking in implementing, creating, targeted interventions such as supporting small and medium-sized businesses and so forth. So, most recently, after this outbreak of the epidemic, we decided as diaspora Sierra Leoneans in this country to form a COVID-19 testing. I could say we are the first in this country, as a country, to reach out to our diaspora, which brings a very, very important and we should not underestimate. There are 8.3 million African diaspora residing in the United States, 3.5 first generation, 5 million of our children. These people are skilled, they are doctors, they are lawyers, they are professors. I would just like to say to everyone, our continent, these are our development partners. We cannot forget them. They want to do something. In fact, my colleague, Ambassador Mahmadoon Demanga and I have been approached by that vast group of African diaspora in the United States to say they want to help the AU to raise funds. So, we are looking at having a major global concert, the benefit of which is going to go, they said, specifically to go to building the capacity of rural capacity. And then now, agriculture, our agriculture sector is the untapped giant in Africa. We bring in almost a lot of, according to the African Development Bank, Dr. Kingi-Wen, we reach $1 trillion worth of agricultural product. If we invest in agriculture, that's how much money will become into Africa. So, you could be doing agriculture at the same time building wealth. So, there should be an emphasis placed on that. And let me don't live with my final point. There is a difference between free speech and hate speech. And many of the people that live, that have left our countries and come to the United States, as well as Europe, have used the under the guise of free speech to create mayhem in our countries. Most recently in Sierra Leone, there were people in this country who were sending incendiary mutt asking for the burning and the burning of the prisons. And that happened. So, when we raised that issue, they said it's freedom of speech. But I know, as a former member of the New York City Police Department, there's a difference between free speech and hate speech. So, when somebody is talking about hate speech to try to destabilize a country wherein we have been suffering, I think you cannot say silence in the gun. It's only when somebody shoots somebody. But when somebody creates an environment and atmosphere to destabilize this growing fledging democracies, I think we need to look at our development partners, particularly the United States and Europe, to revisit these states. Because if somebody commits a crime in this country, they have to be punished. So, we will connect the material, the dossier, and submit it to our host country, the Department of State, which has absolutely been phenomenal. So, I will stay there because I get very passionate about this. And, Ayubat, thank you very much. Thank you, Ambassador. I do hope we can return to the really important theme that you raised about youth and youth's role in silencing the guns, in the prosperity of the continent, in innovation. And I hope, for people who are joining us online, that you will share your thoughts and ideas and perspectives. We're using the hashtag peace and pandemics, as well as hashtag silencing the guns. We hope that you can be part of the conversation. Before we turn to questions, I'd like to hand over to Professor Landry Signe, who many of you know for his excellent analysis, his recent book, Unlocking Africa's Business Potential, to hear his perspectives about where are the opportunities to harness this moment. Good morning and happy Africa Day. I am very grateful and I commend USIP and the African Diplomatic Corps for organizing this extremely important event. So, I'm honored to be part of this panel. My preliminary comments will be organized around three points. So, the first is the mechanism through which COVID-19 has affected Africa, is affecting Africa, then the vulnerability, the resilience, and finally the economic opportunity. So, I will try to keep that in premise. So, the first point is that when you speak about COVID-19, as you all know, we have about three core mechanisms. So, the first one is the exogenous shock, which means that beyond the health consequences generated by COVID-19, the exogenous shock is characterized by the disruption of the global supply chain, including essential products necessary to address the pandemic, but also the broader economic conditions. So, the second factor is the endogenous shock as well. So, which is characterized by the disruption in government of disruption of businesses, with job losses, disruption of tourists and travelers, among other only in Africa an estimated number among between 19 and 22 million job are estimated to be lost on the continent this year due to COVID-19. And when we know that Africa, the proportion of African who reached the age, the working age is about, you have about 20 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. And if we focus on the one actually making the transition to work is about nine to 12 million people. So, those are important disruption. And when we speak about disruption or job losses, we also speak about loss of income among other factors. And combined also with the collapse. So, the other shock is the collapse of commodity prices, which many with many countries unable to sell your products with a drastic drop. The case for many countries were not able to sell, for example, your oil production among other factors. So, those are some of the mechanisms through which COVID-19 is affecting Africa. So, even if in the piece that I brought in for foreign policy, even if the health conditions or consequences are not drastic, the economic consequences are definitely of concern, especially as many of the resources that the government many of the governments were using to invest in the economy are now redirected to address some of the shortcomings of the healthcare system, including the limited preparedness and the overall high incidence and mortality rates for both communicable and non-communicable diseases among other factors. So, I think those are well-known questions. So, I will not expand too much on those. So, let me turn on the resilience. So, the reason why I believe African economies, although they will be significantly affected by the pandemic, are more resilient than many people think. We have already seen how the continent has resisted to the 2008 crisis much more effectively, although the dimension with COVID-19 risk to growth has taken more seriously. And as you mentioned, Susan, in my book Unlocking Africa Business Potential, which was released in April and was written mostly before the COVID-19 pandemic, so I analyze and I deeply present the tremendous potential African economies offer to both global and local businesses, which are critical for job creation on one hand, for economic growth, for creating opportunity for women, for young people, as well as to generate broader or general welfare. So, those are extremely important. So, some of the identify 12 key trends. So, I will not necessarily be going through all of them, and I will be happy to discuss during the conversation. But one of the core trends that I identify is the increasing leadership that many African countries are playing in the fourth industrial revolution. And we have seen that many innovators have been involved in providing solution, for example, using big data, using artificial intelligence to track COVID-19 to provide options for better testing among others. So, that is a core trend. A second point is also the effort to, let's say, improve the business environment. Of course, many challenges remain, however, more than or about 50% of the top 10 best-improved countries in the east of doing business globally have been located in Africa in the recent years. So, we also have the increased business spending, the growth. Although this factor will be under stress, given COVID-19, but just before COVID-19, we have seen a significant growth of the proportion of African living with available discretionary income, which is extremely important also from a business perspective. So, we have the fast regional integration with the African continental free trade area. And I think, beside the fact that the CFTA may be postponed, we should not overlook the hard work being made to accelerate his implementation right now and to facilitate trade during the pandemic as even independently of the official launch of the CFTA. So, it's extremely important. Many people have been concerned. In fact, the pandemic has clearly demonstrated that Africa needs the African continental free trade area more than ever because most of the essential products, including pharmaceuticals, are imported. And the continent produced barely 2% of the pharmaceutical products. And when we enter the context where it's a global competition between advanced economies, emerging economies, and African countries, we can clearly see why it's important to unlock the industrial potential. So, other factors, of course, include the broader improvement of health. So, we are not yet where we need to be, but we should not neither overlook the substantial progress over the past couple of decades. We have also seen a strong effort to close the infrastructure gap and accelerated industrialization. When we think about what we call the broken institutions, industries without smokestacks. Because when people speak about industrialization on the continent in Africa, in general, in many African countries, they mostly think about traditional manufacturing. And that's why many scholars will be saying that Africa is the industrializing. However, in industry without smoke, that export related to those industries have grown six times faster than export in traditional manufacturing. So, this is tremendous. And those industries have the same ICT-based industry, a grand history among other, have the same type of characteristics as traditional manufacturing. So, they have a high job absorption capacity. They require more directly skilled for workers, as well as their durability. Also, they are exportable, the tradability, the exportability, and the high productivity. So, there's definitely an opportunity to create more job and then to reduce also social consequences. So, I will not be expanding longer, but I also just want to mention the critical role of the African diaspora with their playing the role as building bridges and representing being ambassador of the continent, contributing to investment, trade, research, skills transfers, among other factors. So, I'll be happy to continue this conversation. I know that I have to stop here. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so much. I think it's worth putting a highlight over your remark that there has been tremendous progress and that there is a lot of reason for hope. I'm continually struck that as we look around the world and think through how can people come together in response to something that touches us collectively, the world is struggling to do that and really the collective action by the African Union, by African countries really stands out as an example for all of us to look towards and to learn from. So, thank you to all of our speakers and the ambassadors for their opening remarks. We've had some questions come in and I'd like to put a couple of those out to the group and ask for people to jump in where you have particular interest. I'd like to start with one that touches on a point that His Excellency Ambassador Mabuli raised and his remarks about the G7 meeting that's happening in June. And I'm curious to hear a little bit more about how would you like to slightly figure on the agenda? What are some of the key points that you hope will come forward in that conversation and that the US as a partner can help to ensure sits on the agenda to drive forward these conversations? A second question that's come in relates to the opportunity to harness some of the knowledge and homegrown technology particularly in the in the response to COVID-19. I think many people have seen the tremendous work from the Astora Institute in Senegal and other innovations across the continent and so how can the AU help to connect that together and share that knowledge and practice across? And then a third question that's come in relates to how we can ensure that the response right now that's taking place across those very multiple dimensions whether it's debt relief, the response in terms of distribution of materials, what can be done to ensure that that helps to fuel the growth that was taking place that helps to contribute towards inclusive politics that we know is is what ultimately will lead towards more peace across the continent and help to drive towards Agenda 2063 that the African Union has set out. So those are three very big questions. I won't ask everybody to go to all of them but maybe Madame Ambassador I can turn to you first for for any of your thoughts on those questions that have come through to us. Thank you very much. I really haven't thought the response at the moment but maybe safe to say what whatever we do in particular in the last question what whatever we do if the whole looking at the whole society women and the youth whenever we have a strategy for success if we live out those people including the religious sector that is playing a very important role in our country. We have a situation for instance in South Africa maybe this is an example when we dealt with COVID-19 our president convened everybody the opposition the labor unions the churches and all other sectors that are there and as a result there was never an opposition in whatever that we're talking about that will help our communities so that that's for now I'm I'm stopping there Madame moderator. Thank you Madame Ambassador I think it's a really interesting observation that this type of threat requires us to work together it necessarily requires an inclusive approach and so the challenge is how do we marry that up with what Ambassador Ngoka talked about in terms of postponement of elections and agreeing on how and when to go forward for delays in implementation of peace agreements or other resource conflicts that will arise and how can we how can that that momentum be leveraged forward. Professor any any thoughts on on some of the questions that have been raised about technology or the opportunity to to ensure that responses continue to fuel towards the growth momentum that that existed? Yes definitely so perhaps before getting to the technologies I want to highlight the critical importance of for supporting the both formal and informal sector workers to sustain demand and this I think in order to be achieve or definitely require an important role from African government including avoiding or at least limiting areas to private firms from the public sector especially in supply chain for critical products. So that's an extremely important factor is second will be to substantially finance the private sector which is critical and the private formal sector which is critical for job creation so for example a recent studies requested about between 2.5 to 5.5 billion US dollar from their fives especially in Europe to support the the need of new capital increase reduce also the intolerance to risk amount order factor so those are two of the critical factors specifically related to women I think a COVID-19 Africa woman relief fund should be created in each country it's extremely important we often speak about the need of addressing of improving gender equality but I think it's definitely an area which clearly require very specific policy very specific intervention targeted intervention and including in the end to improve the informal sector livelihoods so and for that it's important to maintain household consumption we know that especially for the bottom 75 to 80 percent of household we know that in the informal sector they rely on income in both the public and the private sector to sell your products amount order so so those are perhaps some of the quick elements which can help address making the policies which are being adopted more inclusive so that fewer people are left behind or ideally no one is left behind in the in addressing COVID-19 speaking now about technology it is extremely important for countries and also at the continental but especially for country to create a task force the fourth industrial revolution or digital task force which will clearly identify the technology the scalable innovations and technologies which have been developed as a matter of fact Africa is rich of innovation the challenge is to scale those innovations and such a task force including both people from the public and private sector innovator a civic servant will definitely be contributing the second factor is also to invest in scaling those technology so access is something that usage is another in a recent blog post with the brokens on using the fourth industrial revolution to fight COVID-19 I have with my co-author identify a framework where we can see that even some country including advanced economies which have a high capacity are not necessarily using the technology the most effective way so in order to bridge the gap it's important to match those and the final point is also to capitalize on those innovations to really contribute to universal health care and there are many solutions also which exist against the question about scalability and the support of partner like of partners like the united states in sustaining those initiatives thank you thank you prof ambassador city could you like to come in you'll need to unmute yourself ambassador I wanted to touch a little bit on the inclusive politics that you talked about particularly in countries in countries like my own to for a government to include others there's got to be sincerity and a commitment to a country when this COVID situation occurred in my country the president there was a national sensitization by bringing not only labor not only political people but they brought church church leaders they've they've brought the fake based communities and they they consulted would civil society and brought them all and they went to the traditional rulers in the villages and to say to them and and and and taught them about this the the the the the rudiments and the the the the things that is washing of hands so since we were coming from the Ebola epidemic so we had some kind of way of doing this but the point I'm also making here is when the government in power is honest about really reaching out it is also incumbent about the other sides to also come to that but because we it is the question of national it's a national thing this epidemic does not discriminate or does not so we all have to come together so what we did here in the United States in the Sierra Leone diaspora we brought all the members of the various political parties we brought church leaders we brought Muslims all together women young people to say to them we only have one country this is an epidemic so let us all come together that's how we established that COVID-19 task force and people are contributing because we got them involved children are involved women are involved so to have inclusive politics there's got to be honesty on both sides it's not only the the government in power that is going to reach out the others have to reach out as well parliamentarians have to be involved all members of civil society have to be engaged in that process that's the only way we're going to go before and that's what we are doing on this part to be able to make sure that people understand that we are all one Sierra Leone our country when the country something like this is we've been through a Ebola epidemic we want to make sure that we learn from the past and begin to do that's why our numbers in all of the whole Africa our numbers we are we are small but now that we are getting other people coming from other parts of the world the numbers are increasing so we really look to our development partners to understand that you know we need help but we want to do it in partnership we are not looking for handouts we are looking for the opportunities to be brought to our country so that we could work together thank you ambassador master and goka would you like to come in on this question about the role of the a you and sharing technology and knowledge to help with the response or any of the other points well thank you so very much thank you I've been listening very carefully and but before I get to that perhaps just to touch on the inclusive politics the fact in the matter is that the the challenges that we're faced with dwarfs uh compare to the pandemic and it's not only inclusive politics in our member states I think this is actually an opportunity to even fast-track regional integration because this thing has no boundaries and we will need each other to really be able to to deal with this pandemic so regional integration is actually going to be fast-tracked by this pandemic and I'm very optimistic about that the other thing is that with regards to technology and so on let's also remember that not everybody has access to even a phone on our continent let alone technology so I think that there are there are some programs actually to get uh technology to in the rural areas and so on and so forth in some countries but not in others so I think the professor talked about the need to have access have also worked on that to see how we can we can actually you know ensure that people have have access I think that something that is extremely important with regards to technology and I and I think I mentioned it in my remarks is the need to partner with the development world because I said even in Africa we're going to be doing a lot of e-government we're going to be doing a lot of mobile banking we're going to be doing a lot of you know telemedicine all of this is going to be important in the future and by the way this is one pandemic there will be other pandemics as well so we better be ready when that happens we don't want to be cut off guard like this time around yeah so the growth of technology there are opportunities and this is where we can work all together and on the issue of course that the inclusive politics that why are we seeking a succession of hostilities actually why does the secretary general want it or even ourselves it is because we're trying to make sure that everybody has access to health care that we can actually be able to assist even in those areas where we don't have access to so that's why we've been actually working very hard to secure a ceasefire with with some groups not only in Cameroon and Sudan and elsewhere and we're still working on it and some actually have hated our call and have laid down their arms which has been very helpful and we're continuing with those who have not actually heard the message so I'll stop here thank you thank you ambassador we are quickly closing in on the end of our conversation and I think in many ways we've set out a series of other conversations that would be very interesting to pursue further conversation about where where can a global ceasefire be negotiated and how can that be held what are the steps towards regional integration that could help to to harness this moment effectively so I'd like to turn back to our panelists for any final remarks that they have to share before turning to investor Siddique to to close us out maybe I'll start with Prof Signe would you have any final comments as we close so my final comment will simply be first to thank you Susan to thank Ambassador Carson the diplomatic cop for organizing this incredible event and the second one is to say that I deeply believe the US should take its place in Africa so this tremendous opportunity Africans are ready for business for investment and overall really like dealing with the US so with initiatives like Prosper Africa I have seen a very encouraging shift from initial skepticism to the African continent free trade area to a full endorsement and I think that US corporations should definitely be supported to the level necessary for your increased engagement on the continent thank you thank you thank you so much for joining us and for lending your expertise um Ambassador Angoka any final remarks or thoughts from you yeah yes thank you so much Susan I just wanted to say thank you for inviting us and for giving us an opportunity to highlight some of the challenges we're faced with but we are a resilient continent and we will overcome this we have overcome Ebola we have overcome yellow fever we have overcome malaria or we're still fighting it but so we will overcome this one as well and we look forward Ambassador I think that your internet is telling us it's probably near the end of end of our program as well so thank you thank you for joining us today from Addison we're grateful that it held as much as it did Ambassador Carson any final thoughts from from you that you'd like to add thanks thanks Susan and thanks to all of the ambassadors thanks to the African Union mission in Washington DC thanks to our colleagues at the AU in Addis Ababa in every crisis in every crisis there are enormous challenges and problems and issues to overcome but in every crisis there is indeed an opportunity to move forward I think that as Ambassador Angoka said these are there are opportunities out here Professor Landry has mentioned a number of them we need to work together in the United States with our partners in Africa to ensure that we take advantage of the opportunities that exist and not simply fall back and deal with the problems as they are thank you Ambassador Carson but Ambassador thank you so much for joining us any final final remarks or thoughts for our audience yes yes thank you very much moderator I think it's just really to thank Ambassador Carson and everybody who brought us here today and I agree there might be crisis now but there are great opportunities for us to unite as different countries not only Africa you know but different countries and I'm looking forward to a situation where really we strengthen our relationship and look at issues that are really able to build different communities I know I'm saying that knowing very well that the United States is doing so much in different countries including my country but this situation we are under is providing us with an opportunity to do even more thank you very much thank you Madam Ambassador we look forward to South Africa's leadership to take these conversations forward and and I should have welcomed you to Washington DC I know that you're relatively recently arrived so welcome we we look forward to working with you going forward thank you very much thank you very much um Ambassador Mboulay thank you so much for the partnership with the African Diplomatic Corps um it's been such a pleasure to work with you and your team and as I said we look forward to continuing this conversation and I hope we can come back together in a couple of months take stock of where we are and think through further where there are opportunities to strengthen the US-African partnership. Thank you very much Susan just two few words before we leave the program since the G7 will take place in Washington DC posted by the United States and I take advantage of the fact that the US government is invited in this meeting with the State Department we in Africa with this COVID-19 we will request that the United States being the host who set up the agenda to think seriously about the debt relief the debt relief for the African continent because this COVID-19 will have a very serious impact on our economy that are already very weak and number two I think with a 10 million dollar or 20 million dollars for the funding with the USAID that will help to buy more testing in Africa and to continue to do testing in the continent that will be the proof of strengthening also the relationship between the United States and the African continent thank you very much thank you Mr. Ambassador so I'm now pleased to turn to Ambassador Siddique to give us some closing remarks on behalf of the African Diplomatic Corps. First of all Susan and Ambassador Carter thank you so much on behalf of the African Diplomatic Corps I know many of my colleagues are on this mind today we want to just thank you very very much and you as moderators already have done an outstanding job and just on my part I really want to also thank our host country the United States who have absolutely done a lot for Africa and like the Dean said we look to continue working with them and particularly our colleagues in the African Diplomatic Corps with them to support in the leadership of the United States and let us work together and finally let us not also forget the African diaspora constituencies in the United States they will play a very very key role so we're hoping that during the time you're thinking of other involvement we'll be very happy to working with you in that direction so that we should get them to be part of the conversation because when they buy into what we are doing they could be very very supportive because they could help this country they live here they work here and we we're looking forward to your to your leadership and we thank you for taking the time and doing all of this technical stuff some of us we are not happy but we really appreciate it and we want to thank you deeply from the bottom or half from the African Diplomatic Corps thank you very much well thank you ambassadors, excellencies, guests and thank you to everybody who joined us online today we look forward to continuing the conversations the hashtag peace and pandemics and silencing the guns we hope that it will bring forward a lively conversation and and targeted action towards peace in the coming months. Have a good day everybody. Thank you. Thank you.