’Obama to push US-Tanzania relations to greater heights’

OUTGOING US Ambassador to Tanzania, Mark Green, is confident that President-elect Barack Obama will foster the existing ’broad and deep’ relations between the two countries.

’’American engagement with Tanzania is broad and deep, and we expect it to remain such in the new Obama administration. Our poverty-fighting measures promote economic growth through support for wealth creation, food security, infrastructural development and other key components of what the Tanzanian government has asked us to do,’’ said ambassador Green in an op-ed article titled ’Democracy in Action.’

In the opinion article focusing on the just-concluded US presidential elections, ambassador Green added: ’’We will also continue to engage actively with Tanzania’s military and police services, promoting peace and security by supporting efforts to improve capabilities in such areas as maritime security, peacekeeping support, and trafficking-in-persons interdiction.’’

He noted that the US was working with Tanzanians to strengthen and enrich democratic institutions throughout the country.

’’Our programmes address health care issues, particularly HIV/AIDS and malaria, strengthen education through the refurbishment of schools, and as important, assist in this country’s difficult fight against corruption by supporting transparency and accountability initiatives at the local and national level,’’ he said.

Ambassador Green, who is expected to end his tour of duty in the country early next year, noted that former
US President Abraham Lincoln had defined American democracy as government ’’of the people, by the people, and for the people.’’�

He said since then, Americans have by and large viewed this phrase as the defining path of their electoral system.�

He added: ’’Americans appreciate the kind words and gracious gestures of support President-elect Obama has received from throughout the world, including here in Tanzania. We wish the best to all ’wananchi’ as this nation defines its own political history and seeks to determine its short, medium, and long term democracy goals as it strengthens its own sense of ’we the people’ for Tanzania’s future.’’

An opinion poll carried out by a US think-tank before the election established that more than three-quarters of Tanzania wanted Obama to win the presidential race.


After his election, the question has become -- What will Barack Obama be able to accomplish for Africa once he becomes president?

As in much of the world, hopes for his presidency are high.

Africa experts are optimistic but much more subdued. They say the global economic crisis and the United States’ considerable military commitments overseas may stymie Obama if he tries to intervene in conflicts in Darfur, build on President Bush’s ground-breaking AIDS programmes (PEPFAR) or take on Islamic extremists in the Horn of Africa.

Expectations have been high in Africa ever since Obama, whose father was from Kenya, travelled to the continent as a senator in 2006 and proclaimed, ”You are all my brothers and sisters.’’ He visited Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Chad and told cheering crowds that he would lobby for help back in the USA to solve their problems.

Aware of the limitations now that Obama is president-elect, African leaders have tried to tamp down their own people’s hopes.

AIDS and HIV, which infect about 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, is an issue where the money crunch could be particularly acute.

The US Congress has passed legislation that would triple funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which provides drugs to about 1.2 million HIV-positive Africans. Because of the economic crisis, paying out that projected $48bn bill over the next five years could force cuts in other critical foreign aid programmes, experts say.

Peter Piot, the executive director of the United Nations’ AIDS programme, warned last month that even if foreign aid stays at current levels, AIDS deaths worldwide could reach 3 million per year by 2011, up from 2 million in 2007.

Treating those enrolled in programmes such as PEPFAR is getting more expensive. Many patients develop resistance to first-line drugs and require pricier second-line medications. Africa also experiences the same problems seen elsewhere in the world.

Other African issues that could command Obama’s attention when he takes office in January are violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 250,000 have been displaced this year, and the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe’s government has seen inflation rise to 11.2 million. During his campaign, Obama condemned Mugabe’s intimidation of the opposition