WCAPS Participates in the 22nd Annual AfriCando Conference
WCAPS participated in the 22nd Annual AfriCando Conference, which focused on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the effects of COVID-19 on U.S.-Africa trade. The conference participants included WCAPS Executive Director Shalonda Spencer and International Development and Training Lead Ileana R. Valle, accompanied by distinguished co-chairs of WCAPS Cybersecurity Working Group, Ayan Islam, and Sayako Quinlan, as well as dignitaries of Miami-Dade County and participating AGOA nations.
Strategic alliances between dignitaries of the U.S. and Africa brought about the discussion related to challenges African nation states face in the wake of the pandemic and solutions to address the needs of the African people. AGOA’s focus has shifted to increasing the demand for African textiles, increasing the technological capabilities of Africa, as well as opening an airline route from Miami, Florida to Dakar, Senegal, as an effort to advance the nation’s global footprint. “We must encourage collaboration rather than competition” was the recurring theme of the conference.
As presenters of The Africa Trade and Development Center (ATDC) and AGOA spoke about challenges faced by African nation-states, these challenges included the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the economy, cybersecurity threats, financing, and capacity building to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) participation, private sector support for transportation and infrastructure investment aimed at increasing productivity and competitiveness, and high unemployment among women and youth. The opportunities proposed by U.S. and African dignitaries to address these pressing challenges were to engineer strong bipartisan and bicameral support in the US Congress to strengthen US-SSA Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation, create the opportunity for G-7 engagement enabling additional Special Drawing Rights for Africa, and WTO support and encouragement for African Union and its Member States.
Efforts to strengthen the alliance between the U.S. and Africa lie within broadening the capacity of The Africa Trade Development Center (ATDC). Located in Miami-Dade County, the ATDC is the first center in the United States organized to facilitate and promote bilateral trade between the U.S. and Africa, leveraging Florida as the strategic location. Through broadening the capacity of the ATDC, they hope that they can bring more indigenous African products to the U.S. to advance the technological capabilities, textile diversity, and e-commerce capacity of the African nations participating in AGOA. By connecting distributors in the U.S. markets to sellers in the African markets, the U.S. will not only strengthen its partnership with Africa but will reduce supply chain constraints for export-ready MSMEs by utilizing this Free Trade Zone as their distribution hub. Thus, expanding the U.S.’s international market relations.
