AfrICANDO is FDA's annual conference which explores themes around African economic and social development.  For questions about AfrICANDO, registration for the conference or to request conference reports or presentations, contact comments@democracy-africa.org

Past AfrICANDO Conferences

AfrICANDO 2009: Smart  Appropriate and Resource-Efficient Technologies for Rural Communinties

The purpose of AfrICANDO 2009 was to showcase smart, practical and appropriate technologies that ensure the availability of resources and services that meet basic human needs, and support increased economic activity in rural communities throughout Africa. Technological development on the African continent is lagging, and must be advanced, in order for Africa to meet the basic needs of its citizens. By adapting smart and resource-efficient technologies, Africa can bridge its technological divide, accelerate development in its rural communities, and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

AfrICANDO 2008: Promoting the Use of Appropriate Technology for Rural Community Development in Africa

The purpose of AfriCANDO 2008 is to provide a forum to discuss and showcase appropriate technologies and inventions in the sectors of agriculture, energy, health, education, transportation, communication, water and irrigation as well as thrift and banking, that can be made available to improve living conditions in rural communities in Africa.  Eighty percent of the African population survives on small scale subsistence farming – earning less than a dollar a day in the rural communities, living without electricity, potable water supply or reliable roads connecting rural and urban communities, as well as receiving inadequate social and health services and lacking the education infrastructure and policies required to comply with the United Nation declaration on universal primary education.  AfriCANDO 2008 discussed how to catalyze development and increase economic activities in order to improve the standard of living in rural communities and assist the countries of Africa in realizing the terms of the UN declaration and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).  According to some development economists, poverty and underdevelopment is expected to increase in some countries in Africa, and these same countries must register an annual economic growth rate of 7% in order to achieve the MDG by 2015. Through promoting the use of appropriate technology to support increased economic activities in the rural communities of Africa; improving transportation linkages between rural and urban communities; and providing access to improved health and social services and sound education, the economic growth rate of certain African countries can be accelerated to meet the MDG goals by 2015.

AfrICANDO 2007: African Cultures and Development

AfriCANDO 2007 explored the links between diversity of national cultures, their unity and originality as a basis for African progress and development. The summit views culture as an ensemble of distinctive characteristics, including spiritual, material, intellectual and affective that characterizes a society or social group. In addition to the arts, literature, and lifestyle, it encompasses the fundamental rights of the human being, systems of value, and traditions and beliefs. From these hypotheses and suppositions between culture and development, and through comparison of the role culture played in the development of the Asian countries; AfriCANDO 2007 will propose an analysis of the taking or not into account of cultural factors in the evaluation of development perspective in Africa.

AfrICANDO 2006: Hemispheric Summit on Science, Technology and Research for Africa's Development

The Conference brought together scientists, the private sector, women groups, and the youth to discuss how Africa’s development can be accelerated by educating and encouraging public participation in decision making on science related matters and also encourage more young people to take up careers in Science and Technology. The conference will provide an opportunity for African Diaspora Scientist and Researchers living in the Western Hemisphere the opportunity to learn how they can support the African Union policy on Science and Technology, and assist in transforming Africa from a net exporter of primary products to one that export finished products, and create a working institutional relationship between the African Union Commission and the active science and research Diaspora professionals in the Western Hemisphere. Africa remains the least developed and most impoverished continent in the world, partly because of lack of strong scientific and technological infrastructure. Despite the large deposits of precious and strategic metals, large arable land, high population of young and talented citizens and others the standard of living in Africa remain one of the lowest in the world and life expectancy continue to decline. Convinced that Africa’s investment in science and technology is extremely low, and is partly responsible for the present conditions on the continent, the Science and Technology Commission of the African Union [AU] is determined and committed to create continental priorities for policies and increase budgetary allocations for S&T in Africa, to turn the tide of development in Africa in the 21st century 

AfrICANDO 2005: Assessing the Effects of the WTO Agreement on Textile and Clothing on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)

On January 1, 2005, the Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC) under the World Trade Organization (WTO) became a reality, removing all existing quotas regulating textile and clothing imports to the United States, the European Union and Japan. Some believe this bold step, among others, will accelerate the emergence of a global free-market system, creating global opportunities.  Others believe that this will erode the gains made by African countries who are the beneficiaries of the U.S. preferential trade bill, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA III), which was signed into law by president George W. Bush and is often referred to as the cornerstone of U.S.-Africa trade relations.  AfrICANDO—a U.S.-Africa trade and investment conference—has been used as a vehicle to promote AGOA since its enactment in 2000 both in the United States and in the eligible African countries.  According to the United States Trade Representatives (USTR), AGOA has created more than 190,000 new jobs in the past four years and two-way trade is up just over $44 billion as of 2004.  Additionally, foreign direct investment in Africa increased by 28% and U.S. investment in sub-Saharan Africa alone also increased by about 37%.  AfrICANDO 2005 conference examined the effect of the ATC on the level of trade activities between the U.S. and the 37 nations who are beneficiaries of AGOA, particularly in the areas of textiles and clothing. The conference also discussed the Millennium Challenge Account—a relatively new presidential initiative intended to assist in the development of Africa’s economies.  More importantly, the conference discussed and examined how nations of Africa can use this new initiative to address their development needs, and also to gain a competitive edge through investment in infrastructure related projects, scientific research and technology, and how to address the crippling unemployment, particularly among youths. Issues related to Transportation and Port Security as it affects trade were also discussed.

AfrICANDO 2004: Effective and Efficient Use of Agricultural Science, Technology and Research as Tools for Development in Africa

AfrICANDO 2004 was organized to foster dialogue on how science and technological advances can impact agricultural production and social and economic development in Africa.  The conference aimed to create a forum to address the agricultural challenges and opportunities facing Africa by promoting the use of scientific research, agricultural technology and the production of strategic  agricultural commodities and other key activities as the first step towards solving Africa's food security issues.  By employing the appropriate technology and strategies over time, a growing and robust African agricultural economy can emerge as a major tool for the continent's economic and social development. 

AfrICANDO 2003

AfrICANDO 2002

AfrICANDO 2001: Integrating Africa into the World Economy

AfrICANDO 2001 presented a variety of speakers on several topics from the public and private sectors.  They examined the conference theme from such perspectives as a one-year update on the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Caribbean Basin Initiative, 21st century trade trends and the impact of new technology on the marketplace.   The symposium was the forum for the historic signing of two agreements on Thursday, 3 May: a sister seaport agreement between the Port of Miami-Dade and the Port of Lagos and a sister airport agreement between Miami International Airport and Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos.  These agreements were the culmination of months of effort by the Foundation for Democracy in Africa and Miami-Dade County. They offer hope for expanded trade through the lessening of time for the shipment of goods and transportation of passengers between West Africa and Miami. Moreover, such enhanced transportation links could link Africa to the Caribbean and Latin America through Miami, which is the “Gateway to the Americas.”

AfrICANDO 2000: Defining the Criteria for Africa's Participation in Transnational Economic Growth

AfrICANDO 2000, the third US-Africa trade and investment symposium sponsored by the Foundation for Democracy in Africa (FDA), was a celebration of Africa's political and economic gains in the effort to integrate the economies of the 54 African countries into the mainstream of the global economy.

AfrICANDO 1999: The Private Sector - the Engine that Will Drive Sustainable Economic Growth

The theme of The Foundation for Democracy in Africa's Second International Symposium on Democracy, Trade, Investment, and Economic Development, The Private Sector: The Engine That Will Drive Sustainable Economic Growth in Africa, March 10-13, 1999 in Miami Florida, is an affirmation of the tremendous achievements made by many countries in Africa since the end of the cold war, on the political front, and the need to empower the private sectors in these African nations, so that similar gains can be made in the economic front thereby making available badly  needed jobs, housing, health care, goods and services, and establishing a tax base that will help improve the standard of living, for the average African, thus cultivating the pathway for peace and prosperity on the continent.

AfrICANDO 1998: Africa - The Next Frontier

The symposium was organized to celebrate the end of the Cold War and as a forum to deliberate on how best the countries of Africa can focus their resources to provide the necessary infrastructure and development that will integrate their economies into the mainstream of the global economy, thereby improving the standard of living for the people of Africa. The symposium also served as a vehicle to showcase the "new and improved" Africa to the American business leaders/owners and investors with a view of encouraging them to invest more and trade more with Africa.