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[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 47 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. CON. RES. 47

  Paying tribute to the Africa-America Institute for its more than 50 
  years of dedicated service, nurturing and unleashing the productive 
  capacities of knowledgeable, capable, and effective African leaders 
                           through education.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 26, 2005

 Ms. Landrieu submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 
  Paying tribute to the Africa-America Institute for its more than 50 
  years of dedicated service, nurturing and unleashing the productive 
  capacities of knowledgeable, capable, and effective African leaders 
                           through education.

Whereas the Africa-America Institute (in this resolution referred to as the 
        ``AAI'') was founded in 1953, to help build human and institutional 
        capacity in Africa and to promote mutually beneficial relations between 
        the United States and Africa through education;
Whereas 2 of the most prominent founders of AAI were leading African-American 
        educators and intellectuals, Horace Mann Bond, the first Black president 
        of Lincoln University, and Leo Hansberry, the Howard University scholar 
        and historian renowned today as the ``father of African studies'';
Whereas with funding from the government, the private sector, and philanthropic 
        sources, AAI has advanced its mission on the dual premises that higher 
        education is the highest leveraging point for achieving sustainable 
        gains all along the education pipeline, and that investments in 
        education generate high rates of return by multiplying the impact of 
        development achievements across sectors of global importance, such as 
        health, education, trade, investment, peace, and security;
Whereas the 22,000 education program alumni of AAI come from 52 African 
        countries, including extraordinary individuals such as Wangari Maathai, 
        recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize;
Whereas alumni of AAI are leaders in African education, business, government, 
        and nongovernmental organizations working to change economic and social 
        structures in African communities, societies, and nations for the 
        better;
Whereas a 2004 impact assessment commissioned by the United States Agency for 
        International Development (in this resolution referred to as ``USAID'') 
        found ``USAID's multi-million dollar investment in long-term training'' 
        programs that were managed and run by AAI ``for over 40 years produced 
        significant and sustained changes that furthered African development in 
        measurable ways'';
Whereas, as a corollary to its work aimed at expanding educational opportunities 
        for Africans, AAI has also served as a source of reliable and balanced 
        information on Africa for American public and private sector leaders;
Whereas Members of Congress and their staff are among those who have helped 
        achieve and continue to build on this legacy, fulfilling the education 
        mission of AAI by working with partners in Africa, the United States, 
        and other parts of the world on behalf of Africa;
Whereas competing in the information age requires high levels of technical 
        knowledge and skills, but the level of need and demand for higher 
        education and technical training in Africa exceeds the capacities of 
        education sectors in most African countries;
Whereas, consistent with the aspirations and goals of the African Union's ``New 
        Partnership for Africa's Development'', AAI has stepped up to meet these 
        new challenges with the creation of the ``African Technology for 
        Education and Workforce Development'' initiative (in this resolution 
        referred to as ``AFTECH''), a collaborative effort designed to harness 
        the power of information technologies to deliver the highest quality 
        global educational content to Africans where they live;
Whereas, in order to improve and expand upon the reach and impact of AFTECH, and 
        to raise awareness in the United States of the converging global 
        interests that warrant greater United States public and private 
        engagement with, and investment in Africa, AAI used the occasion of its 
        50th anniversary in 2003, to launch the AAI ``Education Partnership 
        Campaign: 50,000 New Leaders in Five Years'', with a goal of raising 
        $25,000,000 in private and public sector support to educate and train 
        50,000 Africans during the 5-year campaign;
Whereas, with the Republic of Namibia in the vanguard, a growing number of 
        African nations are choosing to invest in their people by directly 
        supporting the advanced education, professional training programs, and 
        other education resources that AAI has to offer;
Whereas AAI works with sponsoring African governments to identify and leverage 
        additional funding wherever feasible, and assists countries with making 
        the case to multinational companies doing business within their borders 
        that investing in the human capital of African countries through 
        education is in their mutual interest; and
Whereas AAI can boast of a remarkable history and unparalleled program track 
        record, and is building on its past to meet current and future 
        challenges facing Africa as well as the United States: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) pays tribute to the Africa-America Institute for its 
        more than 50 years of dedicated service, nurturing and 
        unleashing the productive capacities of knowledgeable, capable, 
        and effective African leaders through education;
            (2) embraces the mission and supports the work of AAI; and
            (3) urges Members of Congress and others to join the AAI 
        ``Education Partnership Campaign: 50,000 New Leaders in Five 
        Years'', a major initiative toward achieving closer United 
        States-Africa relations that advance mutual national and global 
        interests and a high yield investment in Africa's capacity to 
        build a future.
                                 <all>
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