IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 261 
Paying tribute to the Africa-America Institute (AAI) for its more than 50 
years of dedicated service toward nurturing and unleashing the productive 
capacities of knowledgeable, capable, and effective African leaders 
through education. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 6, 2005 
Mr. PAYNE (for himself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Ms. WATSON, Mr. MEEKS 
of New York, Mr. RANGEL, and Ms. LEE) submitted the following con-
current resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International 
Relations 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Paying tribute to the Africa-America Institute (AAI) for 
its more than 50 years of dedicated service toward nur-
turing and unleashing the productive capacities of knowl-
edgeable, capable, and effective African leaders through 
education. 
Whereas the Africa-America Institute (AAI) was founded in 
1953 to help build Africa’s human and institutional ca-
pacity and to promote mutually beneficial United States- 
Africa relations through education; 
Whereas most prominent among AAI’s original founders were 
two leading African-American educators and intellectuals, 
Horace Mann Bond, the first Black president of Lincoln
•HCON 261 IH 
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 sec-
tor, and philanthropic sources, AAI has advanced its mis-
sion on the dual premise that higher education is the 
highest leveraging point for achieving sustainable gains 
all along the education pipeline, and investments in edu-
cation generate high rates of return by multiplying the 
impact of development achievements across sectors of 
global importance: health, education, trade, investment, 
and peace and security; 
Whereas AAI’s 22,000 education program alumni from 52 
African countries—extraordinary individuals such as 
Wangari Maathai, recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace 
Prize—are leading heads of African education, business, 
government and nongovernmental organizations working 
to change economic and social structures in African com-
munities, societies, and nations for the better; 
Whereas a 2004 impact assessment commissioned by the 
United States Agency for International Development 
(USAID) found: ‘‘USAID’s multi-million dollar invest-
ment in long-term training [programs that were managed 
and run by AAI] for over 40 years produced significant 
and sustained changes that furthered African develop-
ment in measurable ways.’’; 
Whereas, as a corollary to its work aimed at expanding edu-
cation opportunities for Africans, AAI has also served as 
a source of reliable and balanced information on Africa 
for American public and private sector leaders;
•HCON 261 IH 
Whereas Members of Congress and their staff are among 
those who have achieved and continue to gain a fuller un-
derstanding of Africa through AAI programs; 
Whereas today AAI continues to build on this legacy, ful-
filling its education mission 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 lev-
els 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 Af-
rican Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development, 
AAI has stepped up to meet these new challenges with 
the creation the African Technology for Education and 
Workforce Development (AFTECH) Initiative—a col-
laborative effort designed to harness the power of infor-
mation technologies to deliver the highest quality global 
educational content to Africans where they live; 
Whereas in order to improve and expand upon AFTECH’s 
reach and impact, 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 Edu-
cation 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 
more Africans over its 5-year length;
•HCON 261 IH 
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 edu-
cation, professional training programs and other edu-
cation resources that AAI has to offer; 
Whereas AAI works with sponsoring African governments to 
identify and leverage additional funding wherever fea-
sible, and assists countries with making the case to mul-
tinational companies doing business within their borders 
that investing in the nation’s human capital through edu-
cation is in their mutual interest; and 
Whereas AAI can boast of a remarkable past history and un-
paralleled 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 House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress— 
(1) pays tribute to the Africa-America Institute 
(AAI) for its more than 50 years of dedicated serv-
ice toward nurturing and unleashing the productive 
capacities of knowledgeable, capable, and effective 
African leaders through education; and 
(2) embraces the mission and supports the work 
of AAI and urges Members of Congress and others 
to join the AAI Education Partnership Campaign: 
50,000 New Leaders in Five Years, a major initia-
tive toward closer United States-Africa relations that 
advance mutual national and global interests, and a
•HCON 261 IH 
high yield investment in Africa’s own capacity to 
build a future. 
Æ