In mid-2013, during a speech at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, President Obama announced that he would invite African heads of state to a summit in the United States "to help launch a new chapter in U.S.-African relations." The leaders' summit, to be held all day on August 6, 2014, will be preceded by two days of official summit-related events and followed by one heads-of-state post-summit event, alongside many unofficial events. For an overview of official events, see Appendix A . The summit is being organized around the theme "Investing in the Next Generation." It will consist of discourse between President Obama, attending African heads of state, and the chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission. The theme pays heed to an increasing U.S. policy focus on expanding trade and investment ties with Africa, and the political, economic, and security-related opportunities and challenges associated with Africa's development, particularly those related to its overwhelmingly youthful population. The importance of Africa's newest generations and their potential was also underlined by a separate summit of Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Fellows, which occurred in late July. During the summit, according to comments by Administration officials in public and unattributed forums, President Obama is expected to orient discussion toward the issues addressed in his 2012 U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa (henceforth, "Africa Strategy"). The summit program will be divided into three topical sessions— Investing in Africa's Future , Peace and Regional Stability , and Governing for the Next Generation —and is to be followed by a "presidential press conference." The Administration has characterized the summit format as being designed to enable a frank, mutual exchange of ideas on which to base U.S.-Africa cooperative relations, rather than to cap a pre-negotiated set of communiques. Administration officials have also stated that no bilateral meetings between President Obama and any African heads of state are planned, due to a desire to give all the African leaders an equal voice. Cabinet members and other top officials, however, will hold bilateral meetings with some countries' leaders. Summit side meetings on selected issues (e.g., the threat of the Ebola viral disease in West Africa and the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram and other armed Islamist groups in the Sahel) are also planned. The Administration has said that it decided to hold the summit, in part, to help define shared U.S.-African views on how to achieve common goals. Such objectives include more accountable, transparent, democratic governance; stronger rule of law; greater mutual economic growth, and trade and investment; greater peace and security; and enhanced socioeconomic opportunity and development outcomes. These goals are set out in President Obama's 2012 Africa Strategy. The summit will be the first such event hosted by the United States. The summit signals both continuity in long-standing U.S.-African cooperation and increasing U.S. engagement with Africa on numerous fronts—particularly with regard to trade and investment, following strong economic growth on the continent and a marked rise in U.S. development assistance to Africa since 2000. It may also be interpreted as a U.S. response to the increased pace of African economic and political engagement with a wide range of major or rising economic powers, including China, Japan, the European Union, France, India, Brazil, and Malaysia. The Administration invited the chairperson of the AU Commission and all African heads of state to the summit, except those whose governments are suspended from the AU or are "not in good standing with the United States" because they are subject to U.S. or U.N. sanctions. The countries whose heads of state were not invited include Central African Republic (CAR), due to its suspension from the AU, and Eritrea, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, due to sanctions. As of July 22, 2014, 45 heads of state were expected to attend the summit, according to a Commerce Department spokesperson. There are some indications of bipartisan Hill support for the summit, as indicated, for instance, by the introduction of S.Res. 522 , A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate supporting the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit to be held in Washington, DC, from August 4 through 6, 2014, by Senator Coons, joined by co-sponsors Senator Menendez, Senator Corker, and Senator Flake, on July 24. Included among the official events is a White House-coordinated, congressionally hosted bicameral Congressional Reception for African Leaders on August 4. Some bills currently before Congress may also be discussed at the summit or other events (see Appendix B for a list of bills of potential interest). Some Members of Congress are slated to participate in other summit events, and several related congressionally hosted events are scheduled on the Hill during the three-day summit period. In addition to the Congressional Reception, unofficial events scheduled to take place on the Hill include: On August 6, senior civil society leaders will present the recommendations, goals, and demands of a series of African civil society thematic working groups. Issues, including freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and thought, human rights, and conflict and elections, will be discussed at a day-long, National Endowment for Democracy (NED)-led public meeting in the Cannon House Office Building. Multi-stakeholder discussions and debate will follow. Resulting feedback is to be incorporated into an "Action Program for Democracy in Africa" that will be shared with African governments, the international community, and civil society and citizens. Representative Karen Bass and Representative Chris Smith are expected to present remarks. On August 6, Representative Gregory W. Meeks, in his capacity as co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Africa Task Force, will host a multi-part "Ask the Ministers" and "Dialogue with African CEOs" event in the Capitol. Representative Karen Bass, Task Force co-chair, and Representative Steny Hoyer, U.S. House Democratic Whip, are slated to deliver remarks. In addition to the three days of official events to be held in conjunction with the summit—described in this report's Appendix A —over 50 deliberation, learning, and advocacy-based forums on a wide variety of topics are scheduled to be held during or after the summit. Predominant themes and topics include: business, trade, and investment opportunities in Africa (e.g., infrastructure, supply chains, and prospects for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA, Title I, P.L. 106-200 , as amended); public policy and development issues (e.g., health, science and technology, agriculture, financing for development); and civil society group advocacy (e.g., good governance, natural resource transparency, human and civil rights, youth development, and gender equity). There will also be two U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA)-sponsored "reverse" trade missions by African delegations to Houston (focusing on the energy sector, in coordination with the Energy Department) and Chicago (focusing on transport, in coordination with the Transportation Department). A number of unofficial events in Washington are expected to include Members of Congress, and many will feature contributions by African heads of state. Vice President Joe Biden and potentially three African heads of state are expected to deliver remarks at a Georgetown University/Coca Cola Company event titled The Future of Business and Development in Africa. The Obama Administration has launched several large development initiatives in Africa, such as Feed the Future, and the Global Climate Change and the Global Health initiatives. The latter incorporates President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a signature initiative of former President George W. Bush's Administration. In 2013, the President also announced two new Africa-specific initiatives, Power Africa and Trade Africa, and expanded his 2010 Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). All initiatives are discussed further below. President Obama may well use the occasion of the summit to announce new U.S. commitments to Africa, but unattributed remarks by State Department officials and press reports suggest that the Administration does not plan to announce any new large-scale initiatives in relation to the summit. Factors that may have contributed to this decision include U.S. budget constraints and an Administration desire to use the summit to redefine jointly with African leaders the focus of and manner in which U.S.-African cooperation takes place—with an eye toward greater mutual contributions toward shared goals. Such an approach is reflected in the design and implementation of several Administration initiatives in Africa (e.g., Feed the Future, discussed below), and informs the Millennium Challenge Corporation's (MCC's) country-centered design and program execution paradigm, which was established during the Bush Administration. China, Japan, the European Union, France, and India have all held heads of state and other high-level ministerial summits with African leaders in recent years, and all have long had or are rapidly increasing their trade and investment relations with Africa. These foreign countries' summit styles and objectives have varied, but typically they culminate in mutually agreed announcements regarding multiple pledges of security, development, and trade and investment cooperation and assistance. China, in particular, has held repeated heads of state summits with Africa that have drawn substantial attention in recent years, during which it rolls out diverse, explicit policy pledges, multi-billion dollar trade, credit, and other financial commitments, along with some aid initiatives, and reports exhaustively on how it has met past pledges. Top Chinese leaders also personally visit Africa every year. These approaches, according to some observers, have helped advance Chinese interests in Africa, potentially at the expense of U.S. gains—although others do not view Chinese, U.S., and others' growing engagement with Africa as a zero-sum game.