This year’s AGOA Forum in Washington, scheduled for June, will focus on improving the provision of infrastructure as a critical requirement for a growing trade relationship. We will then host a follow-on business conference in Cincinnati that will continue these themes in the context of concrete activities aimed at facilitating trade. We expect robust participation from the US and African private sectors, as well as government officials, where we will underscore the priority of addressing Africa’s infrastructure and energy needs.

Through the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program, or AWEP, we are working directly with African entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of women-owned businesses and export capacity, foster leadership for women’s business organizations, and support women’s advocacy roles as “voices of change” in their communities. Across Africa, an increasing percentage of businesses are being started and run by women – and those businesses are growing as a measurable force in the world economy. To quote World Bank President Robert Zoellick, “Giving women greater earning power and greater control over resources within their households could boost children’s health, could increase girls’ education, could leverage entrepreneurship and economic productivity and could take us closer to that world beyond aid.” The US is committed to this vision by bringing leading African women entrepreneurs together through AWEP. Let me say, in my many years as a diplomat and businesswoman, I have met many, many women’s groups but I have never seen the level of dynamism, passion, and courage that I saw in the women’s groups on this trip.

Just as we are working to empower women entrepreneurs through AWEP, we are also launching initiatives designed to engage directly with African youth, who, as I noted previously, make up an increasingly large proportion of the continent’s population. Two out of three Africans are under 30 years of age, and an average of 10 million Africans enters the job market each year, and so robust engagement with the youth sector is absolutely critical. This is an effort in which both the president and the first lady have been personally involved. Both have hosted forums with Africa’s young leaders – the president in Washington, DC in 2010 and the first lady in South Africa a year later. The US government is working to develop initiatives to support and engage Africa’s young leaders. In support of these efforts, the State Department intends to launch a US Public-Private Mentoring Partnership for Young African Leaders, which is a mentorship and networking program created to partner 75 young African entrepreneurs with US business professionals to foster innovation, corporate investment, and corporate social responsibility activities in Africa.

At a speech I gave at the University of Zambia, I was deeply impressed by the intelligence, worldliness, and vitality of the student body. They questioned me about American foreign policy and expressed both hope and concern about Zambia’s future. Judging by their level of sophistication, I am certain that the future of Zambia will be in very capable hands.

It is also worth noting that two of the four Partnerships for Growth countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rooted in the president’s 2010 Policy Directive on Global Development, we are partnering with both Tanzania and Ghana through this initiative to address the constraints and barriers to growth and developing plans of action to address these. Through this partnership we hope to expand both countries’ access to international markets, promote flows of domestic and foreign investment, and improve the effectiveness, transparency and accountability of both countries’ public institutions.

As this broad range of initiatives and programs illustrates, Secretary Clinton has placed economic diplomacy at the center of US foreign policy. We are actively promoting our Economic Statecraft Agenda throughout the world, including in Africa, by attracting US companies to invest in Africa’s agriculture, infrastructure, and energy sectors. The State Department recently led a delegation of ten US companies to promote US business interests in Western, Eastern, and Southern Africa’s energy sectors as a means to support infrastructure development on the continent. In our diplomatic push to link business interests to development, we are working to see concrete deals made which spur economic growth and job creation in Africa and the US.

We recognize that health is a critical issue for sustained economic growth and long-term economic stability. As a part of our holistic approach, the Obama administration launched the Global Health Initiative, which commits US support to fight disease and improve health systems with our African partner countries. Through this initiative, the US is improving the health of women, newborns and children in the areas of infectious disease, nutrition, safe water, and maternal and child health. It builds on the successes of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the President’s Malaria Initiative, and the Neglected Tropical Disease programs. Through the work of PEPFAR, the US is directly supporting life-saving anti-retroviral treatment for nearly 4 million individuals, the vast majority of whom are in Africa. The US is also the first and largest donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, having provided more than $5.8 billion to this powerful multilateral partner in our global health efforts. I saw this work firsthand at Bwaila Hospital in Malawi, where officials from USAID and the Centers for Disease Control were working hand in hand with their Malawian counterparts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, ensure access to adequate pre-natal care, and provide basic pediatric services to some 200 mothers and their children each day.

Finally, sustained growth requires peace and security. The last element of this holistic approach is effective and accountable security services. Political tension, conflict and violence stifle the continent’s ability to develop a vibrant economy, destroying export infrastructure, and slowing or even reversing regional integration. African militaries and security forces have played both a positive and negative role in the development of government institutions. In West Africa, African peacekeepers contributed importantly to the rebuilding of the war-torn countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. But as we have seen most recently in Mali, militaries can threaten decades of democratic gains. That is why a critical component of our engagement with Africa is to help African countries develop professional militaries to provide for the national defense of sovereign states and the safety of the populace while respecting civilian authority. Likewise, we support the creation of effective coast guards and maritime security forces to enforce exclusive economic zones and cut down on illegal fishing, as well as professional border security forces to cut down on illicit trafficking.

I fully recognize the significant challenges that remain to be overcome in many African countries. We remain focused on finding a long-lasting solution to the ongoing dispute between Sudan and South Sudan. Likewise, the conflict and instability in Somalia remains unresolved. Nevertheless, the Transitional Federal Government with whom I met in Nairobi and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) are making significant strides in the fight against al-Shabaab. Political gains have been difficult to achieve and the Somali people continue to bear the brunt of the violence. And unfortunately, Somalia continues to be a source of regional and global instability. During my visit to Kenya, I traveled to the Dadaab Refugee Camp in northern Kenya, which is equivalent to the fourth largest city in Kenya. Meeting a 20 year-old refugee who was born in the camp and has never had an opportunity to leave was a stark reminder for me of the human toll of the ongoing conflict in Somalia. My visit to Nigeria underscored the serious issues and insecurity confronting that regional powerhouse, including the problem of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria and criminal groups in the Niger Delta. In northern Nigeria, it is critical that the government address the social and economic disparities that have contributed to the Boko Haram crisis.

Many of the challenges facing the continent know no borders. Despite our best efforts through Feed the Future and other programs, food insecurity remains widespread across the continent and the effects of climate change risk undercutting the tremendous progress we have made on this front. All one has to do is look at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to see how much the snow-cover there has been reduced in recent years to see that climate change is having a significant impact.

Weak infrastructure is another major challenge, even though African governments and private sources combined are investing about $72 billion a year in new infrastructure. The lack of sufficient power, water, and transportation infrastructure still seriously impedes growth. Despite our realistic assessment of the scale of these challenges, I remain confident that by pursuing a holistic approach to encourage economic growth and stronger democratic institutions, we can contribute substantially as partners for Africa to harness its full potential and become a stronger and more effective member of the international community. There is no doubt that a difficult road remains ahead but if we can look beyond the headlines to what is happening on the ground, we will recognize the signs of economic growth and emerging democratic institutions that bode well for Africa’s future.