IMAGE: The Hilltop

Introduction

For Africa–United States (US) relations, 2022 was a defining year. August saw the launch of a new US
Strategy Toward Africa1 followed by ‘second’ US–Africa Leaders Summit in Washington DC in December.
What are the implications for democracy, human rights and civil society? Going back to the ‘first’ US-Africa
Leaders Summit of 2014 provides a starting point. As a Nigerian scholar observed, ‘there was virtually
nothing about the 2014 inaugural summit’2 during the 2022 Summit. No comprehensive or structured
analysis of the commitments from the 2014 Summit is publicly accessible. While contexts have changed,
as argued by a West African scholar,3 there are various continuities and shifts that a thorough review of
both summits would help address. This suggests a gap on the part of African and US actors in tracking the
implementation of democracy and human rights commitments between 20144 and 2022. It is a gap that
the US is well placed to fill, but also one that civil society organisations can innovate projects and activities
around.

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