An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama

Africa today is on the cusp of momentous change. It is leaving its colonial past behind and growing in confidence every day.

In 2007, 25 African countries — half the continent — recorded GDP growth rate 5 percent or higher. Inflation is under control. The continent is largely at peace. Africa is a source of abundant natural resources and cheap labor, and it is becoming an important consumer market for the entire world.

But this progress is fragile and can quickly be reversed. When cold winds blow through the global economy as they do today, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable are hurt the most. I want to be clear: Africans do not want charity, but we do want you to pay attention to us. We do not want to lose the progress that we’ve made.

Africa merits a high place in your foreign policy agenda. But not just because of our own development and post-conflict issues – we want to play a role in addressing some of the world’s major problems.

Africa has the potential to slow the pace of global climate change.

The Congo Basin, where my country is located, is the largest sink for carbon gases in the world after the Amazon jungle. It covers 770,000 square miles (two million sq km) and contains an estimated 26 percent of the world's remaining rainforest. Every day, its millions of trees convert man-made carbon gases into the oxygen that we all breathe — not surprisingly, it has been called the world’s “second lung”.

Work with us to preserve the rainforest.

We understand the unique importance of this landscape. Earlier this year, the New York Times revealed the presence of 125,000 lowland gorillas in the Congo, a species previously believed to be critically endangered. This rare piece of good news was due in part to the conservation efforts of my government.

But it is not easy to be an environmental guardian in Africa. Our resources are limited: my government’s annual income is $3.5 billion and the Republic of Congo struggles with high levels of infant mortality, HIV/AIDS and malaria. The United States and several American NGOs have taken unprecedented steps in recent years to fight these scourges, demonstrating how a concerted multinational effort can produce a real sea of change. We need the same technical expertise and resources of the West to develop sound environmental policies which benefit us all.

I ask you to convene a summit of the six Congo Basin governments and your G8 colleagues so that together we can produce an environmental blueprint that will save the Basin.

Ten African leaders from the Congo Basin countries and beyond, along with NGOs and multilateral agencies, attended the 6th World Forum for Sustainable Development in Brazzaville, the capital of my country — the first time it has been held in Africa. We met to draw up an action plan in the face of increasing climate change and called for the creation of an African Sustainable Development Fund to boost sustainable development in the Congo Basin. By protecting the Basin, we will help all mankind, but doing so will be difficult without the active assistance of the United States and other industrialized nations.

You only have to look back a few years to see how much progress Africa has made. Countries have moved from the category of failed states to being attractive foreign investment destinations. Several African governments now enjoy budget surpluses. We want to solve these problems and increase the tempo of African growth.

Please work with us — you will find us enthusiastic and creative partners. The benefits will rebound to your own people as well as to ours.

Yours truly,

Denis Sassou Nguesso
President
Republic of Congo