Overview: Africa

OSI’s Africa initiatives seek to contravene the stereotype of Africa as a hopeless continent wrought with chaos, violence, poverty, and degradation. The three Soros foundations in Africa—the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa—locate visions of open societies in their respective regions which serve to combat negative perceptions about Africa. The initiatives’ strength lies in their roots in communities and countries that stimulate and create African solutions to African challenges.

Recent challenges have included politically motivated violence, human rights violations, humanitarian emergencies, and dictatorial regimes in some countries. In others, however, significant steps have been made toward peace and democratic governance. In addition, on the heels of the merger of the Organization of African Unity into the African Union and the advance of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), particularly the Peer Review Mechanism, continental policy frameworks are moving swiftly in the direction of accountability and good governance.

Governments and local policymakers are also taking more aggressive action to address what is perhaps the continent’s greatest challenge—the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic in many nations. In 2003, after stalling on the HIV/AIDS crisis for years, the South African government directed the Health Ministry to provide anti-retroviral therapy to those in need. Despite such positive developments, however, the epidemic continues to be a public health catastrophe in many regions. In southern Africa, the noxious combination of HIV/AIDS and food insecurity has claimed many lives in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In West Africa, 2003 saw repeated warnings of the rise of incidence of HIV/AIDS from donor organizations, NGOs and even the regional body, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

OSI and the local Soros foundations have responded to these and other crises with creative solutions and space for open and informed dialogue. Operating programs bring innovative tools for education to rural areas, young girls and marginalized communities throughout South and Southern Africa. Also in Southern Africa, constitutional reform initiatives are active in Swaziland and Angola. In South Africa, the local foundation champions criminal justice reform and HIV/AIDS policy reform. Programs in West Africa assist community broadcasters in Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, among other countries, in bringing independent news, community health bulletins, and open space to speak about experiences during conflicts. Consistently building active and engaged societies, OSI’s African initiatives focus on dispelling outsiders’ belief in a doomed continent.