Power Africa - Obama Presidency Oral History

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Power Africa

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Gayle Smith

...Security Act. And then the other was Power Africa , which is one of the things that I'...
...decisions. As I say, moving things like Power Africa and those things as far as we coul...
...those humanitarian crises. You look at Power Africa . You look at Feed the Future. You loo...

Susan Rice

...to global health security efforts, to Power Africa , entrepreneurship. We had a whol...

William Burns

...of pretty innovative programs, on Power Africa , for example, to help deal with som...

Johnnie Carson

...still not come. And the third one, Power Africa . The focus on power in Africa wa...
...back against. I think Feed the Future, Power Africa , YALI all reflected positiv...
...began to overlap, an expansion of the Power Africa initiative, expansion of the Feed th...

Hillary Clinton

...Feed the Future, being one of them, Power Africa . Was there any thinking about a ne...
...programs like Feed the Future, Power Africa , is there something new in the model...
...a very important and promising program. Power Africa , similarly, came out of the work don...
...we leapfrog into renewable energy. And Power Africa was the Obama administration's attemp...

Michael Froman

...energy resources. And we announced Power Africa , whose goal was to double th...
...it done. Yes, I'm quite familiar with Power Africa . I didn't realize it had come out o...
...approach or developing a program like Power Africa with USAID—I don't know if OPEC wa...
...next level. There was Feed the Future, Power Africa , something called Trade Africa, AGO...
...we talked about Feed the Future and Power Africa . The view was, we could engage i...

Andrew Herscowitz

...as United States coordinator for the Power Africa initiative, which President Obam...
...an event shortly after the launch of Power Africa when you're talking about th...
...was part of the idea behind what became Power Africa is, how can we take a private secto...
...all continued through this day. Then Power Africa really took what we learned from all o...
...so interesting. Before we get to Power Africa , I want to ask a little bit more abou...

...silly articles. Before we move on to Power Africa , is there anything else you'd like t...
...the two countries. When does the Power Africa story start for you? I'm in Ecuador...
...wasn't afraid to break some china on Power Africa to do this. That was the reason the...
...sectors. When I was called about Power Africa , that was my chance to operationaliz...
...had the freedom then to design Power Africa , or in whatever form it was then...
...wrote up an org chart of what I thought Power Africa should look like, having run a coupl...
...weekends. I wrote up a strategy for Power Africa about these are the tools that we nee...
...to go out and give speeches about Power Africa . We brought together all of thes...
...as coordinator. I didn't choose “CEO of Power Africa ” or “the Power Africa czar.” I wante...
...choose “CEO of Power Africa” or “the Power Africa czar.” I wanted the word “coordinator...
...wanted to make it clear I'm not leading Power Africa . The leaders of Power Africa are th...
...leading Power Africa. The leaders of Power Africa are the heads of all the twelv...
...would get asked to come and speak about Power Africa . I would do that a lot, but I woul...
...But the people who are looking at Power Africa , members of Congress when they travel...
...agencies said, “Wait a second. This Power Africa Coordinator's Office isn't just talk...
...the cable that went out to announce Power Africa at one point had to be pulled back an...
...the difference. I was a coordinator for Power Africa and Trade Africa. Everybody forget...
...a decision made that AID would lead on Power Africa . There was never a decision made tha...
...interesting. President Obama announces Power Africa at the end of June in South Africa...
...that every agency that was supporting Power Africa was still operating in many othe...
...going to call an OPIC deal in Rwanda a Power Africa deal? When we announced these priorit...
...of state saying, “We were left out of Power Africa .” And it wasn't true. They weren'...
...wasn't true. They weren't left out of Power Africa . We created that problem for ourselve...
...of support on a bipartisan basis for Power Africa and then what Congress eventuall...
...what that involved? The model of Power Africa was that the US government is not doin...
...place to stay that night. That's what Power Africa was. We made a giant pot of stone sou...
...it all up. Then what we did on the Power Africa Coordinator's Office is, we ha...
...learned a tremendous amount from the Power Africa experience. And you now have a hug...
...US government who all were part of Power Africa who bring this wealth of experience t...
...Council call meetings now, and it's all Power Africa alums who were there who can say, “W...
...Deal Teams, but they were interagency Power Africa working groups. The other thing that w...
...That language was so common around Power Africa . What does that kind of language mis...
...One thing that's so distinctive about Power Africa is this transaction approach t...
...environment. I was curious how you saw Power Africa 's focus on individual transaction...
...biggest change, and this is what made Power Africa so powerful is taking thi...
...resources on those. And I imagine the Power Africa transaction advisors were important t...
...with South Africa and the US was Power Africa . It was right after the time that w...
...So much of the early press coverage of Power Africa framed the initiative as the Whit...
...whether there was discussion about how Power Africa would relate to, say, Chinese suppor...
...Are there things related to Power Africa where we can collaborate with them?...
...the South Koreans to become a part of Power Africa . Because we said, “All right, we woul...
...governments or countries would play Power Africa off Chinese financial vehicles, thi...
...of power. Did you think the focus in Power Africa projects or transactions on generatio...
...power generation. And I believe that Power Africa was involved in some of the reform...
...saga with the Export-Import Bank impact Power Africa 's operations? I wouldn't call it ...
...that were facilitated through Power Africa were off-grid connections. Did you hav...
...don't reach financial close. The Power Africa reporting was actually more stringent...
...question of transparency and reporting: Power Africa had an app, the Power Africa Trackin...
...reporting: Power Africa had an app, the Power Africa Tracking Tool. Why was it importan...
...going on here?” As soon as I left Power Africa , I think the team killed it, but ...
...in using and willing to pay for. Did Power Africa have a capacity to shift Africa...
...is switching gears, but I read that Power Africa was involved in providing generators t...
...Could you tell that story of how Power Africa became involved? That's one of th...
...that were already available within Power Africa . Yes. It's the idea of th...
...That was one of the nice things about Power Africa is, compared to other USAID program...
...which are heavily earmarked, while the Power Africa money itself might've been softl...
...might've been softly earmarked, once Power Africa had the money we could say, “Hey, thi...
...that private companies would relate to Power Africa , relate to your offices. I know you'v...
...who wanted to be associated with Power Africa . This is one of the reasons we did du...
...all of the companies before they joined Power Africa . We weren't doing due diligence in th...
...is that there was value in becoming a Power Africa partner. There was one company that...
...talking to a company about becoming a Power Africa partner, we've now seen that there'...
...was value to some companies and being a Power Africa partner. While we're talking abou...
...what the role of the White House is in Power Africa . When you're thinking about question...
...Council was heavily involved in Power Africa and still remains heavily involved i...
...heavily involved in it. There was a Power Africa working group that I cochaired with th...
...place during this period and at which Power Africa plays a part. The US-Africa Leader...
...what role those summits played in Power Africa 's ability to create partnerships. ...
...action-forcing events. They benefited Power Africa tremendously; because whenever you hav...
...because we were producing a lot. So Power Africa became a little bit of a darling o...
...commitment to Power Africa for the next five years. Unfortunately...
...official the roles associated with the Power Africa working group and with the program. Yo...
...efforts to institutionalize the work of Power Africa and one that we've all been working o...
...I briefed White House officials about Power Africa , the response I got from everyon...
...he said, “This is going to be like Power Africa . We're not appropriating a trillio...
...of my colleagues who had worked with Power Africa early on, Agnes Dasewicz—she then wa...
...creating something along the lines of Power Africa for the domestic side as well. So yo...
...Trump's term, and talked about Power Africa and how glad Israel was to become ...
...glad Israel was to become a partner of Power Africa . Yes, that's important. I'...
...chance where I got to show him some of Power Africa 's products and transactions as well...
...the White House offered to front-load Power Africa with resources. We turned it dow...
...climate. It's sort of contemporary to Power Africa , the increase of Power Africa'...
...to Power Africa, the increase of Power Africa 's activities, are the Obam...
...increasing topics. I was curious if Power Africa was mobilized in some way in relatio...
...Leaders Initiative [YALI]. I know that Power Africa was involved in some capacity with tha...
...YALI was launched at the same time as Power Africa . Its funding started to get reduced ...
...think a little bit about the legacy of Power Africa . I thought maybe one way of doing tha...
...if there were certain lessons from Power Africa that informed or if Power Afric...
...from Power Africa that informed or if Power Africa exposed a need for an agency like DFC...
...agency like DFC, and how the lessons of Power Africa were playing out across the U...
...back that created DFC. They saw what Power Africa had done by working across th...
...what would've been possible with Power Africa during the Obama administration, had i...
...it been in place? Would DFC exist if Power Africa didn't exist? Is that your question? O...
...the possibilities open to you as a Power Africa coordinator. I don't think so. It wa...
...Hopefully we'll get there. But even Power Africa , we made pseudo equity investments. W...

Power Africa - Obama Presidency Oral History

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