President Barack Obama is leading a town hall meeting at the White House with 115 young leaders from more than 40 sub-Saharan African countries on August 3. The meeting is part of his Forum with Young African Leaders, which brings together participants from both the public and private sector and provides them the opportunity to interact with each other, their American counterparts and U.S. government officials.

Almami Cyllah, IFES Regional Director for Africa, comments: 

"The fact that President Obama took the initiative to host this forum for young African leaders is an encouraging sign. It shows that he is aware that the youth will one day lead the Continent and it is important to provide them opportunities to engage with each other and their U.S. counterparts to exchange ideas and learn different ways of moving Africa forward. 

This meeting will be especially fruitful if President Obama stresses the importance of good governance for the African nations to prosper. We have seen the ravaging effects of years of bad governance. We have also seen that pouring aid into countries that are badly governed is like throwing money into a bottomless pit—it does little to help the population. 

At this time, it is especially important that the future leaders of Africa learn to care about governing well and establishing true democracy. Africa no longer depends solely on Western countries who demand attention be paid to human rights and democratic values in exchange for aid. China is now offering economic investment without demanding clean human rights records."