Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC July 19, 2007
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Diversification FundSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice today announced that an additional $375,000 will be allocated for the U.S.-Africa Sanitary-Phytosanitary Capacity Building Program (SPS) within the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Diversification Fund.
With Secretary Rice’s announcement, the State Department has allocated a total of $875,000 to the U.S.-Africa Sanitary-Phytosanitary Capacity Building Program. Funding this program is part of the State Department’s overall $5 million commitment to the AGOA Diversification Fund that Secretary Rice initially launched at the 2005 AGOA Forum in Dakar, Senegal.
The U.S.-Africa Sanitary-Phytosanitary Capacity Building Program seeks to do the following:
- Partner with African scientists and scholars to promote development of sound agricultural science policy, teaching, and research techniques.
- Improve agricultural sanitary-phytosanitary capacity building within Africa.
- Overcome major barriers to agricultural trade for African crops being imported to the United States.
- Increase the export of African horticultural products to world markets.
August 2007 will mark the launch of the U.S.-Africa Sanitary-Phytosanitary Capacity Building Program. Texas A&M University and Ohio State University will host the first seven participants of the U.S.-Africa Sanitary-Phytosanitary Capacity Building Program from the following AGOA countries:
Botswana
Ghana
Mauritius
Nigeria
Senegal
Uganda
2007/612
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