Corporate Council on Africa

The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) strengthens commercial relations between the US and the countries of Africa and promotes long-term investment in Africa with the goal of sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. One particular project undertaken by CCA linked South African black-owned businesses with American businesses to strengthen their capacity and competitiveness. Finally, the CCA launched in 2007 the Agribusiness Initiatives Program to support private sector development in conjunction with the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD)’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). This grant is a part of CCA’s Agribusiness Initiatives Program, and is a planning grant for a project that will address the lack of agribusiness programs at business schools in Africa; thus, African countries suffer from a lack of capacity to diversify their economies, and increase value-added by upgrading from exporting simple agricultural products to more value-added ones. The goal of this grant is to create a proposal and judge interest for agribusiness programs at African university business schools. This grant, should the initial stages attract funding and interest, directly relates to the goals of the Global Development Program as it would strengthen developing country policies towards agriculture and promote agricultural technical capacity.