President Obama met with All Africa reporters Charles Cobb, Jr., Reed Kramer and Tamela Hultman at the White House to discuss issues facing the continent ahead of his upcoming trip to Ghana. The interview was recorded on July 3, 2009.

The President highlights the relationship between good goverance and prosperity. It is in this light that Administration chose Ghana as the first country to visit in sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana last year accomplished something very few other African countries have managed to do. Ghana held its third successive increasingly fair, free and transparent election in which the opposition managed to eke out a narrow win.

Africa gets scant attention in the US media. Most the coverage centers either on exploitation of its natural resources, brutal dictatorships, piracy off the coast of Somalia and on various humanitarian crisis that plague the continent. But there are African success stories and many more works-in-progress.

The transcript from All Africa:

We asked visitors to our site, allAfrica.com, what they might be interested in with respect to your policy. And as you might imagine, the responses are everywhere: conflict resolution, development issues, trade issues, et cetera. But they and we have one immediate question: How is it that you happened to pick Ghana as the first place to visit in sub-Saharan Africa?

Well, part of the reason is because Ghana has now undergone a couple of successful elections in which power was transferred peacefully, even a very close election. I think that the new president, President Mills, has shown himself committed to the rule of law, to the kinds of democratic commitments that ensure stability in a country. And I think that there is a direct correlation between governance and prosperity. Countries that are governed well, that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people and that institutions are stronger than any one person have a track record of producing results for the people. And we want to highlight that.

And I assume that you'd like to see a lot more 'Ghanas' in Africa. And part of your policy would be, I assume, to encourage that.

Absolutely.

How?

Well, part of it is lifting up successful models. And so, by traveling to Ghana, we hope to highlight the effective governance that they have in place.

I don't think that we can expect that every country is going to undergo these transitions in the same way at the same time. But we have seen progress in democracy and transparency and rule of law, in the protection of property rights, in anti-corruption efforts. We have seen progress over the last several years; in some cases, though, we're also seeing some backsliding. In my father's own country of Kenya, I'm concerned about how the political parties do not seem to be moving into a permanent reconciliation that would allow the country to move forward. And Kenya is not alone in some of the problems that we've seen of late, post-election or pre-election.

And we just want to make sure that people are mindful that this isn't just some abstract notion that we're trying to impose on Africa. There is a very practical, pragmatic consequence to political instability and corruption when it comes to whether people can feed their families, educate their children, and we think that Africa - the African continent is a place of extraordinary promise as well as challenges. We're not going to be able to fulfill those promises unless we see better governance.

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Wanted: Good Ideas that Fight Corruption 

The Global Integrity Impact Challenge is seeking proposals for projects that use Global Integrity's diagnostic tools to fight corruption. The best proposals get a US$1,000 prize and a chance to pitch the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) for funding to implement their ideas.  This year, Global Integrity released our third annual assessment of anti-corruption and good governance trends around the world.

The Global Integrity Report: 2008 highlights the strengths and weaknesses of government accountability mechanisms in specific country contexts, creating a checklist for incremental reforms. Now that the data has been gathered, where do we start addressing these governance gaps?  This a question that Global Integrity believes has to be answered locally.  

To answer this question, the Global Integrity Challenge will offer cash prizes to groups that use the Report's Integrity Indicators to develop projects that fight corruption. We're looking to promote direct linkages between the problem of corruption, Global Integrity's diagnostic tools, [your proposed project here] and measurable change on the ground. For more information on the types of proposals that Global Integrity Challenge is accepting and the application process, please visit Impact Challenge.

The application deadline is April 5th, 2009.  A jury will review the proposals and select six to ten finalists. An online public vote will select three winners. Each winner will receive a US $1,000 prize as well as an introduction to the Partnership for Transparency Fund, an organization that provides grants to groups working on corruption issues.  You can learn more about the Impact Challenge at Impact Challenge.

Democracy and good governance begins with each one of us.

Global Integrity is an independent, non-profit organization tracking governance and corruption trends around the world.

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