Under President Trump’s second term, U.S. foreign policy has undergone significant shifts, with direct implications for U.S.-Africa relations. To explore these changes, Development Reimagined (DR) hosted an expert roundtable on March 11, 2025, bringing together key thought leaders, policymakers, and experts in the U.S.-Africa space to assess the evolving dynamics and identify actionable opportunities for cooperation.
The session opened with a presentation on tracking by Development Reimagined on commitments from the U.S.- Africa Leaders’ Summit (USALS) in December 2020. It revealed that 72% of the 165 commitments made showed progress, with the health sector leading in completion rates. This set the stage for comprehensive discussion on the trajectory of President Trump’s foreign policy in his second term, particularly in terms of economic partnerships and diplomatic priorities for Africa.
A key theme of the discussion was the critical minerals sector as a potential cornerstone for U.S.-Africa cooperation going forward. Participants discussed how African leaders could leverage the continent’s critical minerals endowment to align the U.S. quest for critical minerals security with Africa’s broader industrialization goals and the strengthening of internal value chains.
The roundtable examined structural approaches and challenges to U.S.-Africa engagement. Participants discussed the implications of shifting from multilateral cooperation to more transactional, country-specific diplomatic engagement. While some participants viewed these tailored deals as a pragmatic approach to securing African interests, others raised concerns about the potential loss of leverage that multilateral coordination provides. This ongoing debate highlights the need for African policymakers to establish a strategic foothold in their engagement with the U.S. in the context of an ‘America-first’ foreign policy.
Further, the discussion underscored the indispensable role of the U.S. as a partner for African countries and the importance of strengthening diplomacy moving forward on a bilateral basis but also at the multilateral scale.
Held under Chatham House rules, the virtual roundtable was part of a three-part series which aims to bring together key thought leaders, policymakers and experts in the US-Africa space to share expertise and coordinate on how to proactively advance African interests in U.S.-Africa engagement.
To read more about the current state of play of US-Africa relations, keep an eye out for Development Reimagined’s upcoming report, set to be released in April 2025.
If you would like a summary report of the discussion, or if you are an expert in US-Africa relations and are interested in joining future discussions, please contact experts@developmentreimagined.com
