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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman


The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Diversification Fund

Secretary 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