As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations for more than a decade, Senator Leahy has been one of the Senate's leading proponents for focusing additional U.S. attention and resources to help the people of Africa.  

Plagued by poverty, conflict, and disease, Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world's poorest places.  Seventy percent of its people live on less than $2 a day and 200 million go hungry everyday. Every year, millions of Africans, the majority of them young children, will die of malaria and AIDS.

Development assistance is essential to build the capacity of these countries to provide critical humanitarian needs such as clean water, health care, food, and basic education.  In addition to responding to humanitarian crises in Africa, I have worked to create a more sustained, comprehensive approach necessary to help promote peace and prosperity on the continent.