Respondents in a July mobile phone survey in Kenya – East Africa’s largest economy – chose China as their No. 1 most important partner over the U.S. and Europe.
But overall, the U.S. is considered Africa’s most important partner with China ranking No. 2 and Europe a distant third, according to responses from mobile phone users in message-based survey.
The ONE Campaign and GeoPoll surveyed 4,500 citizens of nine African countries via mobile phones in advance of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit “to see if the priorities of the people line up with those of their leaders,” according to a ONE statement.
In addition to questions about leadership, the survey also sought respondents’ views on their top health concerns, and how agricultural investments and reliable energy would benefit their communities.
When it came to the top three health concerns, respondents were more concerned about malaria (24 percent) than HIV/AIDS (22 percent). Access to medical care ranked as the third most-important health concern (20 percent).
Just 20 percent of respondents said President Barack Obama was very supportive of their top concerns, while 25 percent said he was somewhat supportive and 16 percent said he was “not at all” supportive.
Overall, the message is positive for the U.S. administration from the African citizens surveyed, according to the statement. Among those polled, the U.S. is considered Africa’s most important partner (37 percent), with China at 28 percent, and Europe at 17 percent.
A Denver, Colorado-based market research company, GeoPoll polled African countries with a population totaling 400 million people – a third of the continent. In each country, 400 people were asked 10 questions. The countries include Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda.
The U.S. ranked the most important partner for Africans in six out of nine countries, with the following exceptions: in Benin and Kenya, respondents chose China as their No. 1 most important partner. Tunisians chose Europe as their No. 1 partner.
Of those surveyed, 73 percent said the U.S. has a large impact (34 percent) or some impact (39 percent) on their communities. Eleven percent said the U.S. has a negative impact.
Africans listed their top concerns as education (21 percent), jobs (21 percent), and security (15 percent).
On the question of what issues are best addressed by their government, 6 percent of respondents said they think their government best addresses jobs and 15 percent said they believe it best addresses education. On the other hand, 30 percent of respondents chose security as the issue best addressed by their government.
Other survey findings include the following:
President Obama’s Power Africa initiative is a key feature of the summit.
– Respondents felt improved access to electricity would have the greatest impact on their personal incomes (34 percent) and education (25 percent) – which were their top two concerns overall.
– Nearly eight in 10 (78 percent) Africans surveyed responded that their governments should invest more in agriculture and nearly half (45 percent) responded they should “invest a lot more.”
ONE is a campaigning and advocacy group whose goal is to end poverty and preventable
disease, particularly in Africa. It is funded almost entirely by individual philanthropists, foundations and corporations.
“We believe it’s important for African and U.S. leaders meeting in Washington to hear directly from African citizens about their top priorities and the U.S.-Africa relationship in general,” said Tom Hart, U.S. Executive Director of ONE. “Since increasing access to electricity on the continent will be featured at the summit, we were interested to see that
respondents believe access to energy would most help education and jobs – the two issues respondents cited as their top concerns overall.
“And on the heels of our successful pro-agriculture campaign in Africa, called ‘Do Agric,’ we were delighted to see that nearly eight in 10 Africans surveyed want their governments to invest more in the agricultural sector.”
