The National Academy of Public Administration

The National Academy of Public Administration, in partnership with the US Agency for International Development, held a working conference, bringing together Sub-Saharan African public officials, experts, and organizational representatives from the international community to develop a strategy to deal with the devastating effects the AIDS epidemic has had on African teachers, administrators and civil servants in Ministries of Education.

The Academy used its convening authority to assemble a small-about 30-group of experts, practitioners and policy-makers who were charged with identifying and developing strategies that Sub-Saharan African governments can employ to immediately prevent the further annihilation of their teaching and civil service corps and to manage a decimated educational workforce already impacted by the AIDS epidemic.

The Strategy Paper produced as a result of the conference is available here. For more details on the conference click on the links on the left-hand side menu options.

The working conference was held on November 17-18, 2003 at the Academy’s offices at 1100 New York Avenue, Washington, DC 20005.

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Academy Fellow Publishes Memories

"Apartheid South Africa was on fire around me." So begins the memoir of Academy Fellow and Career Foreign Service Officer Edward J. Perkins, the first black U.S. ambassador to South Africa.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan gave him an unparalleled assignment: dismantle apartheid without violence. As he fulfilled this assignment, Perkins faced enormous challenges posed by the American media, Afrikaner government, white South African citizens, and initially black South African revolutionaries. It was Perkins' advice to President-elect George H.W. Bush that helped modify American policy and hasten the release of Nelson Mandela and others from prison.

Perkins's up-by-your-bootstraps life took him from a cotton farm in segregated Louisiana to the U.S. Foreign Service, where he became the first black officer to ascend to the top position of director general.

This is the story of how one man turned the page of history.

Buy"Mr. Ambassador: Warrior for Peace"

The views expressed in this book are those of the Fellow. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Academy as an institution.

Mr Edward J. Perkins First black U.S. ambassador to South Africa