ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½

President Joe Biden's announcement Dec. 15 that he will support membership of the 55-nation ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n Union in the Group of 20 nations (G-20) is a crucial step forward for the nations and people of ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½, as well as for the ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n diaspora in America and around the world.

As one Biden administration official acknowledged to Axios: "This administration starts with the conviction that ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ns are critical to addressing the most challenging problems of our time. It's a different frame than previous administrations. It's a focus on what we do with ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ns, not just what we do in ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½."

This partnership idea is something that many U.S. nonprofits have used successfully with local partners in ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ to build classrooms, provide food security and help support education. One example is ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ (BFA), a St. Paul-based nonprofit, which formed a partnership with the ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n Union in 2018 to provide thousands of books to the A.U. Library in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and to other locations.

The books have been a vital resource for students, researchers and academics who want to learn about ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n and global history, health, social and cultural affairs, and politics. BFA continues to ship books to schools, libraries, and universities throughout ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½. It has shipped more than 56 million books and served every one of the 55 ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n countries in the ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n Union since its founding in 1988. This includes millions of books sent to our home countries of Nigeria and Ethiopia — connections that we and our colleagues in the ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n diaspora have helped foster.