Julius Cole, President of Africare, evaluates Bush's role in Africa:

A generation from now, when historians analyze the turning point in Africa's development, they may have to credit George W. Bush with playing a surprisingly important role in the continent's economic progress.

Bush came to the presidency without deep knowledge of the developing world, dismissive of nation-building and skeptical of the value of foreign assistance. Yet today he appears intent on being remembered as an American president who did much in real terms to secure Africa's future.

....

Bush has put the United States -- and its Treasury -- firmly behind African development. He has established an ambitious program to combat HIV-AIDS, created the Millennium Challenge Corp. to reward good governance and supported massive debt reduction. At Gleneagles he also unveiled a major campaign against Africa's leading killer of children: malaria.

While the United States, as the richest nation in the world, should do more to address poverty, it has already provided or promised substantially more financial assistance to developing countries than any other nation. When Bush first took office, this record appeared in jeopardy. When he leaves office, if he sustains his commitment to peace, health and development in Africa -- which was completely off Candidate Bush's radar in 2000 -- it could stand as one of his most important achievements.

Read it here.

All in all, it's an impressive achievement, of which any president would be justly proud, but in Bush's case it takes a back seat to his role as liberator in the Middle East and the former Soviet empire.

I keep saying -- Bush is turning out to be one of the great ones.