As the world's euphoria following Barack Obama's election fades (watch VOA's Africa coverage above), what can Africa expect from America's first African-American president — especially when it comes to issues of global poverty?

Many Africans are hopeful that Obama will work to vigorously tackle poverty and disease throughout Africa. Former South African President Nelson Mandela echoed those sentiments in a note of congratulations to President-Elect Obama: "We trust that you will also make it the mission of your presidency to combat the scourge of poverty and disease everywhere."

Are those hopes well-founded? Perhaps. President-elect Obama was a key sponsor of The Global Poverty Act which seeks to cut global poverty in half by 2015. After its passage in February of this year, Obama stated:

With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces. It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America's standing in the world, this important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing world.

Some humanitarian agencies, like World Vision, are already strongly urging President-Elect Obama presidency to increase foreign assistance, food aid in order to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.

But will the current global economic crisis limit these commitments to poverty alleviation? During the Vice Presidential debate, Vice President-elect Joe Biden admitted that given the current state of the economy an Obama administration may need to "slow down" their previous commitment to doubling foreign assistance.

Obama isn't talking about poverty alleviation nowadays. He (and everyone else) is focused on the U.S. economy. So despite the world's hopeful outlook, it's still unclear how Africa — and its poor — will benefit from America's first African-American president.

The world is buzzing about the U.S. election results, and Afghanistan — where I'm collecting stories on Mercy Corps projects — is no exception. When we arrived at Mercy Corps' Kunduz office on Election Day, everyone there was quizzing us on the Electoral Vote count, and what states Obama was winning or close to it. In the days since, I've broached the subject with everyone from a group of young hotel employees to a trio of farmers in the hills east of Kunduz. Everyone had something to say about it.

"We hope that he will increase assistance to Afghanistan," said Syeed, a wheat farmer in Burka Province. He and his companions were happy about Obama's pledge of financial support to their country. "We will support anyone who says they will bring that kind of help to our country."

Many Afghans were elated about Obama's Muslim heritage, even if Obama himself is a Christian. "Simply having those roots in his family is big for us," said Enyatullah, one of our waiters at a Kunduz hotel. "Our religion has been seen as so terrible in the United States."

I was sure I'd hear at least some concern about Obama's pledge to send more U.S. troops to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Surprisingly, though, that's one of the reasons people said they were thrilled with Obama's election. Amanullah Amin, a civil engineer I spoke to, was convinced that Obama "will attack the roots of terror in the country. There is a saying here: If you want a clean river, don't go to the middle, don't go to the end — go to the source."

We were driving through the desert Wednesday morning while Obama spoke in Chicago's Grant Park, but Miguel and I watched the replay on CNN that night in our Kunduz hotel room. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

The October 18 issue of the Economist. Photo: The Economist

The credit and financial crisis that has engulfed the world has created a firestorm of comment about capitalism and free markets.

The cover of the October 18th issue of the Economist proclaims, "Capitalism at Bay." The lead editorial quotes French President Nicolas Sarkozy declaring: "Laissez-faire is finished."

If he is correct, what does that mean to Global Envision? We are founded on the belief that markets provide an important way for the poor to work their way out of poverty. Mercy Corps, our parent organization, is similarly oriented, boasting "community-led and market-driven" programs. The fate of capitalism impacts the world — especially its poorest residents.

Sarkozy tends to make conflicting statements — in the same speech that he declared laissez-faire was finished he also said “capitalism is the system that has enabled the extraordinary development of western civilization” — so I suggest we not take the current European Union president too literally.

Markets, in fact, have impacted the entire world, not just in the West. As the Economist points out, "In fact, far from failing, the overall lowering of 'barriers to intercourse' over the past 25 years has delivered wealth and freedom on a dramatic scale. Hundreds of millions of people have been dragged out of absolute poverty. "

If the result of the credit crisis is a retreat from the market economy, it will be a very sad result. “This is a difficult time to defend free markets," opines the Financial Times. "Nevertheless they must be defended, not only on their matchless record when it comes to raising living standards, but on the maxim that it is wise to let adults exercise their own judgment.”

On this last point: Some of the judgment exercised in the credit crisis has been so poor that even those of us who favor free markets are ready to consider some degree of credit-market oversight going forward.

To what extent the U.S. is willing to fight for freer markets will depend largely on the policies of President-elect Barack Obama.

His campaign position on trade, at least, is a worry. His emphasis has varied over the last 20 months, but a protectionist position — as some of his supporters will undoubtedly push for — it would be sad not only for America but for the world's poor. My guess — and my hope — is that he'll focus on making trade more friendly to the environment and to workers, but not create barriers to trade. He's also likely to create programs to retrain those whose jobs are shipped overseas. This is important. People do lose jobs because of trade agreements (although more new jobs are created by them than are lost).

Companies like General Electric and Caterpillar are already lobbying the yet-to-be formed Obama administration to resist calls for greater protectionism.

"When people are afraid, they want to create barriers to trade,'' GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said in an Oct. 27 speech at Columbia University in New York. "It would be a real crime, I think, if we allowed the current economic volatility to make us move backward in globalization.''

Mary O'Grady and OpinionJournal.com discuss the historical impact of trade barriers on Latin America and if the expansion of free trade will continue in Latin America under Barack Obama or John McCain.

Watch the video from The Wall Street Journal.