State Department intern Kirsten L. Salyer works in the Office of Policy Planning and writes for the America.gov blog Obama Today. She is a student at Northwestern University majoring in journalism and international studies.

“It was like eating good food, that speech,” Sylvia Chabad of Zambia said of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s keynote address at the ninth annual U.S.–Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Forum, or AGOA Forum.

Chabad, who works as a caterer, spoke to me as we waited in a hallway with other members of the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program before a discussion on “Integrating Africa’s Women into the Global Economy.” The hope and promise of sustainable democracy and opportunity were what they wanted and needed to hear, the women told me.

When I signed up to volunteer at the forum, I expected the focus to be heavily on trade relations and economic negotiations between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa. But while economic growth, productivity and investment outlined the structure of conversation, the themes of democracy, governance, human rights and civil inclusion emerged as the underlying topics of discussion.

Clinton told the forum that increasing productivity and attracting investment are tied to improving food security, fighting poverty and increasing women’s rights. Economic growth is not enough without ensuring political stability and good governance, she said.

But more than the statistics in Clinton’s speech (Africa’s economy is expected to grow at a rate of 4.5 percent in 2011) or the high-level partnership dialogue between African ministers and U.S. government officials, the 34 women entrepreneurs attending the forum stood out to me as proof of the continent’s potential.

Here were individuals seizing the opportunities lauded in the panelists’ discussions and the secretary’s remarks, and working to take action in their communities. Their examples reminded me of one of the basic lessons of democracy: the power of a country is the power of its people.