The emphasis on more aid for Africa is being stressed every year, striving to increase the approximate $50 billion of International assistance that is already sent to Africa annually. However, despite this tremendous amount of money that successively flows Into the continent, African countries are still trapped In a cycle of slow economic growth and an endless struggle with poverty and famine. In fact, the aid cult has put African countries under the higher pressure of debts, inflation, leaving it more vulnerable to the caprice of currency market and thus less attractive to foreign investors. Development aid has been flowing to Africa for many decades. The prior aim of It was to improve the poor economic situation and poverty in African entries.
Nevertheless, It has not managed to establish a sustainable economic growth nor eliminated the poverty In any part of the third world. Development lad rather boosts the corruption and slows down the growth. In past more than 60 years, more than $1 trillion of aid was provided to Africa, but the number of Africans who live on $2 or less a dollar a day has nearly doubled, reaching 70 percent. 2 While looking at current situation, one important question might rise: Why do foreign countries still keep on giving lad when it Is clearly not working?
To answer this question, It Is Important to know that development lad Is not the same as charity. Development aid is not a pure act of generosity of western donors. As much as $1 trillion sounds like a very high number and it is not. The US turns over $14 trillion every year and Global GAP of 2012 is almost $70 trillion a year. Thus, even if a whole trillion was given to Africa, it, after dividing by number of African population, makes only $60 per person per year. 3 Also, almost half of lad is in the form of loans so a large part of It Is coming back with interests.
In asses there was a fairly aggressive bet-relief campaign but Africans still pay close to $20 billion In debt repayments yearly. In order to do so, governments subtract money from education and health care. Nevertheless, these actions mean very little when the duty is fulfilled and another aid infusion is taken and the whole cycle begins again. By providing aid, western countries also keep that attention from the trade barriers in Africa so that they can protect the employment in US and Europe.
These trade barriers cost Africa Although, some might argue that there is an undeniable moral obligation for Unitarian and charity organizations to take an action when it is necessary, it is important to reconsider what is and is not in their capacity. Undoubtedly, aid- supported scholarships have helped young African girls to school education. In 1960, fifty percent of children went to school, now it’s already 82%, the child mortality has also dropped by more than one half in past 30 years. However, the activity of expanding the education becomes somehow contra-productive since majority of them are not able to find a Job after graduating simply because there is a lack of Job sections. As a result, more children can read, write and speak English but majority of them end up making living in a hustle. The images of undernourished African babies, starving indigent Africans with misery reflecting in their eyes, act upon pity of potential donors that might feel obligated to provide help.
Nevertheless, good intentions do not guarantee a good result. One of deeply rooted misconceptions is the responsibility industrialized countries feel for the situation in Africa. At the conference in Bonn on International Development policy in August 2009, the German resident Horst KГ¶heeler, a passionate African development aid defender, expressed his displeasure with an energy partnership between Germany and Africa as following: “l cannot discern that the amount of electricity in Nigeria has increased since then.
And I find it shameful for the industrialized countries, as well as for those responsible in Nigeria, that this large country, rich as it is in resources essentially, can’t advance its socio-economic development because it hasn’t yet managed to bring electricity to its rural areas. I find this shameful for the entire development operation that has existed for decades. ” Noticeably, Koehler in his speech attributes the poor energy situation in Nigeria to industrialized countries. In his words, it seems like Nigeria is unable to solve the energy problem itself and thus the responsibility comes down on industrialized countries.
But are they really obliged to provide energy in one of the world’s largest oil exporting countries? Or more precisely, do they deserve to be blamed if they do not? In fact, this mother-like ruminating is in direct opposition with the subsidiaries principle. As the principle tastes, a provider of aid, should not “assume any duties that could be carried out by the receiver country itself” (Gerhard). Moreover, it also assigns that aid provided to be such that it can be ceased as soon as possible.
Lack of knowledge or unawareness of alternatives may in fact cause more harm than good. Moreover, this kind of aid can serve as a cure for immediate suffering but cannot build a platform strong enough for long-term growth. The most noticeable drawback of aid politics is its link to the corruption. As Dampish Mayo, a Zambia economist, an author of book called “Dead Aid”, claims; the aid destined to help the average African result in feeding bureaucracies in the form of poor-country governments and donor-funded non-governmental organizations”. In a hearing before U. S.
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Jeffrey Winters, a professor at North-western University, claimed that the World Bank has contributed to the corruption of approximately $100 billion of its loan fund intended for development. Development aid is beneficial mainly for people who are directly incorporated. The donors, especially those abroad, have a good income. Way that they do not spare advantages on themselves either. In other words, they do not have a single reason to change situation as it is. In fact, 85 percent of the aid is used other than intended purposes.
According to Transparency International 2012 report that measures the public perception of corruption in the public sector, Africa is an evident winner. It was found to be most corrupt area in the world, with six nations among the 10 most corrupt countries: Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Burundi, Angola and Equatorial Guiana. 5 The core of progress lies in creating wealth, not reducing poverty. Thousands of foreign-educated Africans come back to their home countries tit skills and desire to open businesses but it is aid that often discredits their effort.
Many of them start with opening a small business selling items like T-shirts or mosquito nets. However, most of them bankrupt before they even come to bloom because no matter for how low price are willing to sell the goods, they will never be able to compete with those that are given for free. As Kenya economist James Kuwaiti says himself: “We can fight malaria by distributing free mosquito nets, which may cost $10-$60 each by the time you get them down often impassable dirt roads. Or we can train locals how to operate a business spraying homes with an insecticide that will keep them mosquito-free for six months at about $2 a family. 6 A rapid stream of easy money simply does not give governments any reasons to for instance raise taxes or take in consideration its embittered citizens. Most of them are therefore disfranchised since without taxation, there cannot be any representation either. In the meantime, governments keep on endeavoring and catering to their donors in order to conserve their power status. Trapped in the aid maize without any inducements, the governments do not have a need to search for better ways of increasing development finance (such as accessing bond market).
Instead, they would rather ask the donors for next capital inflow. For example, in Ethiopia, where aid makes about 90% of the government budget, only 2% of the population own cell phones. Africa has never got so much of attention of the West as today, thanks not only to influential figures in politics , but also to celebrities like Angelina Joliet and Madonna who add certain “coolness” to adopting African babies. Their urging on western help to Africa, however, seems to omit Africans’ role in transformation of their own countries. Most African countries gained independence after 1960.
The simplest way to determine whether foreign aid works is to take a glance at current economic situation of African countries. Even after many years of autonomy, the continent is still facing problems of corruption, slow economic growth, low-life expectancy, and corruption. Why is it so? Africa is very rich in natural resources like oil, gold, or diamonds. Does it even need foreign aid? If countries like Russia, Poland and Bolivia in times of deep crisis had to adapt to market in order to et back on their feet, why Africa cannot?
The situation can be improved by for instance, issuing government bonds, boosting export by emerging markets like India or China, attracting foreign investment so that they would stop perceiving Africa as a victim crying out for help but rather a land of opportunity. It for sure not a goal to accomplish within few years but it is possible. In countries like China or Middle East, there are large financial reserves that wait for the right investment opportunity. Africans have to understand that they have to take the control over these issues cover.
