Rasna Warah
21 June 2009
opinion
Nairobi — RECENTLY, AID TO AFRICA has come under attack from the most unlikely quarters -- the Africans themselves. The most recent of these has come from Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist, whose recently-published book, Dead Aid, makes a convincing argument against foreign aid to Africa.
Moyo argues that Africans have for too long lived in "a culture of aid" that has failed to reduce poverty or promote economic growth on the continent. She calls for the eventual phasing out of aid altogether and for making African markets more efficient.
Despite billions of aid money being poured into government coffers every year, Africa continues to remain largely poor because aid fosters corruption and hinders the development of home-grown industries and solutions.
Moreover, aid doesn't come for free. Most of it has to be paid back, which means future generations of Africans are burdened with debt before they are even born. Even when things, such as mosquito nets, are given for free, they end up stunting or killing local industries that produce those things, which leads to more poverty.
Moyo proposes a mixture of trade, foreign direct investment, capital markets, the bond market, remittances and microfinance to lift Africans out of perennial poverty and to create the jobs needed for Africa's largely youthful population. For her insights, she was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people this year.
But not everyone is happy with what she has to say. Jeffrey Sachs, a leading proponent of more aid to Africa, who also happens to be director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and founder of the Millennium Villages Project (one of which is being implemented in Sauri, Kenya), calls Moyo's arguments "farcical", claiming that if her ideas are implemented, millions on the continent will suffer.
Moyo dismisses people like Sachs saying they suffer from "Western, liberal, guilt-ridden morality", which has made the continent "the focus of orchestrated world-wide pity" epitomised by the likes of Bono and Bob Geldof. People like these two have not just become the de facto faces of Africa in the West, they are actually defining the policy agenda for the continent in forums such as the G8 and G20.
In an interview, Moyo called this state of affairs "ridiculous" as it allows Western celebrities -- rather than African governments themselves -- to formulate policies for their own countries, a point that has also been made by the Tanzanian academic, Issa Shivji.
MOYO ARGUES FURTHER THAT, IF Africa needs a partner in its development, then that partner should be China, which invested $900 million in Africa in 2004, and is more interested in trading with the continent and building infrastructure that could propel the continent out of a never-ending cycle of poverty.
However, I must confess that even though I believe that Dead Aid is a path-breaking book that must be read by African policymakers, it is clear that the author has not spent enough time on the continent (though born and raised in Zambia, she spent much of her adult working life in the United Kingdom, where she is based).
Her book fails to reflect the nuances and particularities of place that make a "one-fits-all" prescription difficult to apply. There is also almost no reference to Africa's colonial history and the role it continues to play in perpetuating poverty in the region, nor does she address issues of social injustice in the region or how the very free markets she is advocating increased poverty and inequality.
Moyo's ideas are hardly new. Africans (economists such as George B.N. Ayittey and David Ndii, leaders such as Paul Kagame, and even writers such as myself) have written or spoken about the negative impact of aid on Africa. But none have achieved the kind of notoriety that she has.
Am I jealous? Sure I am. My recently-published anthology, Missionaries, Mercenaries and Misfits, which looks at the failures of the aid business in Africa, and which was published eight months before Dead Aid came out, barely got a mention in the local and international press and has sold less than 500 copies, while Moyo's book has already made it to the New York Times bestseller list.
But I am grateful that Moyo has managed to show all the Bonos, Bob Geldofs, Madonnas and Angelina Jolies of this world that aid doesn't work, hasn't worked and will not work in Africa.
Those who label her as a heartless cynic who doesn't care for the barefoot, malnourished African child, should ask themselves why there are more poor African children today than there were before aid became the mantra upon which Africa's development was hinged.
Ms Warah is an editor with the UN. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations.
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The problem with this article is that it assumes that all African countries have the same: problems (although we share certain common problems e.g. curroption), amount of mineral resources, man power, or political stability. Therefore, it makes it difficult for me to say that Aid should stop for all the countries in Africa.
The best way is to analyse each country individually. I know of one country I believe should stop receiving Aid and that it Nigeria. Despite any Aid received in the past, the greedy still find a way of benefiting themselves so with or without Aid the people still suffer. Besides, the country is rich in mineral resources, to the extent a former dictator, Abacha, can steal nearly 2 TRILLION DOLLARS (over half of the stimulus amount for the whole of the USA) and that is just Abacha not forgetting what his thugs stole from the Country.
With regards to war torn countries I believe what they need more urgently is military help. They need stability...
Correction I said 1 TRILLION while it is 1 BILLION but it is a lot of money anyway..
Aid as presently constituted should end, it,s not in Africa,s interest. Africa,s vast reserve of stolen funds in western banks should as a matter of urgency be returned to help with the process of national development across Africa,that,ll be more effective than the useless aid being brought in and subsequently repatriated through the back door using their equally useless N.G.O,s. KEEP YOUR AID, RETURN STOLEN FUNDS IN YOUR WATCH.
Ninety-five percent of NGOs in Africa are either EU, American or UN owned. They Channel Aid through their own NGOs. Call them Western GONGOs if you like. Apart from the WTO, IMF imbalance regulations, most of the Aid is characterised by paying huge sum of expertriate fee to their so call directors and field officers, 4x4 cars, exquisite offices or buildings around the capital and provinces and other fat bonuses.So you got to ask yourself, what or who is the Aid funding? I have a friend who always launch tirades on NGOs, he says if he becomes president, he will expel all NGOs in his country. I see reason behind that.
The west and Aid donors are both guilty as the African governments. I agree with Elly Wanda's argurement that the Aid itself is not the problem but the way it is delivered. Peace.
Time to move on is now. Anything as drastic as cutting a cleverly devised sytem of keeping Africa poor and ignorant 'AID' should definitely be cut. We are to trade with the rest of the world as partners, not as recpients of aid. We need to go to a level of partnership,were we batter or trade for goods and services startegically to better our lot. This has been a very annoying reality,that despite Africa's wealth both material and human,we still receive aid!! With regards to leadership, For heavens sake we need to immediately strengthen our resolve to ensure right leaders are elected to office and all this nonsense of short sighted, greedy ,no vision quick fix corrupt individuals who have kept us at the bottom needs to be fixed,harshly!! For God's sake Nigeria you are A SHAME to the rest of us. You should sit in sackcloth for the type of individual you have produced! Is it not better to build great institutions and grand enterprises that lasts for hundreds of generations and benefit the masses than to steal millions for selfish purposes, were has this mediocrity eminated from? The west must also own up and stop receiving stolen money!!!!!!!! Africans let us now challenge our identity and get rid of mediocre minds that are so retarded they make us poor every day! Nation building and enterprising building is now. We have something the world needs, we are not destitute. So Mr.Wanda perhaps a review of your views should be modified. We support balanced partnership not AID!
The main points are these:
Inflows of aid in hard currencies appreciate African currencies to the detriment of exports. Aid money takes brainpower away from the African private sector, that must ultimately generate wealth, occupying clever people in charities and politically-correct bureaucracy. And aid in its old-fashioned form of service delivery allows governments to leave the social sector to foreigners, concentrating their own resources on bribes, military and police to keep themselves in power regardless of their incompetence.
But some forms of aid have moved on, e.g. aid for local advocacy. This is still "neocolonial" interference, but it may produce some good...
Downsizing of the civil services have NOT made corruption endemic in Africa, on the contrary, the problem is excessive states funded by aid money.
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