Africa: Is Foreign Aid Still Worth it?

The following paperA\s were presented at a Constituency for Africa Forum on the 23 September 2009. The authors argue for aid and development in Africa in response to recent criticisms of the impact of foreign assistance on individual African countries' polity and economic growth.

WHY CRITICS OF FOREIGN AID TO AFRICA ARE WRONG

by Gregory Simpkins (moderator)

Former World Bank consultant and economist Dambisa Moyo has created quite a stir in the debate over the effectiveness of foreign aid. She raises legitimate questions about the more than US$1 trillion in development aid provided to African governments by the developed world over the past 50 years. However, she too often overstates her case and arrives at the erroneous conclusion that aid is the cause of Africa's problems rather than just another symptom of bad governance.

Moyo's criticism of foreign aid to Africa is far from a new view. The first congressional hearing I ever arranged for the then-House Subcommittee on Africa in 1997 included testimony by Michael Maren, a former Peace Corps volunteer who had worked for Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Maren's view is a bit different than Moyo's thesis. Focusing on U.S. involvement in Somalia during the Cold War, he said aid largely went to local power brokers who used it for their own purposes – similar to Moyo's contention that aid has been wasted on despots. But Maren painted a picture of selfishness ruining aid programs – from U.S. policymakers using aid to win support to grain-trading companies looking to unload excess grain to those unscrupulous local leaders who sold aid supplies for profit rather than providing them to the intended recipients.

Moyo traces Western aid to Africa from the 1960s through the current decade and paints a picture of varying, often conflicting, focuses for foreign aid. She said aid to Africa in the 1960s concentrated on infrastructure projects that private lenders wouldn't touch. In the 1970s, the focus was on poverty and away from infrastructure. The 1980s, in the wake of the 1979 oil crises, saw a tightening of monetary policy, especially a sharp rise in interest rates, which left many African governments with an untenable debt service. Western aid providers in the 1990s focused on governance, blaming economic problems on the continent's lack of leadership that resulted in donor fatigue by the turn of the century. During the current decade, Moyo characterizes foreign aid as being directed by celebrities who call for more aid in the face of large-scale debt forgiveness.

"The broadest consequences of the aid model have been ruinous,"Moyo writes.

One can concede that foreign aid to African has not worked as intended. However, to say that it was the aid itself that was the problem is not logical. Moreover, by Moyo's own account, foreign aid to Africa too often was influenced by events outside the continent. Aid was provided to despots merely because they were considered to be on the right side of the Cold War even though it was surely known that they were stealing the funds. Infrastructure projects were often ill-conceived and then abandoned. Poorly considered loans were made and then interest rates were arbitrarily raised, escalating unsustainable debt load. Decisions were made about the direction of aid spending without consultation with the governments involved or the people to be impacted.

Moyo makes the point that it is foreign aid that has accelerated corruption. "With aid's help, corruption fosters corruption, nations quickly descend into a vicious cycle of aid,"she writes. "Foreign aid props us corrupt governments – providing them with freely usable cash."

While there is much truth in this statement, it ignores the fact that foreign did not create corruption in Africa. Too many African leaders have plundered not only aid money, but also revenue from natural resources. It would be difficult, if at all possible, for outsiders to stop the plunder by African governments of their own country's resources, but it would most certainly have been possible for donors and international financial institutions to end aid programs that were being looted. The fact that they did not makes them co-conspirators in this crime.

Merely looking back and assigning blame now will not help find the most effective means of developing African countries from this point forward. Cutting off aid certainly is not the answer, but neither is continuing to look the other way when aid money is being stolen. Surely there must be a happy medium in which aid funds are strategically provided to governments who are accountable for the resources they are provided. That is the basis for the Millennium Challenge Account, which uses independent measurements of government effectiveness and requires all stakeholders in recipient societies to be a part of the decision-making process. The MCA is not an infallible program, but it is a program pointing in the right direction for foreign aid.

This paper and this forum are intended to examine the reasons for continuing foreign aid to Africa and how the provision of this aid can be provided in a way that more accurately reflects its intent – the development of the countries of Africa.

DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE: A CRITICAL TOOL IN THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY

by Erin Thornton

Development assistance is a crucial tool in fighting extreme poverty—and when used in the right way, it can help deliver lifesaving results.

But over the past several years, aid has increasingly become a dirty word—and sometimes for good reason. In some instances, outdated aid models have undermined good governance (aid has, in the past, propped up friendly dictators for geopolitical purposes) and even discouraged wise investment (aid has been tied to donor nations goods and services). Such efforts are clearly not intended to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or spur economic growth so cannot and should not be held up against those goals.

Recent successes across the globe have shown that high quality development investments can produce real results. Nearly 3.2 million HIV-positive Africans are currently on antiretroviral treatment (ARVs), up from just 50,000 in 2002. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has delivered 88 million bed nets to help protect families from mosquitoes bearing malaria, leading to a substantial reduction in malaria deaths in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya. Between 1999 and 2006, targeted development assistance (combined with debt cancellation and strong African leadership) has also allowed 34 million African children to attend school for the first time.

Many of these African success stories can be attributed to the rise of what ONE calls "SMART Aid", whether in fighting disease, promoting literacy, boosting agriculture and trade, attracting investment, or empowering African citizens to fight corruption and hold their governments accountable. SMART Aid is aid that is:

S - Sufficient in scale to achieve its intended goals

M - Measurable so taxpayers and recipients can see results and monitor
progress over time

A - Accountable to the citizens of developing nations

R - Responsive to the specific needs of the citizens for whom it is intended

T - Transparent, to allow scrutiny by civil society and the media

In Uganda, for example, SMART Aid has helped the country fight corruption. In order to receive donor aid, the Ugandan government was required to implement an anti-corruption program. According to the World Bank, once this program was enacted, Ugandan schools received 80 percent of education funding in 2002, up from just 13 percent in 1996.

SMART Aid has also helped harness Africa's agriculture potential. The Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA)—an initiative funded by international donors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation—works to support agricultural productivity by training smallholder farmers and ensuring that African farmers have access to quality seeds, tools and fertilizer. AGRA's Program for Africa's Seed Systems (PASS) also provides grants and scholarships to agricultural scientists who take their knowledge into local communities to help farmers decide which seed varieties best suit their land. To date, the initiative is having a huge impact. Since 2006, AGRA has trained and certified over 5,000 new agro-dealers. Due to this training, farmers in Western Kenya now need to travel only an average of three miles to purchase seeds and fertilizer, rather than nearly 11 miles in 2006.

While many countries and organizations have recognized the need for increased SMART Aid, constant pressure must be applied to ensure that the quality of aid actually does increase. In 2005, more than 150 countries, organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) signed the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, an unprecedented agreement to improve and monitor the quality of aid. The G8 then reiterated their commitment at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit, promising to "implement and be monitored" on all pledges, including "enhancing efforts to untie aid and disbursing aid in a timely and predictable fashion, through partner country systems where possible." In September 2008, these commitments were again reinforced at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana. But moving forward, donors must be continually reminded to keep their promises and work towards greater aid effectiveness.

In its annually published DATA Report, ONE also attempts to hold Africa's partners accountable by monitoring the extent to which donors are on track to deliver their 2005 Gleneagles aid commitments to sub-Saharan Africa. In the 2009 report, ONE found that the G8 had delivered only one third of its promised increases to Africa by 2010. If this pace continues, the G8 will collectively fall far short of their target—and some countries are more to blame for this than others. Canada, Japan and the United States will meet or beat relatively modest commitments; Germany and the United Kingdom are striving to reach much more ambitious targets; France is far off-track to meets its commitment; and Italy's performance is an utter failure.

And while the delivery of targeted aid plays a critical role in fighting extreme poverty and disease in Africa, it alone is not enough to guarantee positive development objectives. Moving forward, donors must also take into account the environment into which the aid is being distributed, thinking about ways to achieve long-term economic stability, rather than short-term fixes. While development assistance can help lay the foundation for growth by boosting resources for health, education and infrastructure, economic growth—driven by trade and investment—will have a far greater impact on poverty alleviation in the long run. Even small percentages of global trade can make a big difference. For example in 2007, one percent of global trade was worth $119 billion, more than four times the sub-Saharan African aid received from G8 countries that same year. Making trade work for Africa will require a combination of enhanced market access, stronger "aid for trade" and increased integration among African economies.

In order to be most effective, SMART Aid must also be coupled with good governance, transparency and anti-corruption measures. Although there is a role for donor countries, the private sector and other development partners to play in promoting good governance and security on the continent, the greatest ability for improvement lies with Africa's own leaders, media and civil society.

DEVELOPING AFRICAN REGIONAL MARKETS

by Katrin A. Kuhlmann[1]

Recent events have altered the global landscape in a way that has seriously affected sub-Saharan Africa, creating an extremely pressing challenge for policymakers. The vehicles for large-scale international policy change, including the Doha Development Round and developed country agricultural reform, have, at least temporarily, ground to a halt. The overlapping crises of food insecurity, climate change and global financial instability make the need for viable solutions more critical than ever.

At the same time, these challenges also present a potential turning point—an opportunity to rethink trade and development policy towards sub-Saharan Africa. By harnessing the global commitments to help developing countries cope with the global financial downturn and issues of food insecurity, we could set sub-Saharan Africa on a course toward sustainable growth. The key to this will be creating the conditions for regionally-focused, market-led development. Strengthening sub-Saharan Africa's regional markets has not yet received the attention that other African development issues have, despite the power of these markets and regional systems to move goods, services, people and information.

In redirecting policy focus, decision makers must coordinate and utilize policy tools under development in the United States and Europe as well as African initiatives and ideas. In the United States, Congress and the Executive branch are embarking on a comprehensive review of trade preference programs, including the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), in order to ensure these programs yield better, broader gains. In Europe, the European Commission (EC) is determining how to move forward with the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). Developed countries are putting significant political will and resources behind initiatives to promote food security, and increasing focus is being placed on how to promote regional integration and development of markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
Within Africa, economic and political leaders are supporting a movement to develop trade and transport corridors, or "Development Corridors," that criss-cross the continent and hold the potential to increase economic opportunities, spur sustainable development and strengthen regional trade links.

What, specifically, are some of the challenges these efforts can hope to address? In broadest terms, current international trade with sub-Saharan Africa represents just a sliver of its true potential. Sub-Saharan Africa's trade has been limited both due to the lack of critical infrastructure and because many countries have found it challenging to diversify into new products in the face of falling market shares for traditional goods.

Agriculture is the most significant industry in sub-Saharan Africa, with around 500 million people, or between 70 and 80 percent of the subcontinent's population, dependent on farming for their livelihoods. Most farmers have limited access to markets and are extremely vulnerable in the face of economic or environmental crises. Poverty reduction will not succeed without focusing on increasing productivity for Africa's many smallholder farmers and connecting these farmers to functioning markets.

Moreover, throughout sub-Saharan Africa, insufficient capacity prevails in areas like customs, transport, storage, quality control and certification, water facilities, telecommunications, and electricity and power services and further limits the ability of many producers to trade. Infrastructure networks are underdeveloped or non-existent, and regional institutions are numerous but weak. The number of landlocked countries in sub-Saharan Africa exacerbates these challenges and adds to the urgency of adding significant new investment in infrastructure and capacity.

International policies have a significant role to play, but they must complement the Africans' own initiatives to build regional markets and address needs and barriers on the ground. The main constraints on trade, including intra-African trade barriers and weak infrastructure, are within sub-Saharan Africa. The following recommendations suggest concrete ways to address both international policy shortcomings as well as the obstacles faced within Africa.

(1) Link International Trade and Development Policies

Developed country trade policies towards sub-Saharan Africa have focused primarily on access to international markets, without placing sufficient focus on building sub-Saharan Africa's ability to trade and take advantage of these markets. While programs like AGOA should be expanded to include all products, including agriculture, preferential market access to both the United States and Europe must be better tied to targeted capacity building initiatives in order to succeed in increasing trade opportunities. Overall, capacity building efforts should better reflect broad-based business needs and demand on the ground.

Better coordination will also be necessary, both within and between governments and with other stakeholders, including the international financial institutions, business and NGOs. Within the U.S. government, greater focus on sustainable development and regional markets in sub-Saharan Africa could be started by coordinating resources and programs across agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of State, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the U.S. Overseas Private Insurance Corporation, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and others. Dialogues that bring diverse expertise to the table on all sides, like the U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs), are good models that should be prioritized, strengthened and more extensively used.

(2) Support Agricultural Development and Regional Markets Through Food Security Initiatives

Industrialized countries' current focus on global food security also provides an opportunity to develop African agriculture and foster regional trade. The trade dimension of food security should not be overlooked. In July 2009, the G-8 countries promised to devote $20 billion to help developing countries address food insecurity. They also committed to "promote well-functioning and transparent international, national and local markets." The U.S. State Department has pledged to strengthen coordination across donors and stakeholders. All of these commitments should be implemented in a manner that serves to foster regional markets in sub-Saharan Africa and promote market-led agricultural development. This would provide a more sustainable solution to threats of food insecurity and have the added benefit of connecting farmers to other market opportunities.

(3) Strengthen U.S.-European Coordination

European and U.S. processes that integrate trade policy with development goals in sub-Saharan Africa should be part of a new transatlantic leadership. Coordination between the United States and Europe should increase wherever possible, including on food security initiatives and dialogues on regional integration. Streamlining transatlantic sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) procedures and providing increased SPS compliance training would also be beneficial.

(4) Support the African Development Corridors

Given the size of the continent and the scale of the infrastructure and capacity gaps, a comprehensive framework around which to align developed country and African interventions would help achieve more significant results and economies of scale. The Africans have developed such a framework, which is built around trade and transport corridors that link mineral investments to ports through trunk infrastructure. These Development Corridors could generate true sustainable development, similar to corridors that spurred development in ancient Rome, industrializing Europe and the 20th-century United States.

Notes

[1] The author is a Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and President of the Trade, Aid and Security Coalition, a non-profit initiative of GlobalWorks Foundation.

TO HONOR OR TO HUMILIATE: AFRICAN CHOICE ON THE PURPOSES AND EFFECTS OF DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
by Badi G. Foster, Ph. D.

"Is there any deed in the world that would be nobler than service to the common good? Is there any greater blessing conceivable for a man, than that he should become the cause of the education, the development, the prosperity and honor of his fellow creatures?"
Abdu'l - Baha

There are numerous stakeholders in the overall process of providing development assistance in Africa. Donors, recipients and facilitators all share responsibilities to make foreign aid more effective. The focus of this essay, however, will be on what African leaders can and should do to insure that the purposes and effects of development assistance contribute to the honoring or uplifting of recipients rather than contributing to their humiliation as passive, dependent and continually helpless beneficiaries. By African leaders, we refer to individuals whose knowledge, values and skills are recognized as particularly effective in mobilizing and directing others. Such leaders will be found in government, business and civil society. Some may occupy positions of authority and control over significant resources while others derive their ability to influence from their social vision and moral authority. Leadership is not exclusively positional.

At its core, development assistance involves the transference of multiple values both monetary and non-monetary. There are two archetypal relationships that characterize the transference of value. The first is a gift relationship characterized by the unilateral transfer of value, while the second is a bilateral exchange relationship found in market transactions. Whether unilateral or bilateral, relationships of transference can honor or humiliate those involved. You can humiliate the other with a gift whose value is unlikely to be matched in some future reciprocation. When the giver signals to a recipient that the receiver has nothing at present or in the future that could come close to the value of his "gift", then the needy recipient is likely to feel humiliated in his inability to ever reciprocate. He is forced to acknowledge (often publicly) that he possess nothing of value that can equal the worth of the gift. At the extreme he may view himself as "worthless." The donor confirms that status by treating the other as "throw away people". It becomes a downward spiral. This phenomenon can be seen in the act of "throwing alms to the beggar".

In bilateral exchanges humiliation happens when the supplier can not find a fair price or open market to work. Hidden price subsidies, the absence of supporting infrastructure and the proliferation of trade restrictions can contribute to the humiliation of local growers who are made to feel incompetent and redundant in the production and distribution of food. To be told of such incompetence by those who enjoy unearned or special advantages is to further depress the spirit of those hungry and least well served.

It has been said that "you have to have a straight stick to know a crooked stick." This implies common principles for distinguishing right from wrong while also creating the moral obligation to right those wrongs. In this spirit, development assistance must be in the service of all and in the service of achieving perfection. The attributes of proper development provide "the straight stick" against which the contributions of all stake holders can be measured. These attributes may be rarely achieved universally but their value lies in their capacity to inspire leaders to step forward to articulate their notions of perfection and to formulate concrete action plans that produce results that honor everyday citizens. Good results are achieved by mobilizing many to join together in new and better ways in the service of national progress.

Among the many African examples of development assistance in pursuit of development, two countries stand out. The Republics of Liberia and Tanzania have demonstrated the kind of leadership and action that deserve careful examination and appropriate emulation. They represent examples of "moving in the right direction" both in terms of goals and processes. To be sure, Liberian and Tanzanian leaders would be the first to admit that theirs is a "work in progress" but progress nonetheless.

In the case of Liberia, the evidence of progress is breathtaking when considering the many years of civil strife and the virtual destruction of public and private infrastructures aimed at generating the financial and human capital to "start from scratch" if not below scratch. The devastation of social capital alone could paralyze the most intrepid leader, but such was not the case. In the space of a few years, leadership has reoriented its people on the road to development as they create a "New Liberia" that embodies the finest of their traditions, while adopting the new and different. Whether measured in numbers of schools built, electricity restored, roads repaired, soldiers trained or financial structures established, Liberia has made major progress in creating the foundations for peace, security and stability.

Tanzania represents an impressive collective effort by leaders from all sectors to dramatically increase their capacity for social and economic growth by fashioning a broad and comprehensive strategy for massive investments in the universal education of its youth, its future. A recent five-year goal to build 3,000 new schools was accomplished within three years by the engagement of community and civil society sectors. The projected shortage of some 100,000 secondary school teachers has led to the design of an awe-inspiring teacher training strategy that leverages information communication technologies via "E-learning". The adoption of a national education strategy by all government ministries signals the broad support of leaders in all segments and sectors of society. This in turn has provided a platform for linking donor assistance to domestic goals established by Tanzanians in an open, transparent and accountable manner.

The decline of social capital in countries that have experienced civil war or ethnic/tribal conflict constitutes a barrier to social progress, peace and stability. What is the source of social capital? Social capital is rooted in a social economy whose centers are the household, the neighborhood, the community and civil society. The core economy is rebuilt and revitalized through the practice of co-production. Co-production is an antidote to the commodification of life by all sectors of the monetary economy (public, private and non-government). It dramatically supplements the public welfare delivery systems aimed at community building from 9AM to 5 PM on weekdays. The development of core economies via co-production throughout Africa will avoid the tendency to restrict development assistance to paid professionals or to volunteers functioning as free labor within the silos of non-governmental organizations.

This choice of strategy is more likely to honor rather than to humiliate all those who seek to build a future where relationships of mutuality, trust and engagement are built upon speaking, listening and caring and authentic respect. By contrast, if the distribution and access to public benefits generated by development assistance are grounded upon negatives and deficiencies, i.e. what one lacks, what disability one has, what misfortune has befallen, then the more likely that development assistance will contribute to the eventual humiliation of stake holders.

FOREIGN AID TO AFRICA REFORM: TALK IS CHEAP

by Constance B. Newman

Reform of foreign aid. Now there is a topic that has been studied, commissioned, written about, discussed, and ignored for decades. In July 2009, the Congressional Research Service reported on a survey of 14 studies conducted on foreign assistance reform. Those studies represent a very small percentage of all studies published since 2000 and, frankly, there are very few differences in their respective analyses. They differ, however, in their areas of concentration, which often produce different sets of recommendations. Nevertheless, the themes are the same: Do something! Meanwhile, billions of dollars have been spent.ii
While studies are being produced, the costly possibility that some of the funds spent have not had a significant impact on reducing poverty in Africa increases, along with the assumption that the money has been spent ineffectively, hence reducing support for development funding for Africa.

No wonder Dead Aid is popular – it seems different. I say "seems different" because many ideas there are not new in some quarters. Dambisa Moyo is essentially saying that aid to Africa should be cut because all forms of aid cause poverty in Africa. She is also saying that African governments' reliance on aid tends to reduce their accountability and they should therefore go to sources other than the traditional donor community, such as private financial markets, to fund their priorities. It is "different" because it is being said by an African economist in a manner that is eliciting a new debate about aid to Africa.

Decades of reviewing foreign aid have produced seven basic categories of reform recommendations. Even though most reviews have not been designed to look exclusively at aid to Africa, the analyses apply to Africa in every instance. Those recommendation categories relate to:

Empowering African foreign aid recipients – not the donors - to determine the nature and extent of aid for their countries.
Changing foreign assistance legislation, long term goals, and strategies. Looking at a world that has changed since the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961, funding should move away from or toward: economic growth and development; job creation; education; democracy, governance and conflict resolution; humanitarian assistance; global health issues such as HIV-AIDS and/or malaria; infrastructure; and/or security and short term political interests. Reviews often address the frequency and level of funding humanitarian relief needs.
Raising or lowering assistance levels to African countries based on resources available, their adherence to standards, and the impact of previous funds allocated.
Restructuring donor organizations; allocating more resources to manage the development process; enhancing the strategic planning processiii; raising the U.S. development agency to Cabinet level; and requiring greater public-private partnerships. Increasing Congressional oversight over the process, as well as allowing for integrated Executive Branch budget and multi-year funding are other structural recommendations often discussed.
Changing the forms of assistance from or to: grants, loans, cash transfers, debt forgiveness, direct support, equipment, commodities, training, and/or expertise. Also, reviews address other strategies for poverty-reduction such as foreign direct investments, trade, and microfinance initiatives.
Mandating meaningful coordination and linkages between the many bilateral donors and as between bilateral and multilateral donors. Exercise greater control over the multilaterals is covered in many reviews.
Conducting rigorous monitoring and evaluations of recipients as well as donors.

My thoughts about Foreign Assistance Reform in the United States

My experiences living in Africa and working on issues of development in Africa coupled with my review of many studies and critiques of studies have led me to draw conclusions about bad and good ideas concerning aid to Africa. For me, an idea is a bad idea if it removes viable solutions to very serious and complex problems and/or is proposed for the wrong reason. An idea is a good idea if it represents a best effort of solving a difficult problem where viable options are limited. Also, an idea is a good idea if it addresses legitimate criticisms of past efforts e.g. the lack of coordination among donors.

The Bad Ideas

Reducing foreign assistance to Africa in these difficult economic times.
Funding African governments solely for political reasons where it is clear there is no plan on their part to eliminate corruption, strengthen accountability, andsupport the rule of law and democratic processes.
Allowing foreign assistance development money to be used for short term political purposes. Note: In my view this would happen if USAID were "fully Integrated" into the State Department structure.
Having development run by agencies without the background and expertise in development. You know who you are!

The Good Ideas

Giving more power to the African recipients of foreign assistance.
Addressing the adverse impact of agricultural subsidies to poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Increasing the resources available to administer development programs for Africa. In particular, USAID should receive resources to hire people with the background and technical experience to plan for and manage effective development efforts.
Increasing the rigor of evaluation and monitoring of African recipients of foreign assistance with the view toward defunding non-performing recipients.
Forcing real coordination of foreign assistance from the many donor agencies.
Improving public understanding and support for development aid for Africa.
Establishing a humanitarian relief crisis fund as long as it does not reduce development funds available for development of agriculture in Africa.

The Next Steps

I envision locking a "Group of 12" people in a large empty prison cell (7 of whom represent recipients of foreign assistance to Africa) with the charge of reviewing all previous reform recommendations and preparing an analysis of: (1) all recommendations that should never be made again; (2) recommendations that should have been implemented long time ago; (3) recommendations worth studying. Before release from the prison cell, the Group would be further required to report their analyses to the proper officials and publish them for public consumption and comment.

Once the report of the Group of 12 is issued, it should be studied by staff to recommend priorities and sequencing. There should be an identification of recommendations that can be implemented immediately by the Executive Branch with minimal additional funds. Another group of recommendations could include those that could be implemented without legislation, but require funding. The more difficult sets of recommendations that should be identified are those that require the FAA of 1961 and/or approval of international stakeholders.

Finally, there should be a moratorium on all further studies of foreign assistance reform until everyone understands what ideas already exist and has acted on at least some of the sensible-feasible recommendations.

Conclusion

Foreign aid to Africa is an exceedingly vital topic for discussion. Enough already with the studies!! Africa's importance to the world and the unfairness of the poverty in Africa argue for action now.

Forum Speaker Bios

Educator and nonprofit executive Badi G. Foster was born on September 29, 1942, in Chicago, to Ruth and William Foster. Raised as a B'hai, Foster spent his childhood in Africa and graduated from the American School of Tangier in Morocco in 1960. He returned to the United States to attend the University of Denver, earning a B.A. in international relations with a concentration in African studies. At Princeton University, Foster received an M.A. in 1967 and a Ph.D. in 1974 in political science. While doing doctoral research as a Fulbright scholar on the impact of urbanization on Africa, he held various positions as an educator and lecturer at Princeton, Rutgers University and the University of Massachusetts.

From 1973 until 1982, Foster served in a number of positions at Harvard University, including director of the Field Experience Program in the Graduate School of Education, chairman of the Hispanic Study Group, assistant director of the Kennedy Institute of Politics, visiting professor of African American studies and lecturer in Education.

From 1982 to 1993, Foster worked for Aetna Life and Casualty, where he founded and served as president of Aetna's Institute for Corporate Education. Between 1993 and 1994, Foster worked as the vice president of human resources for University Hospitals of Cleveland and University Health System. Foster also served on the Governor's Human Resource Investment Council of Ohio before founding his own company, Transport America, where from 1994 to 1997 he served as president and CEO.

From 1998 until 2000, Foster served as the director of the Lincoln Filene Center for Citizenship and Public Affairs at Tufts University, where he also taught classes on leadership. In November 2000, Foster was appointed president and CEO of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the oldest continuously operating foundation serving the educational needs of African Americans, Native Americans, Africans, and the rural and urban poor.

Foster been recognized for his academic and professional achievements and for his community service. An active consultant and board member of many organizations and businesses, Foster has published numerous papers, articles, and books on politics and cultural affairs.

He married Juanita Foster in 1965. They have two sons, Nabil and Qasim.

Selected Bibliography

Foster, Badi G. The Moroccan Power Structure as Seen from Below: Political Participation in a Casablanca Shantytown. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1974, 1977.

Katrin Kuhlmann is the President of the Trade, Aid and Security Coalition (TASC), a project of GlobalWorks Foundation, and a Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. Ms. Kuhlmann also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University School of Law. She is a leading voice on international economic development and trade policy and has testified before Congress on these issues.

Prior to her current positions, Ms. Kuhlmann was the Senior Vice President for Global Trade at the Women's Edge Coalition, where she developed and led the organization's trade policy program.

From 1999 to 2005, Ms. Kuhlmann served as the Director for Eastern Europe and Eurasia in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) where she was responsible for developing and coordinating U.S. trade policy with Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. She played a key role in negotiations involving Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization and successfully led an inter-agency effort to conclude a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the five Central Asian Republics.

Prior to joining USTR, Ms. Kuhlmann practiced law at Dewey Ballantine LLP in Washington, D.C. and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP in New York, New York.

Ms. Kuhlmann serves on the board of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA) and the Malaika Foundation. She is a member of the advisory board for the Haiti Investment-Trade and Association Development (I-TRADE) and is a Senior Advisor to the Business Council for Global Development (BCGD).
Ms. Kuhlmann holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Economics and German Studies from Creighton University. She was the recipient of a Fulbright grant to study international economics in Halle, Germany in 1992. She currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and daughter.

Constance Berry Newman brings a unique background to her role as Special Counsel for African Affairs at the Carmen Group. She has served seven different presidential appointments and has extensive experience managing public and private organizations. Her international service includes work in Afghanistan, Liberia, Ukraine, Russia, China and many African countries. Constance has worked to build partnerships between African governments, non-governmental organizations and multi-national corporations in an effort to support African ownership and participation in development initiatives.

From 2004-2005, Constance served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs. She acted as President Bush's G8 personal representative on Africa, played an advisory role to the secretary of state and guided the operation of the U.S. diplomatic establishment in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2001, she was sworn in as the assistant administrator for Africa at the U.S. Agency for International Development and lead efforts to administer economic and humanitarian assistance in Africa.

Constance has also served as:

Board member, International Republican Institute
Consultant to South African leaders on affirmative action and diversity
Consultant, World Bank in South Africa
Consultant of the World Bank for the Government of Lesotho
Board member and Vice Chair, District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority
Chair, Personal Search Review Commission, U.S. Customs Service
Co-founder and Partner, UpStart Partners
Under Secretary, Smithsonian Institution
Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management
President, Institute for American Business
Co-founder and President, Newman and Hermanson Company
Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Commissioner and Vice Chairman, Consumer Product Safety Commission

Constance was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama. She graduated from Bates College with a political science degree and earned her law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Gregory Simpkins is a specialist in African policy development who currently is Vice President for Policy and Program Development for the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. He previously served as Professional Staff Member for the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operation from 2005-2006 and in the same capacity for the Subcommittee on Africa from 1997-98, where he advised the Chairman on Africa policy issues. Mr. Simpkins has served in a variety of positions in civil society, allowing him to help shape or implement U.S. policy on Africa, especially two versions of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Such positions include Policy Director for the Corporate Council on Africa, where he developed policy positions for an association of more than 200 U.S. companies doing business in Africa.

A journalist who has worked in national and local radio since 1977, Mr. Simpkins has written for national and international magazines and newspapers, including the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Times, Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, the Nairobi (Kenya) Law Monthly and The Guardian (Nigeria). He has written and edited several books and four newsletters on Angola, and served as Executive Editor of the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation news-magazines Visions and The Afripolitan. During his career as a working journalist, he specialized in coverage of political and foreign news – both Caribbean and African news.
Since 1987, Mr. Simpkins has been involved full-time in foreign advocacy projects. He has designed and managed multi-level democratization, trade and capacity-building programs in Africa, beginning in 1992, with the International Republican Institute (IRI). He has observed and reported on the election processes in Kenya, South Africa, Guinea and Equatorial Guinea and trained election observers in several African countries. While with IRI, he helped create the African Democracy Network, an organization of more than 200 African democracy supporters from 31 nations, and while with the Foundation for Democracy in Africa, he helped to create the AGOA Civil Society Network and the Western Hemisphere African Diaspora Network.

He received a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from George Washington University and a Master's in Business Administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management.

Erin Thornton is ONE's Global Policy Director. As a founding member of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) in 2002, Erin helped to define a progressive development agenda which has carried over for ONE since its merger with DATA in early 2008. She works to ensure that ONE principals, staff and by proxy its members have the most up to date, factual, persuasive policy arguments possible on all of the organization's issues.

Erin has helped oversee the organization's growth and target its efforts in changing political environments, strategically focusing ONE's advocacy efforts on government officials here and abroad. Erin now directs a global policy team with employees in Washington, DC, Europe and Africa. Together her team members work to leverage the expertise of trusted partners to develop ONE's policy positions and tailor arguments for opportune moments. Erin oversees the policy team's flagship product, The DATA Report, which provides an annual record of the progress G8 countries are making against their commitments to Africa across key sectors. Prior to joining the organization, Erin worked as a country risk analyst for Africa at the Export-Import Bank and worked in the International Health Affairs office at the State Department. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Area Studies and History from Duke University and a M.A. in International Relations from Yale University.

Africa: Is Foreign Aid Still Worth it?

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