Is western aid holding Africa back?
A new book called Dead Aid by the African authoress Dambisa Moyo raises the provocative claim that far from helping the development of Africa, western aid is holding it back. Bear in mind that she does not refer to emergency relief (e.g. in the case of Ethiopian famine) but rather the billions of dollars given in general aid to Africa every year by western governments.
First, she debunks the old explanations for Africa’s underdevelopment. It has a poor climate when compared to places like Europe, with many jungles etc; Brazil too has many jungles, why then is it not so economically backward. Many African nations are landlocked making trade difficult; Austria, Switzerland etc are also landlocked yet have booming trade (by comparison, I’m aware of the current economic climate). There are many fractious tribal groups in Africa making cohesive government near impossible; India also has many, many different groups yet has one of the fastest growing economies. Africans are lazy, they lack the drive and enterprise to invigorate their continent; Moyo herself is African yet has been educated at some of the foremost universities of the world including Harvard.
Moyo highlights that many relief efforts are counter-productive. For instance, there are many mosquitoes in Africa so naturally local people like to have mosquito nets. So an African man decides to produce some. He employs 10 people to help him, each of these people has a large family of 10 dependents but this steady income helps them provide for them. Then, however, some celebrity or otherwise hears that there are not enough mosquito nets in this particular part of Africa; so what do they do? That’s right, they send over a few hundred. The African businessman goes bust, and a year later the nets have worn out and no one replaces them, the celebrity has already done their good deed for the African people. Further, some estimates place that 85% of the aid does not go to the people who need it most, and that much of it just props up the various African despots.
So what does Moyo suggest we do; cease aid immediately. Instead we should trade and invest in Africa if we hope to help it develop, even if this does sometimes bring claims from liberals and left-wingers of economic imperialism. We should use cheap African labour to produce cheap clothes etc. China already does, and is investing heavily in roads and infrastructure. Granted, I’m sure Africa’s vast oil reserves aren’t its biggest concern, rather than the well-being of the African people, but it’s still doing it. Further, if aid stops then so does a great deal of funding for the African despots.
So, what are people’s opinions on this? Are you inclined to agree with Moyo that western aid is damaging Africa, or do you perhaps feel that we are not sending enough? What are your views on how Africa could move forward? What’s holding it back?
Btw, an article in yesterday’s British Daily Mail prompted my creation of this thread. Also, opinions and perspectives from all people of all nations are welcome on this, as long as they’re civil.
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Originally Posted by Alakasam
