Our parents are the most courageous, determined and bravest individuals in this world. They would go through any struggle, hurdle or discomfort for the safety, security and good health of their children. Just like any great parent, an African mother with three children in the forests of Tanna, a small village prone to widespread food shortages, spent hours collecting rare marula tree seeds. She would than travel across mountains back to her village to barter the scarce seeds she collected. The money she would collect would only permit for one small meal. It was very common for her family not to have any meal for many days at a time. On many occasions, they would eat weeds. This is the story for 60 million young children who become frail and suffer from severe health conditions in Africa. They are victims of malnutrition!
Every story has a happy ending, right? UNICEF administered a $60 million project to completely eradicate malnutrition in Africa. After five years of the program, someone in the institution thought it would be a good idea to analyze their results. UNICEF found that the aid project had no impact on malnutrition because mothers didn’t understand how to administer food, nor how to monitor growth and health of their children. This story has no happy ending.
Three out of four aid projects in Africa fail. Countries, organizations and institutions disburse an average of $40 billion of aid to the country every year. There is no shortage of problems or people who need help. The real problem is the lack of patience and the extraordinary wealth of excuses displayed by the entities who allot monetary resources for aid in Africa.
The first viewpoint that is important to explore is Africa’s conduction of government affairs. It is very easy to see that the country’s political systems are corrupted. There are six government leaders who have been in power for three decades or more. The six leaders have a combined 219 years in power, some recently re-elected. For example, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the President of Equatororial Guinea, has been in power for over 40 years. He started his reign in his late 30’s and is now is 74 years of age. With African government leaders’ history of taking advantage of poor African families, it would be foolish to allow them to administer aid projects. Though, this has been the case for numerous projects.
In one instance, the World Bank created a $4.2 Billion oil pipeline to aid the African government. It was funded with a condition to the government: the money would be spent with international supervision to develop stability in the African nation of Chad. However, Chad President Idris Derby used the money for the purchase of weapons, regime survival and rigged elections. As a result, the citizens of Chad were denied billions of dollars’ worth of aid. The World Bank had a major flaw in it’s approach. They allowed the government to have control of aid money, rather than, giving the money directly to the people through jobs. They lost patience and discovered an excuse.
When we look back at the UNICEF malnutrition project, if the institution would have been patient, they could have educated mothers on how to successfully use their program. If this had occurred, then time, money and resources would not have been exhausted on a failing project. The eradication of malnutrition in failing geographic locations would have seemed like a real possibility. A political victory is not throwing money at a problem, its taking the time and having the patience to give people the resources to work together and achieve best practices that can lead to a better quality of life.
I believe it is important to explore more illustrations that show a lack of patience to the African people. In 1971, the Norwegian government aided $22 million to Turkana, Kenya for the creation of a fishing plant. This would create jobs and a valuable natural resource. Unfortunately, a vast majority of the Turkana people did not know how to fish. The plant was operated for a few days and than quickly shut down. The Turkana people were faulted for the plant’s failure, rather than, the Norwegian government, as they showed no attempt to teach the Turkana people how to fish. In another instance, France aided $300 million over 50 years to Mali with hopes to irrigate 2.47 million acres for the growth of cotton and rice in order to develop hydropower in the Mali dessert. 50 years later, only 6% of the region was developed and the infrastructure was falling apart. The French failed to educate the Mali people on how to use modern agricultural practices. Lastly, UNICEF has aided $300 million towards the eradication of malaria in Africa. 440,000 children have died because of this deadly disease. There is a medication that can save these children and it costs 12 U.S cents! In many geographic locations, this has failed due to the lack of health centers. I don’t want to undermine the good work that UNICEF has done on this project in certain aspects, but in order to maximize results, finding a way to educate parents and creating health centers in certain areas should be a priority. In all of these instances, the donors do not show much interest in educating the people of Africa.
Many critics argue that the movement that calls for richer countries to give more aid to poorer countries is ludicrous, and they also argue that countries should hold back on providing aid to poorer countries in it’s entirety. Furthermore, many of these critics further believe that the African people’s individual work in a marketplace with no interference would lead to economic growth. I would strongly reason against this line of thinking. Africa, in the 21st century is operating by the means of the farming age with the execution of an agriculture based economic system. Politically, corruption in the status-quo African government will not permit the advancement of an economic system which would function in a globalized world transitioning from the Industrial Age to an Information and Digital Revolution. Africa is behind two major generational marketplace shifts. The country needs to be fast-tracked and this could only be accomplished through the revitalization of aid. Financial support for Africa through aid is extremely powerful. Changes need to occur through the means in which aid is conducted, managed and offered. These same critics argue through historical evidence that the Marshal Plan, or the European Recovery Program created by the United States Government to help Europe recover after World War II, is an example of a major downfall of the aid processes. I would further reason that the Marshal Plan was in turn, successful because the United States Government did not throw $13 billion of aid at the problem but rather, gave Western Europe money with the intent of restructuring the economy. Additionally, the European Government was stabilized and did not want to see its people fail in their recovery process. I would compromise, that Africa among other poor countries do not have the same government stability as Europe did at the time but that makes it even more essential to develop political systems in Africa.
It is said that patience is a virtue. If this is true, then it is a virtue that can save many lives and enhance the quality of life, health, education, economic, political and social wellbeing of the African people at large. Merely throwing money at problems for political apprehension is selfish. Looking towards the future, there is a need for a generation of selfless leaders who will foresee successfully helping and educating those in need, as a victory.
Signing off....
Sinan
References:
Articles
NBC: Examples of failed aid-funded projects in Africa
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22380448/ns/world_news-africa/t/examples-failed-aid-funded-projects-africa/
Geo Lounge: Why Developmental Aid Projects Must Factor Local Culture
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.geolounge.com/development-aid-projects-must-first-factor-local-culture/amp/
Quartz: This Is The Only Continent Where Children Have Both Stunted Growth and a Rising Obesity Problem
https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/1121083/africas-malnutrition-problem-for-chi-is-the-only-continent-where-children-are-growing-both-stunted-and-fat/amp/
Action Against Hunger: "We Were Eating Weeds": From Suffering To Success In Kenya
https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/blog/kenya-malnutrition-success-stories
Brookings: Foresight Africa: Banking on Agriculture for Africa's Future
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2016/01/22/foresight-africa-2016-banking-on-agriculture-for-africas-future/amp/
Africa News: Here are Africa's Longest Serving Presidents Still Going Strong
https://www.google.com/amp/www.africanews.com/amp/2017/10/06/africa-s-longest-serving-presidents-still-going-strong/
UNICEF: Malaria Morality Among Children is Concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa
https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-health/malaria/
The Guardian: New Malaria Drugs 'too expensive' for most Ugandans
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/katine/2008/nov/11/uganda-malaria
The Guardian: World is plundering Africa's wealth of 'billions of dollars a year'
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/24/world-is-plundering-africa-wealth-billions-of-dollars-a-year
Videos
Yale University: Africa and the Curse of Foreign Aid
https://youtu.be/gEI7PDrVc9M
TED Talk: Andrew Mwenda - Let's take a new look at African Aid
https://youtu.be/RfobLjsj230
