Provision of Foreign Aid to African Countries
Dr. William Mosley Jensen
HCOMM 4350
Nsalu Mbwette
Rough Draft
Provision of foreign aid to African countries
African continent has struggled with chronic poverty and under-development. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been given to African governments. More billions were lent to these same governments. Countless tons of food have inundated the continent, and swarms of consultants, experts, and administrator have descended to solve Africa’s problems. However the state of development in Africa is no better today than it was when all this started. Per capita income, for most of Africa, is either stagnant or declining.
The main reason for aid is to accelerate the economic growth of African nation, combined with higher standards of consumption. However the decades of financial and technical to Africa have not fostered economic growth, rather it has left seventy countries, with a majority being Sub-Saharan African, poorer than they were in 1980. Thus because of these reasons and so many others there have been debates on whether foreign aid is benefiting or hurting African nations. The gap between Africa and the rest of the developing world continues to grow. Thus the effectiveness of aid will therefore continue to occupy a central position in the debate on development in Africa[1].
First for this debate analysis I will start by discussing the different types of aid that is provided to the African nations. Then I will provide the arguments for and against this provision of aid and lastly conclude by providing my thoughts on how this debate can be resolved.
` Over the past 6o years at least $1 trillion of development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Yet real per capita income today is lower than it was in the 1970s, and more than 50% of the population over 350 million people live on less than a dollar a day, a figure that has nearly doubled in two decades.
Bilateral aid is assistance given by a government or organization (like Peace Corps) directly to another government of another country. These are to assist in long-term projects to promote democracy economic growth, stability and development. Multilateral aid is assistance provided by a foreign government to international like the World Bank, United Nations and International Monetary Fund are then used to reduce poverty in developing nations.
Bilateral and multilateral aid are delivered in the form of programs in the recipient state. It was estimated that over 60,00o such programs currently are being administered in developing countries. However these programs are usually tied to the interest of the donors who have a legal obligation to regularly visit the programs that are being funded. Arguably this provides a level of accountability if the program, does not appear successful.
Humanitarian aid is vital for Africa, it’s often in response to urgent short term needs. One example is Food aid is the source of the international aid system, although it represents only a small proportion of total aid. With the help of international emergency response, famines and other natural and human-made disasters no longer kill in the numbers they used to prior to the 1980s.
Development aid is another form of foreign aid, this refers to the distribution of resources for the goal of furthering social welfare. There are two justifications for development aid which is humanitarian and economic. The humanitarian is strongly tied to addressing the moral indignation associated with poverty in a world of immense capabilities and astounding wealth.
Democracy aid remains extremely small in comparison with total overseas development assistance to Africa. It plays a much more direct role with respect to vertical and horizon accountability. By supporting independent media outlets, augmenting the capacities of civil society, reinforcing electoral commissions, and strengthening legislatures and judiciaries, democracy aid aims to reinforce relationships of responsibility between citizens and their government as well as between different institutions.
There are many arguments made for and against foreign aid provision to African nations, which I will discuss. Economic growth is one of the main advantage. African nations receive money invest it into their economy which helps to create more jobs for the people. Countries like Rwanda, Mozambique and Ethiopia have relatively successfully used aid to expand their economies and improve well-being. However one problem that African nations face that set them back from achieving even higher economic growth, is that economic freedom and security in property rights are low. In order to attract foreign investors or investors in general for economic growth, it’s very essential to have economic freedom and security in property rights.