Development Aid_Reading Memo

African continent has a long history in receiving external aid and assistance. This approach of international community is partially legacy of the colonialism and partially it is a result of chaotic and sudden decolonization that did not establish a stable political environment. Many Western states felt responsible for war torn countries that they left behind and therefore established a framework for constant financial donations and humanitarian aid. But nowadays are many experts and scholars analyzing to what extent actually foreign aid helped to develop African countries. More and more of them are starting to reconsider the impacts of material aid that is flowing to the African continent.

The two issues are being discussed in the relation to the foreign aid. Firstly, many critical voices are pointing out the fact that developing projects for African countries are completely out of touch with the local reality and actual needs of the people. Experts who draw development plans can struggle to gain real information in real time so at the end there is no sufficient solution to problems. Furthermore, foreign loans and aid programs in Africa are usually badly monitored and often stolen by corrupt bureaucrats. This just led to the point where money from rich countries has trapped many African nations in a cycle of corruption, slower economic growth and poverty.

It is clear that instead of creating development, foreign aid created dependence. Countries cannot be developed through aid and credit – it has never worked in this way and never will be. Of course, intentions were not to make African continent dependent on foreign donators but it has eventually resulted in the situation where majority of African states failed to set its own pace and direction of development free of external interference. However, sustained growth is still missing and it became clear that foreign funds could help only to those countries which undertake political, economic and institution reform.

After looking into some cases, it can seem that the more aid is poured into some country, the lower standard of living we can observe. However, one cannot generalize and simplify it. There are different conditions and pretexts that are crucial in each case. Foreign aid should not be seen as a universal tool for solving all the social and political issues in Africa. Money and funding are only a small part in the more complex projects that should bring stability to the country. But what is more important, those projects should not be brought by foreign institutions/ banks and by people who do not know local conditions and real roots of the problems. Such an attitude just leads to a general ineffectiveness and vicious cycle of developments’ failures.

A mindset that is popular especially in the Western countries that aid, whatever its form, is a good thing. Idea that large donations can remedy poverty has dominated the theory of economic development but, unfortunately, the results are not as good as one would think. More than a quarter of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa are poorer now than in 1960s. Huge aid flows appear to have done little to change the development trajectories of poor countries. The key to understanding and solving the problem of world poverty is to recognize not just that poverty is created and sustained by extractive institutions — but to appreciate why the situation arises in the first place. This I find as the biggest problem so far when it comes to international aid programs aimed at Africa.

The second issue that I would like to mention is the problem of aid distribution. Especially African countries that find themselves in turmoil and armed conflict are vulnerable to food shortages and humanitarian crises in general. But in those cases can we observe another problem: humanitarian organizations cannot be sure for 100 percent that the aid ends up in the right hands. An example of it is al-Shabab region in Somalia where many of NGOs already refused to provide any kind of humanitarian aid as it never reached those who needed it most.

This resulted in unintended consequences of humanitarian action such as contribution to war economy or legitimizing certain leaders in area. Nowadays we can also talk about “criminalization of aid” when innocent suffering civilians are punished for receiving aid and food supplies by local terrorist groups and militias. Another undesired consequence of humanitarian action is the way how it is possibly prolonging war and suffering. For instance, Red Cross was helping wounded soldiers that then could return to the fights and kill more civilians or the case of Rwandan refugee camps that served as a base for Rwandan Army and other actors to finish the genocide when they took control of camps and also gained enormous amount of aid money.

However, sometimes when the conflict is too violent and chaotic it is difficult to say who is at the end benefiting from the aid that is coming in. In some cases, humanitarian aid had to be stopped because humanitarian staff became a target for armed groups and was often threatened to be killed. This led to militarization of humanitarian action itself – many organizations had to hire private security companies in order to provide safe conditions for their workers and people in need. Nonetheless, it should be still stressed out an importance of neutrality when it comes to providing aid and food supplies and not taking sides in conflict. At the moment when NGOs’ humanitarian actions became political, it is doomed to be targeted by local militias and armed groups as it is seen as a weapon of war.     

Last thing I would like to address is the way how African states should approach the foreign aid. There is empirical evidence that no foreigners ever developed any country, only nationals can develop their own countries. In spite of popular image that Africa is very poor continent and is in constant turmoil, the truth is that African economy is not in such a bad shape. But pressure needs to come from citizens who do care enough about international development to force politicians to overcome the basic problems in the country. Make institutions more inclusive is about changing the politics of a society to empower the poor — the empowerment of those disenfranchised, excluded and often repressed by those monopolizing power. Aid can help but it needs to be used in such a way as to help civil society mobilize collectively, find a voice and get involved with decision-making.