ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS:Development aid and dependency theories
July 27, 2011 01:19AM |  print  email   |
Twenty years after the UN launched the Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, and 10 years into the MDGs, the news from a global think tank this week, that more than one billion people still live without access to safe drinking water, health care, and other essentials of daily life doesn't really make headlines or frighten anyone in Africa.
Because in the same week, another international development agency was proclaiming Africa as the "future of the global economy", emphasising that "Nigeria and other African nations are set to turn the corner towards the path of an economic rebound!" That didn't impress anyone either.
How does an economy "rebound" with undernourished people, with water vendors in Abuja, floods in Lagos, and power cuts that cripple industrial production and domestic life?
Conflicting reports on African economic growth diminish the credibility of development agencies at a time when conflicts threaten to dismember the horn of Africa, Nigeria, Malawi, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Congo, Sudan, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Guinea, not to mention millions dying in arid lands of East Africa or the threats of climate change impacts.
Donor statistics can be fallacious and sometimes far removed from the real world situation in Africa. Few African governments, however, make any effort to collect, process and interpret their own data, despite the advent of information technology. Or maybe they shouldn't.
Remember that our government in the 1980s projected, "water, electricity, and housing for all Nigerians by the year 2000!" Nigerians have now figured out that the government targets were, "all retired generals of the army" and not "all Nigerians, military as well as civilian."
The impact of development aid on the quality of life in Africa is often discussed in hushed tones, within the corridors of international conference halls, but hardly in working groups or plenary. But ask the man in a European or American street and he'll tell you without mincing words that aid is a total waste of their money, since Africans will never learn, will remain stunted in growth, and will continue to constitute a global burden.
In truth, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that holds the aid purse strings, periodically reviews aid effectiveness. By contrast, the recipients in Africa never find consensus on the rationale for cashing the cheques from donors, and what exactly should be done with the money.
African politicians prefer to beg individually rather than negotiate collectively. Some states receive so much aid that one wonders why they have not surrendered sovereignty and reverted to colonial rule. Sub-Saharan Africa has received more than $100 billion in development assistance since 1970. Experts compute that between that year and 1998 the poverty rate in Africa actually rose from 11 per cent to a staggering 60 per cent!
Like a headmaster, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, scolded African nations while in Lagos, to try trading more with one another, also requesting the citizenry in the continent to do more in holding their governments accountable.
Quietly, donors are cutting back on overseas development assistance, which the indolent and corrupt recipients have accepted without open complaint, giving credence to the old adage that beggars don't have a choice.
A few African scholars have, however, picked up the gauntlet, and Dambisa Moyo of Zambia, in her book, Dead Aid, turns the tables and points the accusing finger at the donor. She believes that "aid is easy to steal, as it is usually provided directly to African governments, but it also makes control over government worth fighting for."
Solutions to problems can be counter-productive.
