Yes, aid is dead, and I’m not feeling too well myself
Kufuor
By CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO (East African Kenya)-
I like former Ghana president John Kufuor. He is a soft-spoken, gentle man who didn’t try to change the constitution so he could stay on when his second term ended last year.It was therefore a bit disconcerting to hear his criticism last Thursday of Dambisa Moyo, Zambian economist and author of the much-debated book Dead Aid.
Ms Moyo makes an old argument — that aid doesn’t work and Africa has done badly out of it.
Her solution is to close the taps, so Africa can learn how to sit on its own bottom.
The controversy Moyo’s book has caused, therefore, is not in the newness of the idea, but the persuasive way she makes the case.
That perhaps was to be expected from someone who got her PhD in economics at Oxford University and her masters from Harvard University, and worked for Goldman Sachs and the World Bank.
Kufuor argued that aid works, and gave examples of universal primary education and the school feeding programme in Ghana.
Then he went for Moyo’s jugular: “Mrs Moyo is not the voice of Africa,” he said. “She lives in an ivory tower, far away from the reality of Africa. Perhaps she should go back to Zambia to see how much that country still needs help. Maybe then I will pay better attention to her.”
While Kufuor was dismissive of Moyo, that friend of Africa, Prof Jeffrey D. Sachs — director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University — sought to embarrass her, saying that without a scholarship that was given as aid, Moyo would never have gone to Harvard.
It is a flawed argument, because it is like saying you cannot denounce an abusive father just because he paid your college fees.
As for Kufuor, I have driven past his house in Accra. It is so magnificent that, when he was president, he continued to live there and it was still more magnificent than many African state houses.
It is the wrong address from which to lecture a critic of aid.
On aid, I go with Moyo’s currency. I don’t know of any African country that is so poor it can’t pay its way from its own resources.
The reason African countries need aid is because they are badly ruled. Aid does not resolve that issue in any way.
Indeed, it makes it more difficult to deal with it, because it shields corrupt leaders from the penalty of their failures.
The other thing is that whether aid is good or bad, Africa needs to prepare for the day when it slows to a trickle.
Kufour lamented a decrease in aid, and seems to think it is a result of meanness from donors.
He could be wrong. It is not that donors are close-fisted.
The reality is that the global economic crisis of the past two years has left donor nations without the means to keep pumping aid money into Africa, so there will just be no money to give us.
Africa can continue to sit at the street corner with the begging bowl if it wishes.
The reality is that the flow of coins into the tin is about to dry up. Then what? They will need to read “Dead Aid” to find a way out.
Loading ...
I had done a piece for my column (from Lusaka North) in the Times of Zambia. The story was not used for some unknown reason. The article was supposed to come out on Independence day. I have decided to share it on this site.
FROM LUSAKANORTH
BY AUSTIN KALUBA
Today Zambia is 45 years old. The days of blacks buying through pigeon holes which irritated the first republican president Kenneth Kaunda forcing him,to stop eating meat are long gone. So are the days of Blacks being stopped for a pass to permit them free movement in their own country.
As the anti-colonialism song in chi-Bemba Ubulofwa bwa kale jauntily stated ; mayendele Muno Zambia (You can now move freely in Zambia) Zambia is celebrating four decades of independence free from the oppressive yoke of foreign rule.The Black Maria with fault-finding,sjambok-wielding Policemen which sent terror in the hearts of blacks is a thing of the past.
Zambia has seen four black presidents and two political parties hold the reins of power. Like many African countries, Zambia is free socially and politically. However, much needs to be done in the economical sphere which has seen other former colonial states still languishing in poverty not solely resultant of corruption and mismanagement but largely to do with lack of the know how that went with the exit of the colonial masters. Many African states can be rightly called surrogate races which shouldn’t have been administratively weaned prematurely from the colonial masters who created them in the first place.
What am trying to say is that the independence Zambia got could have borne full economic benefits if the white colonial masters were allowed to participate in the development of the country. This is true for most sub-saharan African countries that got independence in the 60’s. Debatable as it is, many countries were ill-prepared for self-governance.
This is not to say colonialism was a good thing. Colonialism like slavery was an evil imperialistic practice that needed replacing with self-governance. On the other hand self governance by inexperienced and in case of Zambia a largely illiterate leadership and populace could not be a solution even to an arrogant, racist but efficient colonial governance.
It is a fallacy to think that descendants of colonialism are worse off than they would have been had colonialism not occurred. The cruel truth is that many Third World countries citizens would be far worse off were it not for colonisation.
One only needs to look at ‘ undisturbed ‘ societies like the Pygmies of Ituri forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other aborigines of Australia who have never had a serious social intercourse with the dynamic Western culture to realise what many societies could have been if the colonialists had not come.
The development we strive to achieve unfortunately is euro-centric and we have to master the skills and techniques employed by our former colonial masters if our endevours are to bear the intended results.
Coming back to Zambia which had only 101 graduates at independence, barring the former colonial masters from governance was disastrous. Zambia’s founding father Dr Kenneth Kaunda himself confessed in an interview with the former Times of Zambia political editor Samuel Ngoma that the nationalists at Independence were ill-equipped to rule the country.
In South Africa, Mozambique, Angola and even Zambia, the wounds of colonialism are still festering. Any right thinking person knows that colonialism but these countries would have done better economically if like is the case in South Africa, they had allowed the former colonial masters to participate in national development.
In South Africa, where colonialism bore more uglier marks than in countries like Zambia, some frank black South Africans have realised that a White man despite his many faults in relating with other non-white people is successful.
The creation of a Rainbow nation encompassing all races for a better South African has already borne fruits in economic and political circles.
For countries like Zambia whose well-meaning nationalists came up with emotional and ill-conceived political and economic policies like nationalisation that saw an exodus of whites to countries like South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Britain, the consequences have been grave.
Needless to say if the victorious UNIP had tolerated the white-dominated United Federal Party (UFP) to develop the country, Zambia would have been a better place than it is now.
On a happier note, politically we are free mayendele muno Zambia but economically, we should have spent more time with the enemy in learning the rudiments of self-governance.
End..
I want to link up with this Joseph Mwansa that is if he is the one who was at UNZA. I am told he is studying at Leeds University. Lets link up.
Aid is good if it is not given through selfish third parties
Dr Moyo provides a compelling case against aid which we all do well to pay attention to. For instance she shows that as long as aid is flowing, African governments feel no responsibility to be accountable. The role of tax revenue is also eroded. Her solution might be questionable but her book certainly provides a good starting point for discussion
Joseph Mwansa : You have spelled it out clearly to my good countrymen. Its amazing how much confusion has been created by this HALF-TRUTH book. Just because in Zambia aid goes towards buying 4X4s (Mismanagement!) does not imply that the concept of aid is bad. We need to look at it in a broader perspective. Where do you think the money for STUDENT ALLOWANCES (Uncle BC) was coming from? Today these people are educated and have the audacity to condemn aid?
They even dream up western conspiracies to keep Africans poor! I think we need to ask some fellow friends to go back to UNZA and do a few more courses.
It is elements like Kafupi(and the people who vote for them)that have been holding this country back.
We have good examples of well run countries in Africa (eg Botswana) and I wonder why we can not copy from them. Are we too proud?
Ba John Kufuor you are a product of corrupt element. One can not live on begging, then you becoume a slave of the person who is giving you. you african leaders you are useless. greed. nicekeleko that is what you know.
Iam of the opinion that aid is necessary but it is what it does which matters. The aid for productive sectors so as to help them be self sustaining (e.g. helping Ms Moyo get education so that she too can help others not kill them afterwards or set up a plant or a school in poor areas). The aid that is bad is towards consuption especially in bad dictorships countries. Not all countries Ms Moyo are badly run, so we can’t just say aid is dead to Africa. Things must be put in perspective.
I like the aurgument that “aid to Ms Moyo was because of outstanding students” so can then be the same for “outstanding Africa countries”. No country, including America, has managed to be on its own. They are borrowing heaving through treasury bills from China of all places. The Aid groups are the largest in America. Yes, we do need aid but targeted at building a sustainable situation than make it permanent. That should have been Ms Moyo’s case.
Iam of the opinion that aid is necessary but it is what it does which matters. The aid for productive sectors so as to help them be self sustaining (e.g. helping Ms Moyo get education so that she too can help others not kill them afterwards or set up a plant or a school in poor areas). The aid that is bad is towards consuption especially in bad dictorships countries. Not all countries Ms Moyo are badly run, so we can just say aid is dead to Africa. Things must be put in perspective.
I like the aurgument that “aid to Ms Moyo was because of outstanding students” so can then be the same for “outstanding Africa countries”. No country, including America, has managed to be on its own. They are borrowing heaving through treasury bills from China of all places. The Aids groups are the largest in America. Yes, we do need aid but targeted at building a sustainable situation than make it permanent. That should have been Ms Moyo’s case.
Absolutely! On the other hand, Donors should have been funding capital projects and not injecting aid into the National Treasury that has been a grave mistake. Probably donors like it that way so they can enslave africa for good.We would have seen results if aid was directed to sectors like manufacturing which is fundamental to economic growth.
No need to add to such a well written article!!! Thanks for your insights Mr Author.
I haven’t read the book but do agree with Ms Moyo. How much longer will poor countries keep asking for aid? Educated men like former president Kufuor are not necessarily thinkers. Ask yourselves why so many young men and women with higher education have become derelicts. Is Warren buffet, the American investor better educated than John Kufuor or Bank of Zambia governor? The answer is a big ” NO ” Warren Buffet is a thinker who has taken on the world of investment and won. The foundation is laid out in his mind.
Two professors point out that Ms Moyo would not have the privilege of Havard education if it wasn’t for aid – scholarship – but these learned men should be reminded that scholarships are awarded to outstanding students and scholars irrepective of their background.
Well written article. It tells us that the ROOT CAUSE of the problems is bad leadership not aid. However Africa will be better off when it has weaned itself from aid.