Aid and Sustainable Development in Africa

Aid and Sustainable Development in Africa
By Selali Onuoha (Marie Nkiru)

Extracts:

"A possible reaction of a newcomer to the aid debate might be one of surprise at the number of experts in the field who appear to agree on the shortcomings of aid to Africa and yet place disproportionate focus on the formulation of possible solutions."

"In the light of its past and continuing failings, perhaps the time has come to innovate and challenge the short-comings of the Aid to Africa vehicle. The theory of 'Dead Aid' propounded by Dr Dambisa Moyo (http://dambisamoyo.com/) conveys such a paradigm shift; she expresses the need to wean Africa and Africans off 'The Aid Drug'. "

"Aid in Africa, has been successful in getting African countries to adopt donor countries' recommendations of policy and to open up their respective markets."

"However, despite the laudable passion with which these outfits [social NGO projects] take on their roles, it becomes apparent the magnitude of obstacles that they face. Ultimately, dealing with issues of unpredictable and inadequate cash flows and especially a lack of understanding of existing local situations in donor preferences present quite the challenge to such organizations in their ongoing drive towards sustainability."

"In considering aid in Africa, China cannot be overlooked as a strategic investor. (...) In contrasting the pre-existing definitions and approaches to aid in Africa by the Eastern and Western developing and developed world respectively, the result proves neither side as having the better methodology. It is all but a foregone conclusion that China in dealings on the African continent has no other purpose than to further her country's interests. Like with the West, the onus lies on African nations in deciding how best to execute these relationships and ties to the best benefit of the citizenry."

"In conclusion, a revisit of Dr Moyo's thesis seems to lend itself as an adequate vehicle for a possible direction that the debate for or against aid Africa might emanate from. Does aid currently do for Africa what aid should? What should aid do for Africa? Who decides what aid should do for Africa? Does Africa need aid and if so for how long? These are questions Dr Moyo tries to tackle in an attempt to see beyond the myriad of arguments on both sides of the divide to get the heart of the matter. It would appear that there is no cohesive leading school of thought on the direction that aid should take in Africa, this possibly stemming from there being no centralized alignment of how aid is dispersed, implemented or accounted for in Africa. Perhaps it behooves Africans to take the lead in deciding what part to play in the ongoing chronicle. Be it that Dr Moyo proposes a most drastic approach; the moral in this story could well be contained not in the extremism of her solution but in its virtue of possibly being one."

I can only but underline the sentence marked red! When are we going to understand this? Because when I read the statements an prescriptions of the so called "Development Partners", I see it the other way round!

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