Diskussion über Themen der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (EZ) in/mit Westafrika einschließlich (und vor allem) der politischen sowie sozio-ökonomischen Bedingungen in den Ländern und was EZ bewirken kann -- oder auch nicht -- oder ob sie aber nicht sogar schadet. ACHTUNG: In Ermangelung von Kommentaren lediglich Beiträge zu EZ-Themen.
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Interview mit Brigitta Villaronga, Leiterin von InWEnt in Feldafing
„Die Technische Zusammenarbeit hat ausgedient“
„Die Technische Zusammenarbeit hat ausgedient“ – mit dieser These haben Sie bei Ihrem Vortrag an der Akademie für Politische Bildung für große Diskussion gesorgt. Was genau meinen Sie damit?
Villaronga: Das war zugespitzt formuliert, trifft aber das Problem. Die Technische Zusammenarbeit korreliert häufig mit dem, was wir früher unter Entwicklungshilfe verstanden haben. Das hat viel zu tun mit unserem Expertendünkel. Wir kommen mit eigenen Vorstellungen und Rezepten und stülpen sie einem gänzlich anderen Wirtschafts-, Kultur- und Wertesystem über. Das kann kein Modell für die Zukunft sein.
Außerdem suggerieren wir so den Eindruck, dass sich mit der richtigen Technik alle Probleme lösen lassen. Aber das stimmt nicht. Es geht viel mehr um die Aneignung von Nachhaltigkeitskompetenzen bei den Veränderungsagenten in den Ländern selbst – und übrigens auch bei uns. Das beinhaltet auch soziale und Methodenkompetenzen. Wir brauchen Menschen, die ihr Fachwissen und ihre Ideen über geeignete Kommunikation auch richtig transportieren und umsetzen können.
> Zum Interview
"African leaders ask "Why can’t the rich Western countries provide $70billion annually to meet the MDGs? It’s only a fraction of their annual GDP. They can easily spare it, but it would mean so much in the developing world." Western aid advocates do their part by painting gory pictures of famine and disease in Africa to justify the demand. Yet, some way, somehow, African leaders have been able to squeeze close to $150 billion per year."
(...) (...) (...)
"At the MDG summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a balance between aid and good governance as a necessary condition for attaining the MDGs. Unfortunately, African governments generally prefer an imbalance with more aid and less accountability. Donor nations need to understand this reality and get away from platitudes like the MDGs and aid targets and insist that African governments enact policies that will unleash the entrepreneurial spirits of Africans to create wealth and support national governments through taxation. Aid may help governments that have already begun to tread this path, but providing ever-more aid in hopes that they will only perpetuates the status quo." >> more
Comment on "Aidwatchers.com":
"The parlous state of the public finances in Britain provides the perfect opportunity for British taxpayers to end their half-century-long experiment with “ development aid”, which has, since its inception, stunted growth and subsidised bad governance in Africa.
As Africans, we urge the generous-spirited British to reconsider an aid, programme they can il l afford, and which we do not want or need. A real offer from the British people to help our development would consist of the abolition of the Common Agricultural Policy, which keeps African agricultural exports out of the European marketplace.
It is that egregious policy, combined with the weight of regulations, bad laws and stifling bureaucracy, subsidised by five decades of development aid, which prevents Africans from lifting themselves out of poverty."
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That's the point: The North must change the frame conditions, not deliver development aid on an alibi ticket!
Die einen bekommen Fisch im Überfluss, die anderen gehen leer aus: Weil die EU Millionen Euro an korrupte Staaten zahlt, dürfen europäische Trawler die Fanggründe vor der Küste Afrikas plündern. "Cash for Fish" heißt das fragwürdige Geschäft - für die Einheimischen bleibt fast nichts übrig.
mehr in >> SPIEGEL-Online
Das ist nichts Neues! Die Schnarchnasen in Brüssel brauchen halt etwas länger, auch wenn sie selbst der Verursacher sind!!! >>Foreign Trawlers Blamed For Poor Fish Harvest
"Dass der Norden den Süden nicht entwickeln und jeder Mensch und jede Gesellschaft das nur selbst tun könne, gehört zum wohlfeilen Glaubensbekenntnis der Geber. In die Praxis ist es allerdings kaum eingedrungen. (...)
Die Verletzung des Subsidiaritätsprinzips hat zu einer bemutternden Haltung geführt, die in den Dritte-Welt-Kreisen des Nordens seit Jahrzehnten verbreitet ist, und die im Widerspruch zum Subsidiaritätsprinzip selbst steht, das verlangt, dass helfende Agenturen, private oder staatliche, keine Aufgaben übernehmen dürfen, die vom Entwicklungsland selbst erfüllt werden können. (...)
Das Subsidiaritätsprinzip hätte von Anfang an der Schlüssel für die Gestaltung der Zusammenarbeit sein müssen. In Wahrheit hat es eine viel zu geringe Rolle gespielt."
mehr: SPIEGEL Online >> Entwicklungshilfe -- Warum die Helfer in Afrika versagen
"I believe that our bid to remove imperialism from our country and to bring freedom and happiness to our people must not be limited only to the foreign forms of imperialism but also to local forms of imperialism. Freedom from fear within is as important to the happiness of men as freedom from fear without. "
Ghana: >> The Brong - Ashanti Divide (Part 2)
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!
>> The entire article
