Out of Africa

Aid.

It’s the number one way the world’s leading countries seek to help Africa.

Get rid of poverty? Send aid to Africa. Millions dying of AIDS? Send aid to Africa. Bad governments? … send aid to Africa?

Kenyan Njoroge Wachai says trade, not aid, is what Africa needs.

For one thing, most of the aid promised to Africa in the last G8 Summit (in 2005) hasn’t been fulfilled and is unlikely to be fulfilled by the 2010 deadline. Pledge after pledge comes in, but most of them are not being fulfilled. So Wachai has one question: “ Why do African countries keep pushing for aid that rich countries are reluctant and unwilling to give? Isn’t there an alternative?”

He makes some really good points.

• Foreign Aid isn’t free: regardless of what Africans think, another country offering you aid isn’t like a scholarship. You’re going to have to pay it back some way, some how.

rich countries are lethargic about passing their money to Africa, because it doesn’t make economic sense to do so. … African leaders, out of their foolishness, believe wrongly that rich countries are philanthropic entities flush with cash to dole out to poor countries. That’s why they, or their representatives, are always in Western capitals with begging bowls.

•  Even if it were free … foreign aid will not move Africa out of poverty: the more we rely on the help of others, the more dependent we become and get further from our hopes to be independent. The countries that are giving the aid are still thinking of themselves first and foremost. Africa should do the same.