“Africa is the richest
continent in the world, in terms of natural and mineral resources. It has
nearly 600 million hectares of uncultivated-arable land, about 60% of the
global total. We spend a lot of time talking about this wealth, but mostly
doing nothing with it. Look, nearly 90% of containers that bring goods to East
Africa go back empty… the world won’t, can’t just sit by and watch if we don’t
put our resources to productive use. Global players will come, take and do
something with them. It’s the cold reality. It’s the way the world works.”
Eriya Kategaya; Former First Deputy Prime Minister in Uganda and Former
Minister of East African Community Affairs. Kategaya, sums up the elephant in
the room in regards to African Development, while we are busy blaming everyone
other than ourselves for our under development, the world continues to develop.
In his book, “The Trouble
with Africa: Why Foreign aid isn’t working”, Robert Calderisi retells stories
and experiences from his 30 years of service at the world bank connected to
Africa. He argues that foreign aid has failed Africa and Africa for the better
part has failed itself as well.
He debunks the victim
mentality that Africa has carried since the end of colonialism and argues that
Africa’s problems are more a creation of the factors within Africa than outside
of it and these problems can be solved even without the abundance of money ——
aid.
He deflates the narrative
that Africa is poor and is lagging behind because of its history of colonialism
and slavery. Africa is caught in a pity party of a history who for the better
part, improved the state of African Nations and pushed their development into a
much desirable state. He argues that as
much as colonialism had its undertones, its perks were evident on the continent
as well. He notes that even with the exit of the colonialists, Africa rather
has experienced a digress in growth close to 30 years.
He notes that Africans
continue to blame the unfairness of the global economy for the continued loss
of markets for goods from the continent. Consequently, everyone is to blame for
the underdevelopment of Africa apart from Africa itself.
Calderisi argues that
Africa’s problem is its leaders who are complacent, corrupt and unwilling to
share the truth with their people. Notwithstanding, there are many people on
the continent that are working towards making Africa a better place. In the
long run, it is going to take Africans in the diaspora and on the continent to
change the trajectory. Ultimately, Africa’s commitment to development should be
driven by the people and their governments other than a continued overflow of
foreign aid. In a sense, he stresses that Africans are responsible for the
development of Africa or lack thereof.
Calderisi also notes that Africa continues to lose
its human capital through the continued migration of many Africans from the
continent, most of whom have the capability to change Africa. there has been a
creation of a diaspora divide that has increased the alienation between
Africans in the diaspora and Africans on the continent.
Calderisi notes that Foreign aid by itself has never amounted to much on the
continent, but where it has been intertwined with good public policy, political
will and a strong determination it has been capable of taking masses out of
poverty. He notes that Africa is eroded with despots and failed democracies and
over the years has been hijacked by coercer leaders who have eaten away the
wealth of the continent that is accumulated in swiss accounts.
Africa needs to deal with
the infestation of megalomaniacs who have failed to provide their countries with
basic public goods i.e. Health, Education and good roads in order for
development to ensue. He notes that the responsibility of African governments
needs to become real, otherwise they continue to be cheerful receivers of the
generosity of foreign agencies without cause to redeem their nations out of
poverty.
Political correctness has
also injured African development, Calderisi notes that for the longer part,
Africa has been seen through pity by many foreign countries who also believe in
the need to increase foreign aid on the continent. But Calderisi argues that an
increase in foreign aid has not helped Africa in the past decades and will
certainly not help even if it is increased. He argues that without disrespect
to the sovereignty of governments in the South, aid needs to be structured and
availed to countries deliberately working towards providing the basic goods to
their people and those evidently working towards bringing their countries out
of poverty.
He notes that in line
with that is the complacency and corruption in the governments of many African
leaders. Many people on the continent have not been empowered with information
on what the money both in taxes and in foreign aid is used for. Many Africa
leaders are unbothered and detached from the plight of their people. Therefore,
in the need to provide accountability and proper show of how most of the money
is used, the leaders of these African Countries have failed their
constituencies. “I once asked a president
of the Central African Republic, Ange-Félix Patassé, to give up a personal
monopoly he held on the distribution of refined oil products in his country. He
was unapologetic. "Do you expect me to lose money in the service of my
people?" he replied. That, in a nutshell, has been the problem of Africa.
He notes that there has been a curb on public
opinion and political engagement of the opposition. While his examples were
centered from his experience in Ivory coast, one must acknowledge that they
speak volumes on the character and nature of many African governments who in
nature are multi party oriented but in practice full time controllers of
dissent. For Africa the trouble could be
herself and the mismanagement that goes on in the structures mandated with
pushing for development and the people managing them—sitting governments.
Calderisi notes that
Africa can save Africa if those that are given aid use it as it is purposed. He
notes that there are many people on the continent who are doing everything in
their power to push for development and push Africa out of the dependency on
Foreign aid.
Calderisi notes that
while the African story has been covered with negative experiences, Africa is
not void of development success stories. He notes that the 1960s were times
when the display of African Unity was experienced. The East African Community
was flourishing in growth and development. Today, while the East African
Community has increased its membership to include Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi
and Congo. It continues to grapple with border conflicts among the countries,
trade restrictions. The benefits of the East African Integration are vast and
the leaders of these countries have a stake in pushing for the greater good of
their constituencies.
The pettiness of African
leaders has also led to a failure in creating a thriving integration, Calderisi
notes that at the risk of enlarging markets and pushing for developments,
African leaders hold standoffs at the expense of their citizens and the international
community. For example, the recent cold war between Rwanda and Uganda has
caused many Ugandans and Rwandans to lose valuable items, goods and money.
While many argue that the money lost is of little impact to both economies, one
cannot ignore the impact the impasse has had on the integration.
Calderisi, notes that
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere noted the obsolete nature of foreign aid and why Africa
needs to generate money from within to change Africa, he had pushed for African
Socialism and continuously saw “ foreign aid as not the answer to Tanzania’s
problems” Key to note is that while Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s Ujaama failed to
achieve its envisioned success he was hailed both in Africa and abroad for
choosing to create home grown solutions for his Country away from foreign aid.
While many people argue that he was getting help from socialist China, he
proved that if African leaders channel their efforts into changing the lives of
their people, development can certainly be achieved.
He insisted that agriculture is the back bone/basis
for development in Africa, unfortunately many governments have neglected
agriculture in favor of industrial development. There is no doubt in the
ability of Agriculture to lift Africa out of poverty one such true example of
agricultural led development were the Asian tigers who through a commitment to
change the lives of their economies were transformed.
The global south needs to reinvest in agriculture
and in creating markets on the global scale to stir development. Most of the South
is endowed with good weather and fertile soils and therefore can radically push
for agricultural development that can as well go with the industrialization
taking place in order to provide value added commodities on the global markets in
order for Africans to benefit from the global economies at large.
Africa
economic prowess is in the limbo compared to its counterparts from the East
Asian and on the global markets as a whole. And a revamp in Agriculture could
be the answer to some of Africa’s dilemmas with development.
A lot of autocrats that ran the governments in
Africa have swindled and plundered their countries into debt and with a
combination of lack of information, many Africans will continue to blame the
foreign institutions and foreign aid for their demise. African leaders simply
do not care. They have managed to buy off shore properties and transferred
money from aid and their national treasuries into swiss accounts. And unless
the cycle of corruption, indifference and unpatriotic nature is deterred in
Africa. A lot of the aid provided will be but an enabling factor for the
continued corruption and outright theft going on in the continent.
Press censorships and manipulation of the electoral
systems among other issues that deter democracy is evident of the “self-absorption
and self-enrichment of political
leaders who also set a pattern for others to follow.”
These men are not looking forward to winning Nobel Peace Prizes indeed. “The
absence of these checks and balances, including a free press and an independent
judiciary, had allowed personal ambitions to weaken the foundations of the
nation, rather than serve as rushing water at a mill of national debate and
growth.”
Calderisi argues that until Africans can deal with
the infestation of megalomaniacs running governments, then the fall back on
neo-colonialism and the blame on foreign aid will not stop. Africa’s definitive
problem according to Calderisi is the need for personal enrichment for those
who are mandated with managing the wealth of their governments.
Calderisi notes that within Africa, amidst the
failing systems are people that are working hard to redeem their agencies and
change their lives. While they lack the knowledge on the role of economic
forces at work in their labor, they show up every day to change their poverty
written realities.
Calderisi notes that even with the possibility of
Africa working together, the impossibility of such a unity makes it hard for
Africa on the geo-political stage. Africa is by far divided even in meetings
where causes for Africa are on the center table. It goes to say, today in 2019,
we have had many countries hold summits with Africa and for a continent, Africa
always shows up as individual countries representing their respective countries
other than Africa as a continent. Even then, Africa has failed to organize an
Africa summit where they can table their mutual concerns, development agendas
before they roll out inter-continental development interests. Africa continues
to exclude herself from the geo-political table by simply existing in discord
and disunity on the continent.
Today, Nigeria is being despised in the West
African ECOWAS circle for closing her borders yet they are signatories to open
border trade among the west African countries. In the effort of Africa for
Africa, one needs to be alive to the lack of solidarity towards development on
the continent.
Calderisi argues that Africa has not been a victim
of globalization. He asserts that Africa has walled itself off from the rest of
the world and it has only but itself to blame. The shrinking economies of
Africa are only a reflection of Africa’s pull away from the competitive global
economy.
He asserts that, “Africa’s economy is small for two
reasons. First, governments have hobbled and even persecuted small farmers, and
second they have been only slightly more encouraging to private investors.”
He argues that tourism is small to bank on and
agriculture which was and is the main industry for Africa has been watered down
and there has been no cause in advancing the agriculture sector into a
competitive and productive one.
Claderisi argue that the rest of the world can do
very little for Africa except support countries making progress. He notes that as of 2006,
Five African countries were making progress on the developing their economies
and these needed to be supported.
Unfortunately, some of the countries that Calderisi provides as
steadily achieving development for their countries have fallen off track in
providing basic public goods. Uganda discovered oil and gas deposits but has
gone on a spending spree, reportedly ordering fighter planes worth $300 million
from Russia, according to a recent report in the New York Times and as well as
depleting the petroleum fund for purposes other than oil extraction.
Calderisi provides ten ways of changing Africa
without the overload of Foreign aid.
1.
Introduce
mechanisms for tracing and recovering funds; Calderisi notes that Africa would
benefit if its politicians stopped amassing wealth abroad and he recommends closing
safe havens for illicit money in order to benefit the economies and the
political reform of many African countries.
2.
Require
all heads of state, ministers, and senior officials to open their bank accounts
to public scrutiny; He notes that political officials should have audits made
to their accounts.
Uganda has over the years through the office
of the Inspector General of Government conducted a wealth declaration exercise
among the politicians but this over time has not yielded any cause in curbing
corruption and checking illegal absorption of wealth. Therefore, such a remedy
needs to have public interest groups involved for the exercise to have some
semblance of transparency as well.
3.
Cut
direct aid to individual countries in half; Calderisi argues that aid channeled
to more general purposes such as the establishment of regional universities,
multi-country infrastructure projects, agricultural research, and cross-border
HIV/AIDS initiatives. Such efforts would benefit several countries at a time
or, for that matter, the entire continent.
4.
Focus
direct aid on four to five countries that are serious about reducing poverty,
i.e. Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, and perhaps
Mali. Unfortunately, today Uganda
still grapples with the very problems Chad went through. Basic services have
come to a crackdown and today, Uganda would be among the countries that require
quarantine from receiving direct aid.
5.
Require
all countries to hold internationally-supervised elections; Have all African
countries receiving aid to hold open political debates and elections. Calderisi
stresses that aid should be denied to all countries that refuse to have
internationally supervised elections.
6.
Promote
other aspects of democracy, including a free press and an independent judiciary;
Calderisi notes that there is need for regulation to stop Africa leaders from
stifling dissent, arresting journalists and arresting people for insulting
political leaders. He notes that there should be increased support of pressure
groups that check governments.
7.
Supervise
the running of Africa’s schools and HIV/AIDS programs by keeping everyone of
school age enrolled and improve the quality of teaching and learning. Support
measures would include eliminating all school fees, subsidizing textbooks and
uniforms, and compensating poor families for the loss of their children’s
labor; upgrading the quality of teachers and raising their salaries; building
safer and cleaner schools; and making curricula more suitable to local
cultures.
8.
Establish
citizen review groups to oversee government policy and aid agreements: these
will be tasked with checking on government policies without duplication of
work. To have these groups check government and continually call out government
when it goes off track in using taxes and aid. The role of non-state actors is
becoming very important in tasking governments to push for development and have
such public interest groups in Africa could help in pushing for development in
the long run.
9.
Put
more emphasis on infrastructure and regional links; Aid resources not devoted
to individual countries should be focused increasingly on targets of common
rather than national interest, such
as agricultural research, control of infectious diseases, and regional communication
and transportation links.
10. Merge the World Bank, IMF and United Nations
Development Programme: Because these three institutions are compatible in the
work that they do for and in Africa. And a merger of the institutions would
combine their power and Africa would move to the center of the UN’s agenda.
Africa has the potential to recover and start on a
journey of growth and development but there are radical changes with Africa
that need to be achieved before such development becomes a reality. Without a
doubt, Africans are the only ones that can help develop Africa with only some
support from Foreign aid.
