Africa needs International aid - Africa May not need Foreign aid...

Africa needs International aid - Africa may not need Foreign aid…
Commentary on CNN’s Robert Calderisi’s critical views on foreign aid to Africa

Sam Mwaka-karama
Robert Calderisi - Special to CNN, whose critical view “why foreign aid and Africa don’t mix” published August 18, 2010. Is an analysis grossly merging-up impact of a variation of issues that emanate from over 40 years of experience in the field of ‘aid to Africa’ with a pinch of bias…
“Africa has attracted too much aid and interfering by outsiders” Robert Calderisi highlights, actually this factor negate Calderisi’s views that ‘foreign aid and Africa don’t mix’… the very reason why that is so is because of outside-interferences, which he cites in his highlight - there is always an invisible tracking and retrieval of foreign aid, once released to the coffers an African of State.
Somewhere along the line strings and loose-ends always dangle, that the interferers Robert talks about quickly pick and pull huge percentages of the aid back to foreign countries abroad, either in consultancy, or in monitoring activities, or in supervisory of the funds implementation.
At least this was so in the early days; 1970s, 80s, and parts of 1990s.
It was the creation of the group of 7 with later Russia joining to make the G8 - that put a decisive end to the (aid-draw-back) by the interferers (I must thank Robert Calderisi for mentioning this)… the parameters for aid acquisition was different then, from what it is today.
African governments of the 1970, 80s used ‘aid negotiators’ actually teams of ministry of finance officials, with perhaps that of foreign ministry, who were often sent to foreign countries with state proposals, these fellows always had to accommodate interests of the ‘interferers’, what naturally affected accountability… certain factors were always never clear! Even harder was reconciling the records were difficult in the old non-computer systems.
The time-laps in the long-run covered most accountability and record reconciliation factors. Officials often covered-up for the long-gone kickback. In Africa of those days, secrets didn’t exist - prideful aid negotiators always impressed admirers with facts and figures, when the beers got one too many - the demand for kickback were the beginning of the whole thing being chewed-up at all levels of aid implementation - what is corruption anyway?
Aid implementation of substance only started after G8’s Scotland meet that Prime Minister Tony Blair had called. Besides, it was in Scotland that the G8 did the write-off of all that earlier bad kick-back and corruption broiled aid… it is all so well for the Calderisi-s to criticize African leaders now, but the funds always got tracked and shoveled-back by the foreign ‘interferers’.
“Most African governments remain stuck in the culture of dependency or indifference” Robert Calderisi writes rather maliciously.
No African government is ‘stuck in dependency’ - there are groups of develop countries G8, Asean etcetera… who have national and group aid policies, that were not written by African governments. It is their-own foreign policies - to provide aid to Africa.
Calderisi - seem to think wrongly that African governments are constantly demanding aid from foreign countries… “Stuck in a culture of dependency…?” Such cultures don’t exist, African governments could be stuck if they ‘made demands for aid’ which is not the case at all.
Foreign aid providers act according to their (national or group) principles and policies. G8 in Scotland 2005 made one condition to African countries - to embark on structural adjustments in their countries that would carry better ‘fight against poverty’ mechanisms and allow for both Direct Foreign Investments DFI and local entrepreneur investments opportunities.
Uganda has achieved tremendously in this direction, and severally the country despite its civil strife with war in Northern Uganda for 20 years - (till about 2006) - when nearly two million people were IDP Camped - still Uganda is being cited to other African countries as a positive implementer of that Scotland G8 conditions…
Yes! Uganda could very-well be fast-tracking India, Indonesia, and even China - though from a very great distance way-back behind. But for a country that has been at war, the indicators are all there, and if the foreigners in-fluxing into the country don’t derail us with their ‘interferences’ Uganda could get there in hardly forty to fifty more years.
“After decades of aid, conditions for private savings and investment are still forbidding” I think here Robert Calderisi was being either naïve or entirely text-bookish - “private saving and Investment” what is this man talking about?
The new World Economic Order - with emergence of the Transnational, International Corporate Communications entities, International and foreign NGOs - charity implementers, in various fields including Agriculture, forestation, human rights, health etcetera, have virtually killed co-operative saving cultures (Uganda lost its Cooperative Bank and leading Commercial Bank not many years ago) Today foreign investor banks have occupied that vacated slots.
In a new world of high spending; boda-boda and commuters, airtime, internet café fees, impossible bank services-charges (that amount to robbery of depositors), DSTV, the 2GB Bluetooth-server’s monthly fee, for access to internet privately on laptop - how does anybody talk about the ‘culture of private savings and investment’ too many fancy stuff conspire to take money from the private individual all the time - more serious public savings like treasury bills and bank bonds have been taken-over by huge Corporatism, banks themselves, insurances - a private small money man can’t venture there (in treasury bills) anymore.
The Economists are all wrong: banks and corporate, buying treasury bills beyond ‘basic capital requirement to start a bank or saving Corporation…’ are very intimidating!
I am not an economist but, I think if a bank formation capital begins at 50Billion UGX (example), and ‘Sam’s Bank Ltd’ six months after opening-up teller services - turns-up at the central bank with 100Billion UGX to buy treasury bills - this means the bank simply wants to multiply the depositors account savings… to me the economics is wrong, when the banks charge exorbitant services fees to the depositors at the same-time… this negate ‘saving’ since whenever transactions are made, fees charged dig into the ‘saving’.
“Imagination and Individual initiative important in promoting a better life for Africans”… Here Robert Calderisi seem to have come-in from Mars - individual initiative went with the demise of the stereotypes idea-men in Europe and the Americas, even Russia.
So what individual initiative was he talking about? The yardstick being sold to Africa is groups for everything… ‘form groups and write a proposal’ - that is the key word to prospects for development in Africa today - whether you want to dig a fish-pond, or plant trees, start a bee-keeper hives, start farming or open a tailoring shop - just form a group and write a proposal.
The individual - say - a writer, who wants to get support to buy a good laptop or PC, with which to tackle serious book projects, will never be supported because he is an individual! Some of Robert Calderisi’s remarks are surprising…
Africa is changing and the changes here are influenced not by Foreign aid, but by the dynamics of world economics and technology developments. Actually Africa may no longer need foreign aid - but Africa still needs International aid: World Bank, IMF, UN, Commonwealth, WHO ( if it can maintain positive outlook) FAO and other international and Universal systems. But dire foreign aid - Africa may no longer need that.
“The Blair Commission Report on Africa in 2005 reported that 70,000 trained professionals leave Africa every year…” Here I think Robert Calderisi rightly sees the occasion of an enormous brain-drain as it is always referred to… but his suggestion that till these guys return with their 40% savings abroad - seemingly to begin taking charge of Africa, aid providers should and “need to use aid more restrictively” is un-necessary.
The African Diaspora just like that of the Jews, Turks, Armenians, the Irish etcetera will always be out there - whether they will learn to invest back-home is I think something to do with African cultures… and I doubt that African Diaspora people will make any significant changes in Africa with their money. It isn’t easy to explain but it is cultural.
“President Obama is being criticized for increasing US contributions to the international fight against HIV/AIDS by only two percent… with the result that people in Uganda are already being turned away from clinics an - and (therefore) condemned to die… when challenged, US officials have had fairly solid answer... Uganda has recently discovered oil and gas deposits, but had gone on a shopping spree, reportedly ordering fighter planes worth US$ 300 million from Russia… Here I think Robert Calderisi shades light on an important point”.
About this, Calderisi says “An obvious solution is to focus aid on the small number of countries that are trying seriously to fight poverty and corruption”.
But then, I would say that the Americans should view HIV/AIDS as a hazardous health issue, an area that should not be misconstrued with other factors, if Uganda ordered war machinery say from China, wanting to utilize the newly found oil money, America has so many areas of causes of action against Uganda (for that) than constraining HIV/AIDS funding…
Even citing where the money for the war equipment came from and where it went... is irrelevant: Joseph Kony the LRA (of the Northern Uganda War of 20 years) is still at large somewhere between DR Congo (Garamba) and the huge rain forests of greater Central African Countries - these are causes for a country with a little money to-quickly-spend would think about and act. 40 years is a long time of aid provision, Robert Calderisi’s analysis takes a single angle from where to cast his views - ignoring the various characteristics of the operations since the 1970, 80s, 90s to date.****