Africa, have we got it wrong?

[anotheoldgit]

Has the west got it all wrong when it comes to giving aid to Africa, well yes it seems so according to a Dambisa Moyo.

She was born in Zambia, where her family still live. She has a doctorate in economics from Oxford, a masters from Harvard, and for several years worked for the World Bank in Washington DC.

Moyo cites a brilliant example of how the whole concept is flawed. Imagine there's an African mosquito-net maker who manufactures 500 nets a week. He employs ten people, and this being Africa, each of those employees supports as many as 15 relatives on his modest but steady salary. Some 150 people therefore depend on this thriving little cottage industry, producing a much-needed, low-cost commodity for local people.

Then, Moyo writes: 'Enter vociferous Hollywood movie star who rallies the masses and goads Western governments to collect and send 100,000 mosquito nets to the afflicted region, at a cost of a million dollars. The nets arrive and a "good" deed is done.'

The result? The local business promptly goes bust. Why buy one when they're handing them out for free? Ten more people are unemployed, and 150 people are without means of support.

And that's not all. In a year or so, those nets will have sustained wear and tear, and will need either mending or replacing. But the local net-maker is no longer around.

This seems to prove that Africa does not need free gifts, it needs the opportunity to produce these free gifts for themselves and for trade.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1 160776/Comic-relief-Top-black-academic-argues- western-approach-working-Africa.html

[rov1200]

Whats that saying; "Give them free fish to eat for a year and they will eventually starve, but give them the means to catch the fish and they will live on"

[tigerlily11]

Ditto to the above.

[New Judge]

Please don't get me started on Africa!

[Gromit]

There is Aid and there is Development.

Money given on our behalf by our Government is called International Development. Its aim is to build economies and local infrastructure so that the local population can get themselves out of poverty and dependancy.

Money collected after a natural disaster, usually collected by charity donations from the good British public is called Aid. It is meant to alleviate an immediate crisis such as a flood or earthquake.

[Gromit]

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/

[tiggerblue10]

It would help if the governments of some of these African countries were not so corrupt and actually helped their people.

It would also help if countries like the UK and US paid producers in the third world a decent amount for their goods and services.

[123everton]

We're largely hung up by political dogma in africa (we don't do business with people we don't like) China trades with anyone and everyone who'll sell em what they need and in return they build power stations roads and bridges etc.
what this creates is an affluent, educated middle class, these people themselves will demand change over time, problem solved?
This was the model evinced by Mark Thomas etal during the sanctions period in Saddam Hussein's, why are'nt they proposing it for Africa?
Or is the idea that badly flawed?