The myth of Western Aid and Development:
Kwame Osei | 23.02.2010 14:05 | Analysis | Education | Globalisation
Many people have been deceived by western propaganda that aid to Afrika is what Afrika needs and that this so-called aid will take afrika out of poverty. It is a lie then as it is a lie now for the west know that aid will never help develop Afrika - In actual fact it has had the opposite effect. This article seeks to point this out to the reader.
At the recent United Nations session where the world's leaders gave speeches about the state of the world, some Afrikan 'leaders' expressed concern that western nations would not be able to send Afrika 'aid' because of the growing financial crises that is engulfing America and the west.
The truth of the matter is that the West does not give a hoot about Afrikan development and they have no interest in seeing Afrika develop - despite the insidious and pretentious noises they make about being Afrika's "development partners" and wanting to help Afrika out of poverty.
Proof of this is in the book by Dr. Walter Rodney entitled "How Europe Under developed Afrika" where he argues that 500 years of enslavement, colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism have all played a part in undermining Afrika's development, whilst western nations prospered.
Secondly is the current hypocrisy and double standards - in 2005 at the much hyped G8 summit in Gleneagles that was dubbed "make poverty history" US$50bn was pledged by G8 leaders to help Afrika out of poverty.
Three years on and the money pledged has not been forthcoming and the money that has found its way to Afrika is recycled money that has got draconian conditions attached to it, like selling strategic national assets like Ghana Telecom (GT).
Another stark reality is that most of the G8 countries fall well short of the amount of money they initially promised to Afrika.
A report issued by CONCORD, an umbrella organisation representing development NGOs based in Europe, analyzes the aid programmes of European Union nations. The report is entitled "Hold the Applause."
It states that the amounts promised by European governments do not match the amounts actually paid: "If European governments do not improve on current performance, poor countries would have received 50 billion Euros less from Europe by 2010 than...promised."
It accuses European government aid programmes of having "security, geopolitical alliances and domestic interests" as the main objectives.
The analysis shows 30 percent of the figure for aid claimed by European governments was not genuine aid. Amongst the methods used to inflate the aid figures is the inclusion of debt relief as aid.
Another is to count cancellation of export credit debts as aid relief. As the report points out, export credits are used to support domestic companies seeking to do business in developing countries offering insurance against often very lucrative, if somewhat risky, ventures.
Another means of inflating aid figures is to include monies spent on refugees within Europe and money spent on educating overseas students within Europe. The report cites Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures showing the percentage of European aid going to Africa is actually falling. For 2004 it was 41 percent, and in 2005 it was 37 percent - currently it is below 30 percent.
CONCORD also makes the point that "tied food aid is often linked to trade dumping of surplus food from donor countries." A recent article in the Observer newspaper food magazine (UK) accused the American government of doing the same thing. It noted, "America's food aid volumes increased massively (up to 20 percent of cereal production)...when prices in the US were depressed...but when domestic prices are high this figure falls to just five per cent."
A report by the development charity Oxfam is headlined, "The World is Still Waiting. Broken G8 promises are costing millions of lives."
The report notes that five years since the Gleneagles G8 summit, "the unacceptable truth is that they are breaking their promises, with terrible consequences."
Oxfam calculates that shortfall in money promised equates to 1 million women dying in pregnancy or childbirth for the want of simple medical care and 21 million children under five dying because of extreme poverty.
Writing recently in the Scotsman Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, said, "The first year after the Gleneagles meeting, aid numbers were padded by misleading accounting on debt cancellation.... The data are now revealing the stark truth: development aid to Africa and to poor countries more generally is stagnant...."
Much was made of the debt cancellations announced at the 2005 G8 summit, and yet according to the Jubilee Debt Campaign using the latest information available, "The poorest 54 countries have debts totaling between US$300 and US$400 billion, whilst for the poorest 152 countries; it is over US$ 2.5 trillion."
However, that aside the biggest double standard of all is that the United States and Western Europe combined are putting more than US$3 trillion to sort out the financial mess (which they created) in its banking system - yet they cannot find a mere US$50 billion to help Afrika out of poverty!!!.
This is proof that the political will of the west is non-existent as far as helping Afrika is concerned and claims that they are "development partners" is nothing more than a BIG LIE.
All the west cares about is looting Afrika's natural rich mineral resources as cheaply as they can and now that they are in dire economic straits i.e. more or less bankrupt, this looting will be even more intense as they seek to attain for themselves Afrika's mineral wealth in order to boost their economies that are ALL in recession.
The truth of the matter is that the West does not give a hoot about Afrikan development and they have no interest in seeing Afrika develop - despite the insidious and pretentious noises they make about being Afrika's "development partners" and wanting to help Afrika out of poverty.
Proof of this is in the book by Dr. Walter Rodney entitled "How Europe Under developed Afrika" where he argues that 500 years of enslavement, colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism have all played a part in undermining Afrika's development, whilst western nations prospered.
Secondly is the current hypocrisy and double standards - in 2005 at the much hyped G8 summit in Gleneagles that was dubbed "make poverty history" US$50bn was pledged by G8 leaders to help Afrika out of poverty.
Three years on and the money pledged has not been forthcoming and the money that has found its way to Afrika is recycled money that has got draconian conditions attached to it, like selling strategic national assets like Ghana Telecom (GT).
Another stark reality is that most of the G8 countries fall well short of the amount of money they initially promised to Afrika.
A report issued by CONCORD, an umbrella organisation representing development NGOs based in Europe, analyzes the aid programmes of European Union nations. The report is entitled "Hold the Applause."
It states that the amounts promised by European governments do not match the amounts actually paid: "If European governments do not improve on current performance, poor countries would have received 50 billion Euros less from Europe by 2010 than...promised."
It accuses European government aid programmes of having "security, geopolitical alliances and domestic interests" as the main objectives.
The analysis shows 30 percent of the figure for aid claimed by European governments was not genuine aid. Amongst the methods used to inflate the aid figures is the inclusion of debt relief as aid.
Another is to count cancellation of export credit debts as aid relief. As the report points out, export credits are used to support domestic companies seeking to do business in developing countries offering insurance against often very lucrative, if somewhat risky, ventures.
Another means of inflating aid figures is to include monies spent on refugees within Europe and money spent on educating overseas students within Europe. The report cites Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures showing the percentage of European aid going to Africa is actually falling. For 2004 it was 41 percent, and in 2005 it was 37 percent - currently it is below 30 percent.
CONCORD also makes the point that "tied food aid is often linked to trade dumping of surplus food from donor countries." A recent article in the Observer newspaper food magazine (UK) accused the American government of doing the same thing. It noted, "America's food aid volumes increased massively (up to 20 percent of cereal production)...when prices in the US were depressed...but when domestic prices are high this figure falls to just five per cent."
A report by the development charity Oxfam is headlined, "The World is Still Waiting. Broken G8 promises are costing millions of lives."
The report notes that five years since the Gleneagles G8 summit, "the unacceptable truth is that they are breaking their promises, with terrible consequences."
Oxfam calculates that shortfall in money promised equates to 1 million women dying in pregnancy or childbirth for the want of simple medical care and 21 million children under five dying because of extreme poverty.
Writing recently in the Scotsman Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, said, "The first year after the Gleneagles meeting, aid numbers were padded by misleading accounting on debt cancellation.... The data are now revealing the stark truth: development aid to Africa and to poor countries more generally is stagnant...."
Much was made of the debt cancellations announced at the 2005 G8 summit, and yet according to the Jubilee Debt Campaign using the latest information available, "The poorest 54 countries have debts totaling between US$300 and US$400 billion, whilst for the poorest 152 countries; it is over US$ 2.5 trillion."
However, that aside the biggest double standard of all is that the United States and Western Europe combined are putting more than US$3 trillion to sort out the financial mess (which they created) in its banking system - yet they cannot find a mere US$50 billion to help Afrika out of poverty!!!.
This is proof that the political will of the west is non-existent as far as helping Afrika is concerned and claims that they are "development partners" is nothing more than a BIG LIE.
All the west cares about is looting Afrika's natural rich mineral resources as cheaply as they can and now that they are in dire economic straits i.e. more or less bankrupt, this looting will be even more intense as they seek to attain for themselves Afrika's mineral wealth in order to boost their economies that are ALL in recession.
Kwame Osei
e-mail:
nanaoseikwame@hotmail.com