Aid to Africa Discussion

We were talking about some of the problems with giving aid to African countries this morning. Here are some points from National Review's Cliff May:

"This weekend, concerts "to fight poverty" were held in Philadelphia, London, and eight other cities around the world. You've probably also seen the television commercials featuring former South African leader Nelson Mandela, rock stars/activists Bob Geldof and Bono, and such celebrities as Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks. And on the www.one.org website you can order a white wrist band that will show your friends and neighbors that you are "part of a global effort to make poverty history."

If only it were that simple. In the real world, economic aid can be dedicated to either of two purposes: relief or development. Relief means feeding people who are starving and it's a fairly straightforward exercise. You buy the food and you deliver it to those who need it to survive.

But development — encouraging the growth of vibrant, self-sustaining economies — is a different and more difficult challenge. Insufficient aid is not the primary problem. Indeed, the African nations that have received the most foreign aid in the post-colonial era are in many cases the ones that have fallen furthest into destitution.

Endemic corruption is one reason. The Western "experts" who advised African leaders to adopt a "socialist path to development" did an enormous disservice as well. Those paths proved to be dead ends. The United Nations Development Program has spent billions producing nothing much. Meanwhile, many Asian nations — including Taiwan, which has been shunned by the U.N. and the international donor community — have grown by leaps and bounds.

What Africa really needs are leaders willing to undertake serious reform. That means establishing such democratic institutions as the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and secure property rights. That means encouraging foreign investment and tackling the culture of governmental corruption. Maybe a concert or two could be devoted to those causes."