G8 - Aid: Might as well burn the money.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick calls for bio-fuel reforms, blaming the US and EU on rising food prices. Mr Zoellick also called on the G8 to increase aid and reduce tariffs. Campaigners want aid to Africa doubled by 2010, and the EU is pledging 1.6 Billion (US) in subsidies.

While it is difficult not to feel compassion towards the hungry, the question is really will more money make a difference. It seems logical, more money equals more food, but in the corrupt world of third world politics this is not necessarily the case.

The Africa Progress Panel (Kofi Anann, Bob Geldof, and Bono) want more aid, with the admirable goal of "eradicating extreme hunger and poverty", halving the number of those suffering by 2015. The problem with this admirable goal is that money is not the problem, governments are the problem.

World food production has exceeded population growth by 50% over the past 40 years, while 1/3 of African children suffer from malnutrition. In the nineties malnutrition in east Asia fell by 60%, in Latin America 50%... while in Africa it increased by 20%. Leading many to the logical conclusion that Africa needs more aid, when in reality it needs better government.

The World Bank calls for the G8 to reduce tariffs, while in sub-Saharan Africa agricultural tariffs sit at 33.6%, the highest of any region in the world. Taxes and tariffs make fertilizer six times more expensive in Africa than anywhere else. The UN itself estimates that 20% of African budgets go towards "military hardware and other unnecessary luxuries".

Interesting term "unnecessary luxuries". Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso is a vocal advocate for increased aid and debt cancellation while racking up $300,000 hotel bills and blowing another $7,000,000 for luxury homes in Paris for his wife and son. After 2.3 trillion in aid to African nations since the sixties, Africa is much worse off than Asian countries that got little or no aid.

Imagine if you would, giving a neighbor fallen on hard times $1000 for groceries, what would be your response upon finding out that they were still hungry and had spent most of the money on something else? Would you give more money?

The Carnegie-Mellon Gailliot Center for Public Policy study looked at corruption in African nations Based on World Bank governance indicator ratings, the best were rated at
'below average', the worst as 'very bad'. This rating is based on a mean score, the Transparency indicator rating (based on the worst country having a score of 1.3) changes the assessment to simply 'bad' and 'very bad'.

The report is an interesting read: http://www.house.gov/jec/publications/109/12-09-05galliotcorruption.pdf

There idea? Give performance based grants, not money. Meet certain political and economic requirements...get aid, fail to comply, well, you don't, might seem kind of harsh but what other choice is there really?

"Performance based grants block the spoils system in the developing world that, for years, has annexed aid money for personal gain and entrenched political power".


"Rich donors cannot be more desperate to give than the regimes of needy nations are desperate to receive."

Are you giving money to assuage your guilt? Or are you giving money to help people to fix the circumstance that they find themselves trapped in? Free money is not the answer.

~Finntann~