End the ‘Aid vs. Trade’ debate
Only six years away from the 2015 deadline, world reports indicate that none of the Sub-Saharan African countries is currently on track to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The African continent is home to 20% of the world’s population which collectively, partakes in only 2% of global trade. This year, the impact of the global economic crisis is expected to slash growth rates on the continent down to 2.8 per cent, less than half of the average growth rate achieved during the past five years.
A new wave of African politicians and journalists has been engaging in a debate that Africa’s salvation lies not with further infusion of aid but rather in stepping up trade. It is argued that western assistance to developing nations has given rise to dependency and created a suitable environment for corruption.
In the west, tax bases are shrinking and unemployment has reached record highs because of the global recession. Like never before, western purses are squeezed by the need to take care of their own people thereby reducing surplus resources and limiting generosity towards African problems.
By press time, the US national debt amounted to US $ 12 trillion and was increasing at US $ 3.85 billion per day – the largest national debt in the world. It is safe to assume that even the USA could use some debt relief and aid money to mitigate the risk presented by such debt on future generations.
Unfortunately for the US it cannot receive aid since it is perceived to be the most prosperous country on earth and while for decades, Africa, has been painted by the global media as a continent of desperation and suffering thus deserving of aid.
While aid is blamed for many challenges in Africa today, it is important to note that it was born of a need to defeat global health, administrative and social challenges and to balance inequitable global resources.
A case in point, in 2006, more than half the Uganda’s mostly aid funded annual budget was lost to corruption amounting to US $ 950 million. A considerable amount of the money that was stolen had been intended to provide vaccinations and treatments for tuberculosis, malaria and HIV – epidemics that are not in a recession.
In calling for an end to aid, African administrators epitomize the saying, ‘a bad workman blames his tools’, since it is them that are responsible for the mismanagement and misappropriation of aid money, given out of generosity by western taxpayers.
True, aid monies bring forth several challenges – like setting rigid terms and failing to adapt to rapidly changing conditions on the ground. However, African administrators should behave like the good workman who will struggle to do a good job even with bad tools.
Trade and charity run parallel. The west will not donate trade to Africa in the same way that it donates aid and therefore the Aid vs. Trade debate does not hold. With trade, Africa simply needs to take action instead of calling out for help.
Where charity promotes generosity, trade presents competition – sometimes cut throat. In some sectors, Africa will have to compete with some of the very nations that have been offering it aid. Therefore, the continent Africa will need to marshal all her bargaining chips through continental integration and closely guard mineral and oil resources from exploitation by more powerful nations.
It is important for the continent to rectify its faulty policy making framework and build stronger institutions before it can engage the west as a worthy trading partner. Neither trade nor aid will amount to continental progress if institutions remain deficient of integrity.
Popularity: 50% [?]
Why the East African Coast needs its pirates.
On December 26th 2004, tons of leaking barrels of hazardous uranium radioactive waste, lead, cadmium, mercury, chemical and hospital waste were washed ashore the East African coast by an Indian Ocean Tsunami.
The event provided an explanation for the plague of respiratory infections, mouth ulcers, abdominal hemorrhages, malformed babies, unusual skin diseases and radiation sickness currently affecting Somali communities.
Mysterious ships from foreign nations have for the last three decades exploited the lack of a central government in Somalia to use the coastal waters as a cheap dumping area for deadly toxic waste.
A U.N report estimates that $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other seafood is stolen from Somalia’s coastline each year by trawlers illegally sailing the East African coast. The report called out the use of all prohibited methods of fishing: drift nets, under water explosives, killing endangered species like sea-turtles, orca, sharks and baby whales while destroying reef, biomass and vital fish habitats in the sea. Illegal fishing has rendered under-equipped Somali fishermen unemployed and left their families deprived of much needed protein.
To protect their waters, fishermen formed highly organized vigilante groups to patrol their waters and protect their nation’s territorial integrity. Some of these groups come complete with a structured naval hierarchy — a fleet admiral, admiral, vice-admiral, a head of financial operations, a spokesman and a name — ‘Central Region Coast Guard’.
When Januna Ali Jama, a spokesman for one of the groups demanded an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship his group had captured, in “reaction to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years”– one couldn’t help but view the requisition as modest and justifiable. To the international community, the media and its audience – the entire world – they are collectively referred to as ‘Somali pirates’.
Onshore, Somalians appreciate the revitalizing effect of pirate ransoms on increasing liquidity and creating employment that was lost when fishermen went out of business. Small but significant signs improvement in standards of living are visible in tiny coastal towns – a rambling generator at a local grocery store and young boys donning footwear they have never worn before in their lives.
The total annual receipts from Somalia’s ‘piracy’ industry is US $ 100 million, a third of the US $ 300 million worth of seafood that is poached by European and Asian vessels from Somali waters every year - the long-term health, social and environmental costs of dumping and illegal fishing not factored in.
An independent Somali news-site, WardherNews, conducted a study that found 70 percent of Somalis “strongly support the piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters.”
Despite this, on October 6, 2008, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution calling on nations with vessels in the area to apply military force to repress the acts of ‘piracy.’ Britain, USA, Russia, India and two dozen other member nations of the EU and NATO are deploying warships and unleashing military surveillance planes capable of carrying missiles.
For three decades the pricey seafood, rich in protein, served in the finest restaurants of London, Paris and Rome came looted from Somali waters – it is hard to miss the irony when the international community suddenly becomes determined to protect waters it ignored over the last twenty years with military warships – a belated attempt to save the lucrative channel through which 20% of the world’s oil sails.
Decades from now, the social and environmental consequences of dumping toxic waste will continue to plague Somalis. Good governance, restoration of rule of law and economic stimulation programs are all needed to bring sanity back to Somalia. But for a country that has been on the failed state index for the last thirty years, and constantly appears to be sinking deeper into its own anarchy, it is overly optimistic to assume that we shall see any positive signs soon.
Until a time when the root causes of piracy are addressed by the international community through taking action against the criminal organizations and countries involved, pirates will continue to pillage the Indian Ocean waters with the full blessing of Somalis.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Darfur - Food Security will result in actual security.
I am starting to think you only have to be Rwandan, to fully understand what it feels like to repeatedly receive insults on your human conscience and intelligence.
Only two weeks after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and less than one week after World Food Day, President Barack Obama, today, unveiled his strategy on Darfur.
Obama’s new policy aims to resolve the Darfur crisis with a conciliatory tone that contradicts his election campaign promise. He hopes to ‘normalize’ relations with President Omar al-Bashir – one who was charged with war crimes earlier this year.
The new policy appeases US envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration, who suggested awarding “cookies” and “gold stars” to the government in Khartoum.
The same general who seeks to have the region’s attrocities downgraded from “genocide” to “the remnants of genocide”.
Why does this stink like Rwanda in 1994 when then Secretary of State Warren Christopher did not authorize officials to use the term “genocide” until a time hundreds of thousands were dead.
Even then, U.S. officials waited another three weeks before using the term in public.
‘Nobel’ standards notwithstanding - 400,000 mostly civilian lives, 2.5 million refugees, widespread use of sexual violence, gang rapes of women and girls, castration of men and boys with thousands of peacekeepers on watch – Darfur remains, the world’s most misunderstood conflict – a protracted struggle for the most basic human need. Food.
Right before the conflict escalated in 2003, the region expected a bumper harvest but grasshoppers descended on key millet-producing areas and ruined everything.
Grain prices shot up as high as 10 goats for one sack of millet – yes, barter trade was the medium of exchange. Prior to this the rate was a more reasonable two goats per sack of millet.
The combination of conflict, drought and pests became very overwhelming on the population and led to social disruption.
Young men with no food raided villages and looted livestock in the droves while farmers tried to sell their cattle at a giveaway prices before it got looted. Market systems and seasonal labour opportunities were lost due to insecurity, and commercial transport was at a standstill.
“Survival in Darfur is a delicate balance with limited room for margin. While most communities have developed complex coping mechanisms to deal with a single bad season of drought or failed harvest, a second failed, ruined, burned or looted harvest can push families to the edge of survival,” HRW warned. For the last two decades, the Darfur region has been experiencing drought and desertification.
Otherwise intelligent young Darfurian males are left with no option but to grab Kalashnikovs and join a rebel forces when faced with the option of watching themselves and their families starve to death.
For lack of a better option, girls find themselves in early marriages and their children will be the rebels of tomorrow should the conflict protract.
This highlights a clear relationship between hunger, drought and the increment in numbers of militias.
The most crucial elements to resolving the Darfur crisis must start with addressing the basic needs of Darfurians. Providing adequate food, proper nutrition and access to education to make youth less vulnerable to recruitment by rebel forces.
‘Ensuring that no child goes to school hungry is the single greatest investment we can make in building prosperous, healthy and stable societies.’ Samuel R. Berger, a former national security advisor to President Clinton comments in an opinion piece in the L.A Times, published on World Food Day.
Equally important, a focus should be put on micro-economic activities to give the elderly population occupation and self reliance. A continued dependence on humanitarian assistance will leave communities even more disorganized once the aid is cut.
There are many other factors that have fueled Darfur crisis like crucial interests in oil investments, lucrative weapons trade, land pressure and more importantly, the marginalization of the southern region.
Only time will tell if Barack’s new policy will bear fruit but one thing is for sure — General Gration will be surprised to find that Darfurians prefer the cookies to the goldstars.
Popularity: 58% [?]
A new look at HIV/AIDS in Africa
According to a 1999 World Health Organization (WHO) report, the total number of actual diagnosed AIDS cases on the African continent is about equal to the total for AIDS in America and yet Africa today is cited as the worst example of HIV/AIDS in the world.
In order to successfully fight HIV, it is important to dispel the common myths and negative portrayal of the ‘developing world’ because gives the impression that Africa is world’s away from the west. According to a 1999 World Health Organization (WHO) report, the total number of diagnosed AIDS cases on the African continent is about equal to the total in America and yet Africa today is cited as the worst example of HIV/AIDS in the world.
Last week Rwanda’s National Aids Control Commission (CNLS) conducted a two-day workshop to determine appropriate ways to implement evidence-based HIV prevention measures during which they discussed results of innovative research and programs that have contributed to HIV prevention. As is the norm, the press were reminded by a release that read, ‘Rwanda has a 3 percent prevalence of the epidemic, which remains a major challenge to the entire world, especially sub-Saharan Africa.’
The highest HIV rate in the world can be found in Africa but closer scrutiny indicates, that every country in Africa has its own HIV statistics and some are not as damning as portrayed in the global media. For instance, Senegal has the same rate as the United States while Madagascar’s rate is as low as the rest of the world.
‘[There is] a terrible simplification that there is one Africa and things go one way in Africa. It is not respectful and it is not clever to think like that,’ commented Dr. Hans Rosling, a professor in global health at a May 2009 TED conference in California.
In order to successfully fight HIV, it is important to dispel the common myths and negative portrayal of Africa because gives the impression that Africa is world’s away from the rest of the world. Contrary statistics indicate that most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward better health and many countries in Africa are moving twice as fast as the west did.
This negative portrayal is promoted by corrupt African government officials with an aim to appeal to the sympathy and charity of foreign donors and thus prefer the continent to be defined by hopelessness. The international press has also contributed to this prejudiced perception through its persistently biased coverage of Africa that focuses on civil wars, hunger, famine and epidemics despite the reality that the there are many success stories on the continent.
‘Africa has immense opportunities that never navigate through the web of despair and helplessness that the western media presents to their audience,’ remarked Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan journalist who addressed the same conference.
Non profit organizations that provide treatments for HIV have reported a dire need for newer HIV/AIDS medications due to a shortfall in funding as a result of the current global economic crisis. HIV/AIDS funding is stagnating and the prospect of universal access to treatment may be withering – millions of people are in immediate need of treatment, but are not receiving it.
More resources are needed but throwing money at the HIV problem may appease the many in the developed world but will not be a solution. While it maybe offensive to the sensibilities of the developed world towards giving aid to “poor Africans”, donors should critically asses the individual nations and communities that are most affected and apportion funds in a way that empowers communities towards self reliance, gender balance and better HIV/AIDS education.
Progressive African leaders, donors and global health experts need to look more closely and track the progress of the epidemic at a micro level and thus apportion help where it is most needed. If this is not done, Africa’s bureaucracies will continue to expand, the prospect of free markets will continue to shrink and we shall continue to diagnose the HIV crisis incorrectly — at the expense of people who really need help.
Popularity: 93% [?]