A rchive Date
[ 05-07-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Rory_Leishman/2005/07/05/1117380.html
Pouring official aid into Africa not the answer
Rory Leishman, London Free Press
2005-07-05
Bob Geldof deserves credit for not only promoting public awareness of the grinding poverty that afflicts most of Sub-Saharan Africa, but also pointing out that relatively wealthy people - like most of Canadians - can afford to do more to help the desperately poor peoples of Africa.
Prime Minister Paul Martin vowed last week that his government will do its part, declaring "We're going to double the amount of aid that we're going to give to Africa by the year 2008."
But that statement was somewhat misleading. Finance Minister Ralph Goodale explained in his February budget that the Martin government plans to increase Canadian aid to Africa to about $2 billion in 2008-9, up from $1 billion two years ago in 2003-4.
Is an extra $1 billion in aid to Africa over five years enough? Geldof doesn't think so. He insists that Canada, the United States and all other industrialized countries should contribute no less than 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to foreign aid - a target proposed by former prime minister Lester Pearson in 1969.
Canada currently spends about 0.23 per cent of GDP on foreign aid. To meet the Pearson target of 0.7 per cent, the Martin government would have to come up with $6 billion in additional spending on foreign aid over one year.
Is that reasonable? Could a tripling - or quadrupling - of foreign aid eliminate the appalling levels of starvation, sickness and death that plague so many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa? That's doubtful.
Take the case of Nigeria. According to the World Bank, that North African country has a per capita income of less than $275 a year; an average life expectancy at birth of just 45 years; and a child malnutrition rate of close to 30 per cent. Yet Nigeria is one of the wealthiest oil producers in the world. Last year, it took in $38 billion in oil revenue.
Nonetheless, Nigeria also receives about $314 million a year in foreign aid, including $28 million from Canada. There is no reason to believe that several billion dollars of additional aid would suffice to lift this strife-torn and corruption-ridden country out of poverty.
Ethiopia, the largest recipient of Canadian foreign aid in Africa, is even worse off than Nigeria. Despite having received hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid in recent years, it has run up a foreign debt of $1.6 billion.
Six years ago, the government of Canada announced plans to forgive more than $1.16 billion in bad debts owed to Canada by 16 heavily indebted poor countries, including Ethiopia.
Thousands of people in Zimbabwe are starving, while Robert Mugabe builds himself a new presidential palace.
Most of this money was lent at low rates for development projects. Can there be any more graphic illustration of the failure of foreign aid than the inability of recipient countries to pay back these low-interest development loans?
Fifty years ago, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan were all as impoverished as Nigeria. Yet today, the peoples of those three Asian countries enjoy life expectancies and living standards comparable to those in Canada and Western Europe.
Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan have virtually no natural resources. How is it, then, that they have prospered, while most of the comparatively resource-rich countries of Africa have become progressively more impoverished?
The quality of government is a prime determinant of economic growth. Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan have been blessed with governments that maintain law and order, respect property rights and encourage trade and investment. The great majority of African countries suffer from economically crippling government mismanagement.
Zimbabwe is a case in point: Not so long ago, this country exported food.
Today, due to the corrupt and incompetent rule of the country's socialist dictator, Robert Mugabe, thousands of people in Zimbabwe are starving, while Mugabe builds himself a new presidential palace.
The sad truth is that much of the billions of dollars in foreign aid that Canada has expended on Africa has been wasted.
Instead of clamouring for more of the same, Canadians would do better to increase their voluntary donations to private charities such as the Canadian Foodgrains Bank or Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), that have proven records of efficiency in the delivery of life-saving help and development assistance to the poorest and neediest.
Write Rory at The London Free Press, P.O. Box 2280, London, Ont. N6A 4G1 or fax 519-667-4528 or E-mail rleishman@sympatico.ca
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