Yes I know, a strange statement to make and over the next few days I will epxlain myself and hopefully it will make sense.
An awful lot of money has been poured into Africa by way of loans and grants but some African countries remain desperately poor and the debates as to why this is continue. For the purpose of this blog and the ones that will follow over the enxt few days, I have drawn on my experience as an African woman and by virtue of my work with African women involved in textile and handicraft production to explore some of the reasons why ending poverty is not simply about the money. The views I put forward are mine as well as those of the women I work with and others I come across during the of course of my work.
What is it about the money?
We have all heard the saying “money isn’t everything”, Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar took this one step further when he said “money isn’t everything but it is up there with oxygen”. This is certainly very true of the many desperately poor and hunger stricken Africans. By the end of the series, I hope to have demonstrated that money is only part of the equation
The one thing that most folk agree on is that AID in the form of money has failed because it doesn’t necessarily get to those that need it, it creates dependency and several reasons have been put forward as to why this is. There two reasons that really stand out in my mind’s eye one is VULTURE FUNDS the other is EXCLUSION
Vulture Funds
These funds work on the basis of buying up third world debt, knowing very well that the third world country is so poor and is unlikely to pay and when this become evident the “vultures” pounce.What is shocking about this is that these vultures are not breaking the law well not here in the UK anyway. There is however an irony in this because the third world country is unlikely to pay and the only way that country can pay is by dipping into the AID that is allocated to it for health, education, or food. Furthermore, AID is made available through our Tax system and as such we the Tax payers are putting money into these vultures’ pockets. So as you can see there are really circumstances when the money simply doesn’t get to the destined country let alone folk on the ground.
Exclusion
The desperately poor in Africa are amongst the most excluded people in the world. As such these folk do not know their rights or how to fight for them. The exclusion is wide spread and takes many forms, social, political, economic, health, education etc and when any part of a population or an individual is excluded in all those areas it becomes near impossible to eradicate poverty, disease, etc. It is also means that these folk are unable to take those in power to task on matters of accountability when it comes to AID.
The question one asks is whether it is best to give these people money or to empower them/address their exclusion. If giving more money isn’t necessarily the answer to ending poverty what is, and why aren’t govenments looking at different ways/models of ending poverty? Models that seek to bring about accountability, responsibility, sustainability and above all dignified ways out of poverty
I will explore the issue about money from the point of view of people on the ground in the next blog
September 2, 2009 at 8:37 am
Another great topic for discussion Ida, congratulations. In my own personal opinion I completely agree POVERTY IN AFRICA IS NOT ABOUT MONEY STUPID! It is about empowerment as you rightly said. Money at the end of the day is just a system for trade, in this case a currency system. Centuries ago money did not exist as we know it today and people used other systems of trade to get what they needed and wanted, namely barter trading. Of course in the 21st century we live in, it is a different matter. I am one person who strongly believes in and always repeats this, that “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, TEACH a man to fish and you feed him for a life time”. That is Africa’s solution to poverty, empower the people of Africa to be self reliant and not rely on Aid. There is a book by Dambisa Moyo called Dead Aid, which I have been meaning to read, the synopsis of the book talks about how Aid in Africa has failed and she goes on to explain why.
The crazy thing is Africa as a continent produces some of the largest natural resources in the world, yet still as a continent it lags behind and the people suffer or rather the majority of people suffer, whilst the minority benefit. I would not describe myself as a Socialist or a pure Capitalist for that matter, I am somewhere in between a “SociCapitalist”, if such a word exists. The reality of the matter is Africans do “help” themselves but it is only on a micro scale rather than a macro scale, and thinking big is what is needed. The Subsistence Farmer needs to think how they can not only grow food to feed their family, but to sell on a larger scale to fund their lifestyle and get them out of poverty, send the kids to school etc. Your activities Ida, within the Ugandan women is a classic example of the type of empowerment and more initiatives such as these are needed to help people think on a macro scale and get themselves out of poverty. We live in a Globalised world, where the clothing made in China is worn by the teenager in Europe or the US, the same can happen in Africa.
September 2, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Thank you for dropping in again Tichiona. I do wish that I could more Africans on this forum to debate these issues.
I have read Dambisa’ book twice!It does make a lot of sense and most agree that the ideas she puts forward are not new, but the questions remains why aren’t they put into practice.
Are we the Africans partly to blame, by expecting to be handed on the plate? Why aren’t the African Politicians saying no to AID and yet msot agree that is it un sustainable?
It is interesting that you raise the issue about food and farming. BBC has run a series called the FUTURE OF FOOD and I wrote about the issues raised my previous post https://ethnicsupplies.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/should-europe-be-taking-fish-from-senegal%e2%80%99s-waters/.
Everyone is after African resources and we part with them or at least the politicians part with them very easily!
September 2, 2009 at 2:56 pm
[…] RAISE TRADE, Ugandan coffee | Leave a Comment Yesterday, I introduced the notion that ending poverty in Africa was not simply about giving more money. I asked the question why governments were not promoting […]
September 26, 2009 at 8:57 pm
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