Can Africa grow its own volunteers

This question has been on my mind for sometime now. Due to the current economic environment we have struggled to get volunteers from the traditional sources to out to our project in SW Uganda. I did wonder if Africa could tap into the skills and knowledge on the ground?

The other reason this is on my mind is that the Obama administration’s policy toward Africa appears to be one of tough love. You the Africans have to get your house in order, you need to start trading with each are some of the messages that have come from both Obama and Clinton. I wholly subcribe to that kind of thinking.

I would wonder therefore if folk on the ground will rise to the challenge and form their own NGO’s for instance. Whilst thinking about this idea of “Africa growing its won volunteers” I do wonder too whether it is a question of how voluntary work is organised in Africa. Africans families tend to be very large (extended) and every one helps out including whole villages when required. However voluntary in the western world appears to be orgnaised in what I would describe as a formal structure.

But what about Africans in the diaspora, Could they take time out to go and volunteer in their countries of origin? Certainly this is something that the Department for International development (DFID) is keen to encourage so much so that they have joined forces with the VSO and come up with a whole programmes to encourage Africans in the diaspora to volunteer. I am however not sure how well publicised this programme is.

Have you got a view on this either way? Are you an African that has participated in the VSO diaspora programme? If so how did you find it?

If you are an African that would like to volunteer would you know where to start?

Would you be interested in your views

 

Are Millennium Goals helping me?

This week the Department for International Development here in the UK has issued a new report ELIMINATING POVERTY : Building Common future,  which spells out a new direction  and  desire to address issue of poverty in the developing world and amongst other things the report looks at the impact of the economic downturn on those in the developing countries.

And at the UN summit of September 2000 the richest nations in the world made pledges to the development world that are summed up in what has become to be known as the

Millennium Development Goals or MDGs

• Goal 1:  Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

• Goal 4:  Reduce child mortality

• Goal 5:  Improve maternal health

• Goal 6:  Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

• Goal 7:  Ensure environmental sustainability

• Goal 8:  Develop a Global Partnership for Development

This was an ambitious undertaking on the one hand but one that gave hope  to folk in the developing world that we in the developed world are committed to making things better for them.

The question I ask today is whether these goals will be realised?  There has been an increase in AID but will increased AID have  made a difference in 2015? Can we in the west wait that long? what about the  folk in the developing can they wait until 2015 for the goals to be realised?

There is concern in some quarters that the MDGS will not be realised in some African countries and this appears to stem from the fact that

• not everyone signed up to the MDGS ( it was reported earlier this year that France and Italy are two of the countries that ahve failed to honour the pledges made towards Africa)

• increased insecurity in some  of the African countries

• impact of diseases such as malaria and HIV

• family breakdown

• food availability

• Climate change

• and AID distribution to name but a few

Most including myself argue that the surest way to lift people out of poverty in a sustainable way is through trade.  That being the case how are we doing on that front? Are trade agreements more equitable now than they were in 2000? Are folk in the developing countries treated as equal or even potential trading partners?

Well one thing that is certain, is that Africa in particular has seen an increase in cheap imports from china, second  hand clothing and FOOD AID. Only last week I was speaking to a man I met at the Africa Matters get together. He lived in Zambia for many years as a farmer and produced vegetable oil.

He was put out of business in 6 months when cooking Oil given to Mozambique by USAID as part of teh FOOD AID package ended up for sale on the streets of Lusaka. I understand that cotton farmers in Zambia and Malawi suffered a similar fate with the increased cheap imports from China as well as second hand clothing.

Some African governments are fighting back by imposing huge DUTY on these cheap imports but what do you about FOOD AID?

So I ask the question are Millennium goals helping me?