open Democracy News Analysis - africa & democracy - Comments

Chola Mukanga on "Killing aid"

Chola Mukanga — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:18:10 +0000

With respect to the scope of aid under consideration, Dead Aid pretty much defines it as set out in the review. If Dr Moyo has departed from that position since the book was written then it is to be applauded. But to some extent that is irrelevant because we must take the book as given. Not every villager reading her book will have access to You Tube videos offering some of her reversals.

Although everyone would agree that some aid has flaws, and I make this clear in the review, there’s no evidence presented that aid causes poverty, as Dr Moyo argues. The assertion has no empirical basis.

I think there are many areas of aid which are ineffective and equally some which are useful. Infrastructure aid like the current NorthSouth Project http://www.zambian-economist.com/2009/04/north-south-project-14bn.html which is being funded by a group of donors in association withCOMESA countries to the tune of $1.4bn is welcomed by many. Another example might be aid to improveland titling as currently being implemented by DFID in Rwanda. The examples of positive are plenty.

I should also make it clear that my being a "fan" of micro finance, is probably best viewed within context. I simply note that aid to improve access to credit as taken forward by IFAD and targeted at Zambian farmers is good. In fact in the review, I specifically note that there’s no evidence that microfinance generates significant macro economic impacts, the test by which we should judge interventions, according to the Moyothesis.

In short, we are probably not too far apart. I think the key difference is what where you emphasise the problems involved, I see positive alternatives that if properly prioritised would make substantial difference to the lives of many of our poorest people.

JFox on "Killing aid"

JFox — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:01:40 +0000

It's unlikely that Moyo or anyone else would argue against humanitarian or emergency aid to assist victims of catastrophe. The assistance we are talking about here is Development Aid - the kind that is intended to promote a long-term improvement in the welfare and standard of living of the poor in recipient countries.
Having studied a significant number of individual government-to-government aid programs, I have yet to find one that was clearly successful. Those I have looked at over a long career have been, at best, poor value for money and largely ineffectual, and at worst - and most commonly - they were counter-productive.They tended to create or strengthen aid dependency, foment corruption (often of a kind so subtle as to be virtually invisible to casual observers), and all-too-often to come with strings attached that made them more beneficial to donor-country suppliers than to recipients.
In theory, measures can be taken to address such issues; in practice, however, the measures are either not implemented, or readily circumvented.

Government-to-government aid is, almost by definition, "top down". The intended beneficiaries - who are invariably acutely conscious of their condition and have a pretty good idea of how to improve matters - are seldom, if ever, seriously consulted. Nor are they given authority over the expenditures supposedly made on their behalf. Others do that - local bureaucrats or politicians, aid "professionals", foreign consultants etc. who, apparently, "know better". A vast international conglomerate of experts, corporations, officials and planners (all based either in the First World or in privileged Third World enclaves) have their hands in the till. For examples - and a startlingly vivid first-hand account of poverty and the ineffectiveness of conventional aid - I recommend P.Sainath's Everybody Loves a Good Drought.

Micro Finance - of which Mukanga among many others is a fan - has certainly proved to be an effective form of developmental assistance. But it is not - at least in the brilliant format devised by Muhammad Yunus - in any sense conventional aid and it is about as far from government-to-government aid as it is possible to be. Above all it does precisely what most official assistance fails to do, namely to leave development in the hands of those who both need it and know how to use it.

Rwanda SurViVors International on "DR Congo: arc of war, map of responsibility"

Rwanda SurViVors International — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:04:51 +0000

Qestion however:

According to our own sources: 3,5 millions of Rwandans got assassinated. No mention about this in the article.

4-5 million conflict-related deaths since the
mid-1990s. Assassinations, rapes and disappearances began earlier in 1990. => We do have credible information as witnesses. The DRC or Kagame's wars started in 1996 with the refugee camps brutal closure. Facts and other details=>RSIF

The Hutu Power forces in Rwanda in 1994 were unique in organising a large-scale, nationwide campaign of genocide. => The genocide has been planed and organized by General Paul Kagame(the Rwandan Genocide mastermind) and his supporters (outsiders). => No need to mention the role played by Clinton and Blair administrations.

albeit in smaller-scale, localised terms - the same type of violence that had been practised against Tutsis in 1994. Tutsis that got killed were less than it's claimed by RPF. For more details, please contact RSIF, our organization

...and determined to use the west's guilt at failing to stop the 1994 genocide to produce impunity for itself.
3,5 mllions of Rwandans were killed. Tutsis were killed in a very small scale. => we do have reliable sources as witnesses.

.... complex conflicts across northeastern Africa, centred on Sudan, still cast a long ,shadow that reaches into the DRC. Wrong. Those conflicts have nothing to do with the tragic Kagame's wars inthe Democractic Republic of the Congo. For more details: RSIF

Rwandan SurViVors International on "DR Congo: arc of war, map of responsibility"

Rwandan SurViVors International — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:17:01 +0000

We sincerely appreciate and welcome Martin Shaw's article that gives much more information and NOT THE BIASED ONE as others do while Congolese and Rwandan people suffer from Kagame's wars and dictatorship. We would appreciate if many of the Open Democracy members get involved to help our region to retrieve peace, bring back democracy in Rwanda through the creation of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission tasking with discovering and revealing past crimes by the RPF rebels since October 1, 1990, General Paul Kagame's main role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

MERSHA on "Ethiopia's famine: deny and delay"

MERSHA — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:05:12 +0000

THE FARMING PROCESS INVOLVES THE CAPABILITY TO CREATE HARMONY WITH THE TRADITIONAL METHOD WITH THE MODERN MECHANIZATION OF FARMING IN ETHIOPIA. THE GOVERNMENT (TPLF) MECHANIZED THE ARMY MAKING IT THE BIGGEST IN AFRICA.SECURING AMPLE PROFIT FOR THE WEAPON MANUFACTURERS AND GIVING FINANCIAL BACK UP FOR TPLF SYMPHATIZERS WORLDWIDE.FARMING IS SOMETHING TPLF DONOT WANT TO WASTE THE COUNTRYS RESOURCE OR TPLF'S TIME ON.PEOPLE DIE FOR LACK OF FOOD TPLF IS HAPPY.TPLF DONOT WANT TO SEE ETHIOPIANS PRODUCE.TPLF'S PRIME MINISTER MELES'S WIFE MSS. AZEB MESFIN SAID I ROB THE COUNTRY AND BUY REAL ESTATE IN USA.YOU OPPOSE THIS MY HUSBAND WILL KILL YOU SO JUST STARVE AND DIE.

Mersha on "Ethiopia's famine: deny and delay"

Mersha — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:03:52 +0000

nepali forum on "Chad, the CAR and Darfur: dynamics of conflict"

nepali forum — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:24:28 +0000

Thanks for the nice piece of information.
regards

Johan Van der Merwe on "Africa at the G8 summit: déjà vu?"

Johan Van der Merwe — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:40:32 +0000

Your article-inclusion-reference to Phyllis R. Pomerantz and her book on Aid Effectiveness in Africa does appeal to political irony and a suggestion for you to select more suitable-appropriate-adequate literary examples. In case you and your readers are not, yet, aware, when she was the World Bank Country Director for Zambia and Mozambique her estranged policies toward the cashew nut processing industry in Mozambique led to an average of 10,000 to 12,000 workers (43% women, 57% men) losing their jobs, being laid off. That would lead to the ex Arab and Muslim owners of the ex cashew nut factories, that went bust, to place a fatwa contract on her and her colleagues directly involved in the achievement. The fatwa would extend to the ex Secretaries of Treasure and the ex President Bill Clinton for looking the other way while the rampage was taking place. They would become a liability and all later on discreetly retire into early pension schemes and/or retire on natural causes. Speculation goes that it would (in part) backfire as well on the events of 9/11 WTC attacks. Why do you think Hillary was so jumpy and blunder-prone along the presidential campaign? Campaign fatigue? Why is she still so jumpy on questions lost over translation involving her husband? Frankly, to years later on publish a book about Aid Effectiveness in Africa sounds preposterous to say the least...

henry_n on "Guinea-Bissau: drug boom, lost hope"

henry_n — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:11:33 +0000

So now we know what's the problem, what are United Nations going to do about that? The country urgently needs help and support otherwise it will soon become a drug heaven for most traffickers. Thousands of people need by now addiction recovery, how about them?

kaburu on "Kenya: roots of crisis"

kaburu — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:52:44 +0000

For heavens sake, why do Caucasians pretend to understand issues on Africa and write about them while all the while they have absolutely no clue what they are on about? I have read this write up with ever increasing astonishment. If this is meant to be an informative piece that other people can base their work on, heaven help the rest of you who are echoing it as informative. It is a misleading piece or writing and the writer should see time inside the tower of London. I am going to write more about this, I have better understanding, I live in this country (Kenya). So I know about it more than this pretense. Right now, it is to ask the writer, please go do your research well and stop propagating a European line of thought about Africa simply because you are European.

srigotti on "South Africa’s unequal prospect"

srigotti — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:05:17 +0000

True as the article may be in its anecdotal examples and in some of the causes for the persistence of inequalities it remains a decidedly one-sided analysis; No mention of the absorption of millions of emigrants at the deperate and poor end into a society that was already distorted in terms of equity and very little balance in terms of recognising the need for innovation to accompany "freedom" or the (significant?) efforts that have been applied to rectify the imbalance.

Philipp Schmidt on "South Africa’s unequal prospect"

Philipp Schmidt — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:02:37 +0000

While I agree with many of the points made in the article, the analysis remains shallow and avoids reflection of the complexities of transformation.

I am angry when I see politicians or the small group of "black diamonds" (those, who benefited from the "black economic empowerment" policies) flaunt their wealth. The sight of a begging street child approaching an exotic sports car at the traffic light (tinted windows remain closed) is much too common. But I realise that undoing 80 years of exploitation by a small minority is an incredible task. One that could maybe compared to undoing the wrongs of colonialisation, which in very few countries has progressed smoothly.

We need to acknowledge that the disparity that we observe in societies like South Africa is no different from the disparity between the developed countries and the least developed ones. Only that in the latter case, the proverbial street child is too far away to bother the rich at the traffic light.

The author calls South Africa "history's most successful attempt to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few.". Surely, that distinction must go to the colonial history of many of today's richest countries. With the recent global financial experimentation, during which the banks managed to privatise gains, but socialise losses, coming in as a close runner-up.

Prabhat on "Somalia: between violence and hope"

Prabhat — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:39:37 +0000

Somalia is facing humanitarian and basic needs crisis. Nobody is listening the voice of people; their voices have been suppressed by militia leaders. The first target of world community should be to disarm the militia and provide basic needs to the citizens coz there is no place of violence for love, peace and unity. Then, the second target should be to invite all the peace loving leaders to frame the basic infrastructural plan for the united Somalia. The world community should support the peace process and provide financial help also. [ Prabhat Misra, blog: http://www.mynature-myfuture.blogspot.com ]

John Otieno Onyando on "Somalia: between violence and hope"

John Otieno Onyando — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:44:01 +0000

The international community is about to lose another chance at durable peace in Somalia. Throughout this week, the Al Shabaab has made tremendous advances on the presidential palace that its victory seems near and inevitable.
It is as a result of militaristic international policy that Al Shabaab is so powerful a force in Somalia today. Since the 2006 ouster of the UIC, whose moderate credentials have become clearer in hindsight, millions of Somali youth have been radicalised by continuous war against their favoured leaders, the bulk of whom are in Al Shabaab and Hizb Islamiya. The TFG that is being propped has no root, no support and no fighting power- foreign munitions and diplomatic succor notwithstanding.
With the huge humanitarian crisis in Somalia and promise of more violence, the time has come for the international community to give political solution a try and that means talking to all voices of the Somali people.

goban gerg on "Ethiopia: the tears and the rains "

goban gerg — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:59:25 +0000

The article is true, it express what is down their . but we have to understand that the cause of this all problem is comes from the diffrences between government and the society disable to act togather.

Democracy in Africa is not a democracy ,it is delibratly to creat human suffer and bring the countries hundreds years back down
Africans need a real democracy , not warrped riddle politics .Democracy means not only the way you going to elect your government . democracy is the idaolgy that humanrights freedoom for all equaliye respected

in africa nations are suffering from the democracy based ethinc orginzation computing for triabal supporirty and tribal identity which distruct ing each other and humleting the meanig of democracy

with in the nations the group that tried to breing a real democracy beatin down by the governments on power, US or international communities didint shows gruaranties for democratic group
the future of africa may worst than tody unless the international organization fight the dictatories and ultemate for democratic groups
Ethiopia ,Kenya , are no more considerd as a democratic country, they are a worst dictator , uncountable coruptions and and the governmental structurs based families or ethinc group