Africa Needs Revolution More Than Aid

The West's foreign aid policies toward Africa aren't working. Salim Lone of the Daily Nation in Kenya writes that the West's good intentions have mainly worked to improve the lives of the already wealthy. From The Guardian:

"Not a single country in sub-Saharan Africa has met the criteria set by the UN's millennium development goals on poverty alleviation, the centrepiece of the project. Some observers believe the number of poor, and the intensity of the poverty, has actually risen in almost all countries.

"In truth there was never any real prospect that western governments, which have gleefully presided over the creation of new classes of the super-super-rich, would use their considerable influence to push African leaders to pursue policies which would shift resources away from the rapacious national elites towards the poor.

"Nor was it likely the west would permit Africa to stray from the neoliberal orthodoxies prescribed for the continent by the World Bank and the IMF. These policies have generated wealth for elites and created economic growth in a few countries, but have proved over two decades singularly unable to reduce the human misery afflicting hundreds of millions.

"Abutting virtually every African slum are the castles of the unimaginably rich. There is little incentive for those who hold the reins of power to redirect investments away from themselves to the very poor, given the abiding conviction on the continent that they have an unlimited capacity to weather their punishing adversities - with the help of repressive security systems, of course.

"G8-approved plans are not going to end poverty. Africa needs strong, revolutionary leaders popular enough to put pressure on both their elites and international partners to modify their policies, not only in the interest of humanity but also of security and stability. But it is well-nigh impossible for such leaders to get elected.

"In the end, only Africa's own leaders and people can address its rawest suffering. Donors have a minor but vital role to play, but they must get this role right, and that includes recognising that what Africa needs most of all is space to formulate its own policies. To determine what these might be, the donors need to radically alter their approach and engage first and foremost with the grassroots. Despite the rhetoric, Africa's voice is rarely heard. It's the statements of its leaders that reach donors' ears, not the anguish and aspirations of its people.

"Can Gordon Brown make a difference? After the multiple promises Blair made and betrayed, no one will want to get too excited about his successor. He did move immediately to merge the aid and trade departments, which will bring much-needed synergy on two crucial issues. He has also made the extraordinary appointment to the Africa portfolio of Mark Malloch Brown. The former UN deputy secretary-general has proved his capacity to turn bold visions into reality, as when, in 2005, he rescued the battered leadership of his boss Kofi Annan and then audaciously challenged the US policy under Bush.

"Both these Browns are likely to be more firmly committed to the rule of law in resolving international disputes, but they will also have to shed some of their conviction in the power of the free market - even when it is working well - to uplift the poor."

Revolutions? I expect they'll have plenty of those sooner than we can imagine. Global warming and associated evils such as freshwater exhaustion and desertification of farmland are already impacting significant parts of Africa. As these problems spread they'll deliver enough destabilizing force to spark, even necessitate revolutions, and wars, and more suffering.