Why Can't Trillion-Dollar Aid Develop Africa?

During his election campaigns, Donald Trump signaled he would cut foreign aid by saying "America First." In recent weeks, senior USAID officials were dismissed, and the agency's operations were suspended for 90 days.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), established by John F. Kennedy in 1961, aimed to consolidate US foreign aid under a single agency. USAID played a key role in enhancing America's global influence in the fight against Soviet impact and became one of the most important tools of US foreign policy. Today, USAID is the world's largest foreign aid organization. Its annual budget, hovering around $40-50 billion, accounts for less than 1% of the total US federal budget.

To this day, USAID has frequently sparked debates within America, both regarding its budget and its activities. How the suspension of aid will affect the peoples of Africa has opened the door to a broader debate. In the short term, programs fighting AIDS, maternal and child health, vaccination, and malnutrition are under threat. Clinics in some African countries have already been closed.

But when thinking long-term, is Africa truly dependent on foreign aid, or can the continent produce its own solutions?

Has Africa Been Made Dependent on Aid?

The vast majority of African countries have received and continue to receive trillions of dollars in foreign aid since gaining independence (due to systems like health and education, which were intentionally underfunded during colonialism). However, this aid is not enough to rescue the continent from poverty, famine, and insecurity. On the contrary, statistics show that poverty across the continent is increasing year by year. *This is because there are major problems both in the nature of the aid provided and in the resource management of the recipient governments.

Aid aimed at solving an immediate crisis (natural disasters, emergency medical assistance, provision of drinking water, etc.) provides short-term relief. But it's observed that this aid, which only treats the symptoms, does not contribute in the long run. (This refers not to humanitarian aid by NGOs, but to governments' multi-billion dollar official aid funds).

Where there is poor governance, donations, no matter how large, become meaningless because the money reaching a small group is lost in the cycle of corruption and political rent-seeking. As expected, it cannot be used to stimulate key sectors, develop the economy, or increase public welfare.

In her famous 2009 book Dead Aid, Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo states that official aid is easy money that encourages corruption and creates a culture of dependency and economic laziness, and that through aid, the West has turned Africa into a perfect customer.

According to Moyo, the few existing local producers in Africa are further weakened due to international aid. Because local producers cannot compete with free products sent to the region. The further weakening of local production increases external dependence.

South African thinker Greg Mills notes that aid to Africa allows poorly managed governments to sustain themselves and perpetuates a system that prevents the people from demanding accountability.

Why Does Foreign Aid Continue?

Even though it's known that foreign aid causes situations in African countries to worsen, why do global powers continue to pour billions of dollars into the continent?

Because foreign aid emerges as a diplomatic tool and economic strategy that benefits the giver more than the receiver. This reality is reflected in the nature of the aid, which is based more on the strategic interests of the donor states than on national priorities.

Donor countries secure their political, strategic, military, and economic interests by building strong ties with the countries they aid. Official aid funds mean the opening of many doors: votes at the United Nations, access to military bases, trade privileges, and support on international platforms.

While former colonial countries soothe the global conscience with aid, they are actually making long-term investments. This aid serves as a tool to gain easier access to those countries' subsoil resources, establish influence over governments, and control their markets.

Countries providing food aid primarily support their own farmers by donating "surplus" agricultural products to African countries, and subsequently flood African markets with their own goods.

In countries receiving constant aid, local production cannot develop and eventually stops completely, making these countries dependent on imports.

Furthermore, the international aid sector has become a massive industry. Today, thousands of NGOs, experts, and bureaucrats receive salaries thanks to aid to Africa. Cutting aid also means unemployment for many people within this structure. Moreover, a large portion of the budgets of international aid organizations is spent on personnel expenses and logistics before even reaching the continent.

Africa's Real Need: Not Aid, But Fair Trade

On the package of a local coffee brand I saw on a supermarket shelf in Zambia, it said: "Africa needs trade, not aid." This sentence summarizes the fundamental truth for the continent's future. African producers are tired of constant requests for aid and want to participate in global trade.

First, the operations of global companies that exploit the continent's subsoil wealth must be questioned. Raw materials are extracted under brutal working conditions, processed outside the continent, and sold back to Africa at much higher prices. While these companies pay high salaries to their own skilled personnel, Africans are employed in the hardest jobs for subsistence wages. This system must change.

African countries should prioritize their own producers, impose certain sanctions on foreign companies, and protect the rights of their own people. Without investment in education, technology, and labor, it is impossible to break free from external dependence.

The cessation of foreign aid may have painful consequences in the short term, especially due to the halting of critical ongoing projects in areas like healthcare. However, in the long term, by encouraging Africa to stand on its own feet, there is potential for continental countries to achieve economic independence. While aid offers temporary solutions, "fair trade" could be the key to lasting prosperity.

Africa's liberation will only be possible through production on the continent, a quality workforce, and a trade system where it is seen as "an equal partner."

 

Sources:

*https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/number-poor-people-continues-rise-sub-saharan-africa-despite-slow-decline-poverty-rate 

Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009)