POVERTY AID MERELY AIDING CORRUPTION & HOPELESSNESS

Just last week I was surfing through YouTube when I came across a clip of a man named Andrew Mwenda. Mwenda is a Ugandan journalist, founder of Uganda's premier news magazine The Independent, and one of Foreign Policy magazine's Top 100 Global Thinkers. But he is most famous for his active critic of Western aid to Africa. In the YouTube clip Mwenda speaks at the 2007 TED Conference about the negative effects of foreign aid in Africa.


Mwenda argues that aid makes objects of the poor -- they become passive recipients of charity rather than active participants in their own economic betterment.

"...Africa is likely to get better with less meddling in its affairs by the West, not more -- whether that meddling is through aid, peacekeeping, or well-written speeches. Africa needs space to make mistakes and learn from them. The solutions for Africa have to be shaped and articulated by Africans, not outsiders." - Andrew Mwenda, Foreign Policy 2009

Mwenda confronts the common western belief that the problems in Africa are a direct result of bad rulership. Instead he says "it is not the individual behaviour of Africa's rulers that demands our closest attention... It is the structure of incentives those leaders confront -- incentives that help determine the choices they make.", implying that the aid western countries give the governments and leaders force them to make decisions they may not have made without. I can't help but agree with Mwenda.


I have a lot of family living in the third world country of Samoa. My father was born and raised in the tropics of Savaii and though he moved to Australia, his brothers and sisters still remain on the Island. I've visited Samoa many times and have seen first hand the effect financial handouts can have on a country.


As Mwenda mentioned, government corruption is a massive factor when large amounts of western aid is administered and I've seen it. The current Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi has been in office since 1998 and is well known in the community for giving leadership roles to family members and friends just for being so. Also, the transparency and accountability of financial aid is something left to be desired. The exact percentages of how the aid has been split is yet to be given.


But what's even more interesting is the effect financial aid has on people's attitudes towards the idea of earning money. I was taught the value of money as a kid. Every cent I got was earned from doing something like washing the dishes or vacuuming the house, and I'm grateful for the lessons because I now know how to be financially responsible. But what if you weren't given that chance as a kid? What if the only source of income you've ever known was handouts from the government or family overseas?


The people in Samoa suffer from a lack of opportunities. There are hardly any jobs so they aren't earning an income. Luckily, most family have land they can cultivate and use to feed themselves but there is still a need of money for school, clothes, and other essentials. That's where they rely on handouts from family working overseas and government aid. They aren't learning new skills or gaining self fulfilment from earning their own money or learning how to be financially responsible. The people have entrepreneurial ambitions and career aspirations but they lack the opportunity to express them. The economy suffers and every generation is the same. If western countries were to continue helping there poorer ones, they need to focus on creating these kind of opportunities.


The governments should invest in local businesses. Encourage small business owners to expand and employ more people, and large working companies should be incorporated too. People are getting education but have no where to use it. Bring in law firms, science and agriculture centres, and company engineering. But more than that, the Samoan government should take the lead in everything. Samoa needs to come into it's own and that can only happen if western countries stop babying it.


It will take many years, generations even, to change third world countries from being dependent on handouts to being active participants in their own economic betterment. They need to be supported but not so much that corruption and passive recipients of charity are encouraged.