Poverty Alleviation - Can foreign aid help Africa?

[Kofi]

I am an African and I talk from experience. I know poverty and I know hunger. I have seen poverty with my naked eyes and I have heard poverty with my own ears. I have also felt poverty with my own heart and with my own body and soul. Poverty is more than you think. Poverty is something most people do not fully understand. Poverty is not going empty for a single day and then going full the next day. Poverty is not just taking paracetamol because you couldn't afford the hospital bills. Poverty is not going by the train or the local bus because you couldn't afford a brand new car. Poverty is not eating bread without fish but rather having nothing to eat at all. Poverty is being sick and having nobody to care for you. Poverty is when nobody seems to care. Poverty is when your dreams cease to exist because there is nobody to help. Poverty is suffering from HIV/AIDS with no anti-retroviral drugs to help and with not even talenol to give you a little rest. The real poverty never takes a holiday especially in Africa and the least we can do is may be to step forward, speak it out to the world and then stepping in and acting on their behalf as we want others to do for us. Foreign Aid here and foreign aid there but I can tell you that foreign aid never reaches my village. Not that my village is far from reach. Not that my village is better than others. My village is among the worst of all but foreign aid never comes to my village. The Minister lives in a very big mansion in the city but his own grandmother died in my village just a few days ago from poverty and hunger. The grandmother died because there is no hospital and not even a clinic in my village. We walk miles upon miles just to get some medical attention in times of difficulty. The grandmother is too old to walk and she died. What I want the whole world to know is that; the monies you've been sending every blessed day to Africa to save the poor and the needy, never reach my village.

What do you think? Can foreign aid alleviate poverty in Africa?

[master]

that's a great post.. well this is what i got - Africa has been "saved" so many times that you have to wonder why it still needs saving.
Desperate and tragic conditions afflict millions in Africa today and any humane person would like to help. But the repeated failures of previous help ought to make us at least question the particular manner in which Africa can be helped. "Forgiveness" of foreign debts is always high on the agenda of those on the political left.
At any given moment, this would of course free up money that African governments could spend to help relieve their people's distress ... assuming that this is what they would spend it for. But why would anyone think that promoting irresponsible government borrowing by periodically "forgiving" their debts is going to help African countries in the long run?
As for the people of Africa, they have to survive in the short run in order to get to the long run. So emergency aid for emergency conditions makes far more sense than long-run "foreign aid" programs with an almost unbroken track record of failure, not only in Africa but around the world.

Definitely it'll but partially.The money provided by foreign countries should be utilised properly for the poor in Africa.This will erradicate poverty upto some extent.For complete erradication of poverty,this continent & their people should work hard & convert thier natural resources to capital.

[maryelser]

well, I don't think foreign aid can ever help Africa. Africans have to wake up and use their natural resources and capacities to build their own continent.

Never believe on such things. They just snatch our liberty and dont give us anything.

But what are their natural resources and capacities and if they had been able to use them and build their own continent, would they not have already? Is that really an attainable goal?

Yes, foreign aid at least has made a difference. But more than direct aid i.e charity what is required is developmental aid. And utilization of resources and that is easier said than done.

I think money can definitely change some things, but it isn't the end all to situations and it definitely isn't the end all to Africa's problems. RIght now the problems that exist in Africa are economical problems that have effected social problems enough to change the continent more than is possible for anyone to go in and create a fix.

[jaye]

Sure foreign and emergency aid will help but it's not going to do enough because the same problems keep resurfacing in Africa like civil and genocide wars, political corruption, human rights violations and corporate exploitation.
I read that 9.5 million refugees have been slaughtered there. The question is, why can't Africans make peace among themselves and use their time to rebuild their societies ? - that would alleviate a lot of poverty and dependence on foreign aid and such.

[Indiescribe]

Medications? The medicines aren't working anymore. Most countries in Africa still lack the basic standards of living, healthcare and education. These three are the absolute booster shots that are required if a culture is to thrive. And for them to do that their political culture also has to thrive. Unfortuantely, Africans have got used to a 'slave mindset;first it was the colonialists and now its their own leaders.

[bluesnow]

I don't think foreign aid is a good way to alleviate poverty in Africa. Perhaps foreign aid can help in the short term by providing the poor with some amount of help, but its not that feasible in the long term. It will just be a cycle if countries just keep providing aids for the poor and the poor keeps relying on such aids for survival. So aids can't really solve/help the poor to change their lives.

[Ami69]

Foreign aid rather hurts Africa. Foreign aid is making Africans lazy because they may receive foreign aids from generous donors like the Unites States anyways. There are so much resources in Africa and the only problem right now is that Africans are not ready to put those resources into good use but rather rely on foreign aids because these aids keep on coming in and in. I think that Africans will begin to put their natural resources in good use when the foreign aids cease coming in.

[ragnarok]

I personally believe that foreign aid will not help Africa, it will only make the country more dependent on foreign aid. Look at Pakistan it receives so much aid from different countries (ignoring the millitary aid) yet the country has become more dependent on aids and loans and continue asking for more.

Also how can any country or NGO providing the aid know that the aid is being used for the people of Africa instead of making just a few people rich. How can they trust them with all the corruption.

Instead if they go to Africa themselves, create industries and job opportunities for the people and try to make them self dependent by improving their education facilities and training them only then can they help improve the situation in Africa.

The only thing that can help Africa right now is prayers. Money cannot solve Africa's problems. In fact, money will rather make the situation worse because the rich in Africa wants the poor people to worship them. Every rich person in Africa wants to be God and he/she wants everybody to bow down to them.

[chris20]

For me, financial aid and other government/charity support won't be enough to solve the poverty in Africa. Simply giving them food or medicine is not the solution. A means for their daily living must be given than these consumable goods. We're typically relying on a short term help than to a long term one.

[rockingway]

If money cannot solve the problems, then what can? How sure are you when you say it is the rich who take all the money? was it based on Wikipedia? Building school needs money. Am I right?

Is there a way to donate straight to the poor in Africa? What are the organizations we can trust?

[jales]

foreign aid can not help Africa.

the people need to help themselves. be afraid of foreign aid in fact.

not everyone from the west that sends money wants to help africa. some want to use Africa for their own personal gains.

do not trust the west. Africa needs to fix Africa.

[AltMvz]

I'm really amazed at comments that come from people like Debra on pg 1. All the Africans need is prayer! Oh right okay, let's all just pray and do nothing. Prayer will take care of everything! Believe me you'll find out your in the same situation you were in before. The only way for people to chance their way of life is to work at it. Fact. But i don't say African's are lazy. If you look at Europe, the poorest parts are southern parts, like south Italy, Spain, Portugal. All hotter regions. It must have an effect on people.
People in hotter regions are slower and more easy going. Is this laziness? No it's adaption. Human adaption. Adaption to their environment.
But at the same time you still have to work to change your circumstances. Can't get around that one!

[Kofi]

Originally Posted by AltMvz

I'm really amazed at comments that come from people like Debra on pg 1. All the africans need is prayer! Oh right okay, let's all just pray and do nothing. Prayer will take care of everything! Believe me you'll find out your in the same situation you were in before. The only way for people to chance their way of life is to work at it. Fact. But i don't say african's are lazy. If you look at Europe, the poorest parts are southern parts, like south Italy, Spain, Portugal. All hotter regions. It must have an effect on people.
People in hotter regions are slower and more easy going. Is this laziness? No it's adaption. Human adaption. Adaption to their environment.
But at the same time you still have to work to change your circumstances. Can't get around that one!

You are right! It is good to pray but one thing we must remember is that prayers do not put food on the dining table. If you want to help a poor man, give him some of your bread and wine and then remember him in your prayers. Don't just pray for a poor man and give the remaining of your bread to your dogs.

[thegamevg]

Originally Posted by Kofi

You are right! It is good to pray but one thing we must remember is that prayers do not put food on the dining table. If you want to help a poor man, give him some of your bread and wine and then remember him in your prayers. Don't just pray for a poor man and give the remaining of your bread to your dogs.

Very well said Kofi ! It would truly be amazing if prayer could solve ALL our problems .

As for the subject, foreign aid has been coming in to African countries for ages and ages now without a significant enough result. This clearly means that the solution lies not in more aid, but a better utilization of the aid...

Perhaps the UN should ensure that the aid is spent on the right things...such as food, public services and most of all education- which is the root cause to a lot of other problems plaguing the continent such as illiteracy, unemployment and disease.

Even with foreign aids, Africans are suffering and imagine without foreign aids. Foreign aids cannot solve all their problems but it is better than doing nothing at all to help

Leave the man to solve his own problem...

[happyfrancis]

well for now, yes foreign aid would definitely help Africa but for the long run "No". When i was a kid I could still remember watching from our daily news how certain amount of funds are pledge by develop countries or by the UN to help Africa. But, two decades has passed, i'm already a family man and still the same news are aired in my television.

Now, I'm not saying we should stop foreign aid to Africa..... My God i'm sure a lot would suffer... what i'm saying is we should invest those funds for long term causes.

what do you think?

too much going on there...definitely sad but I don't know if its fixable.....I understand the hope and despair but for us to help probably wouldn't change things a whole lot....Africa need to become strong within themselves...