Now Theres An Inconvenient Truth About Africa - Road to the Middle Class

WHO would have thunk it? The government of Canada has issued a report on foreign aid to Africa, according to Jeremiah Norris, and the news is not good. The Standing Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has issued a report and concluded that:

"Development assistance has been a holding pattern for Africa at best, and a direct facilitator of poor governance and economic mismanagement at worst."

In numbers, “the per capita GNP in Sub-Saharan Africa [was] at 17.1% of the world average in 1965, falling to 9.7% in 2004.”

In other words, half a century of foreign aid has had zero positive effect on backward Africa. In fact, it has probably damaged it.

Now what do you think the Canadian Senate committee proposed to do about this?

[Aid] donors should only give assistance to countries that are instilling a pro-growth business environment. Rather than a focus on providing social welfare programs, such as education, Canada should re-direct its assistance on economic development and agricultural productivity.

Moreover,

The Committee also concluded "that international development assistance is not the long-term answer for Africa. Vibrant economies and good governance are the answer for Africa. These are the conditions that can only be generated and sustained from within Africa, not from without."

This is unexceptional, of course. It dovetails with research at the family level. In The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas J. Stanley,William D. Danko write about the “economic outpatient care” (EOC) that many parents provide their adult children. Adult children assisted in this way tend to work less and spend more than similar adults that lack EOC support.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

Comments:

Posted by: Walt From Michigan on 03/15/07 8:18am

Hey, Maybe that will work for their us poor folk down in michigan.