Band Aid?

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Tonight I was at an EWB discussion meeting. We were discussing this article, in which economist James Shikwati claims that the best way to help countries like Kenya with their poverty problems is to actually stop giving them aid, not give them more

Comments

[scottphyrebird]

Interesting article, I must say. Shikwati does make some rather valid points, especially concerning where the aid money is going (for the most part).

Although I can't really, in good conscience, completely agree with him, I do agree that getting African countries to start doing things for themselves is the only way to get them into the global economy. Perhaps slowly reducing the aid money and food that is being supplied, instead using the money thereby saved to get more teachers, doctors, and other trained professionals onto the African continent to impart their skills to the local population would be a viable alternative. That way you get Africans working on produciung their own goods and services as Shikwati desires, but you don't end up tossing the Africans out on their collective behinds, because while such a move may produce the same results, I'm fairly certain that you'd end up with quite a few deaths on your conscience if you did so, in my opinion, at least.

[rebeccmeister]

I agree with you, scottphyrebird. But I also think that we have to look more closely at how agriculture operates worldwide. The US government undermines a lot of its aid work because it heavily subsidizes crops (especially corn) in the US, driving farmers out of business elsewhere by flooding the world market with cheap corn.

I think that more aid in the form of education would be the most useful. There are a lot of small NGOs working in Africa to teach people how to survive and make a living. Immediate aid in the form of money and food is a nice band-aid, but the only way to help struggling countries get out of cycles of hunger is to develop better long-term strategies. These aren't as popular politically because they don't have immediate results that the media can focus on, but the benefits are more lasting.

I would also like to know why there hasn't been much media coverage of slavery issues in Africa, or political pressure to put anti-slavery agreements into effect.