The first step in helping the people of the African continent is changing
how we give them aid. The current model is meant to help, but is also breeds
dependency. As such some minor tweaks to the aid based system will help in
removing this problem.
Step 1: Stop giving money to the African governments. The
reason that you should not give money to these governments is not just due to
corruption, but because they all take a cut of the aid to give out the aid in
the first place. Yes, that is correct; the aid we give is not all being used to
help the people of
Africa, but to line the
pockets of government officials. Unfortunately, this problem does not reside in
Africa alone, but here in countries like the
United States where government
takes a cut of the money as well. So who do we give the money too?
Step 2: The money must be given directly to the African
people for this to work. People in
Africa know
exactly what they need to survive and to thrive. As such, giving the money
directly in some fashion would be the most efficient method to ensure that all
the aid actually gets to those in need. However, giving that money as pure cash
is not always the best method. So using the money to pay for the schooling of
an African child, the health care, or as a cash prize for completing there
education would be the best method. Limiting the number of times they would get
aid is also crucial so that dependency does not develop. In fact there is a
charity which is at the website "givedirect.org" that gives people one
time donations of $1000 and a cell phone to keep track of how they are doing.
They cited that just giving these people an education may not be enough and
that they may need some sort of money to start their business or improve there
lives. One of the people they helped bought a motorcycle and uses it as a taxi,
while another used the money to buy welding equipment as he was taught how to
weld but lacked the means to buy the equipment himself. Others use the money to
buy tin roofs as opposed to the thatched roofs that can have animals living in
them (this has cut down on diseases). So direct charity and done in a
responsible way is essential to success.
Step 3: Do not donate clothing to the people of
Africa. Yes, I sound like a tyrant here, but there is a
very important reason. When you donate cloths to the African people they get
them for free and you think you just helped someone. Problem is that you have
actually killed off a business which creates jobs and gets people out of
poverty. That business you killed off is
Africa's
clothing businesses. By giving cloths, you are actually impoverishing these
businesses and perpetuating unemployment. If you stopped giving cloths, and
instead used the money to buy cloths from the clothing businesses in
Africa, then and only then would that be actually helping
the African people. This is because, by buying direct, you allow that business
to grow and prosper which means they hire more people to make the cloths and
man the store fronts. Get it. By buying goods from the African people to help
them, you will eventually not need to provide future aid because the economy in
Africa will be so improved that they will be
able to care for their own poor by themselves.
Step 4: Like with clothing, food is also a problem. When we
ship food over, we take away businesses from the local farmers (not to mention
get it stolen by pirates like those in
Somalia). As such, these farmers
loose revenue and stop farming. So like with step 3, buy the local food to feed
the poor. This enriches the local farmers and allows them to expand there
businesses which in turn creates more jobs.
Step 5: What should not change is the doctors without
boarders help to these people and the education programs that directly aid in
job training. These will prove essential to the future of the African economy
with respect to entrepreneurs taking advantage of theirs and other people’s
skills to create new businesses. Of course, I would like the $1000 cash prize
and cell phone to be given upon completion of the education course as per the
"givedirect.org" model. Some may be wondering what’s up with the cell
phone? Well, in
Africa, as infrastructure is
almost non-existent, cell phones can be used to transfer money to individuals
rather than traditional cash. This enables people to protect themselves from
thieves as they don't have to carry cash and the phone acts as a tool for
communication for both personal and business calls. In short, the cell phone
and the ever expanding cell phone and internet infrastructure have become
integral to the future of
Africa's prosperity.
Conclusion: These steps are designed to change how we give
aid to the African people. I firmly believe that the current aid system is not
designed to help
Africa, but to make the
countries there a neo-colony for exploitation of goods and services. Lobbying
groups like the farm lobby make big money off shipping food from the
U.S. to Africa via the Federal Government, with
some of
Africa's governments taking that food
and giving it only to loyal supporters. As such, the current methods must end.
These changes on how we give charity are key to helping
Africa
become independent and wealthy and thus are sorely needed. Stay tuned for part
2 tomorrow which examines what I think should happen to
Africa
at the governmental level for it to achieve prosperity.
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