Het is goed dat geld steeds vaker naar lokale organisaties gaat, in plaats van naar lokale regeringen, meent Philip Kpakiwa uit Sierra Leone. We moeten helpen door het leed van armen te verzachten, niet door wapens te sturen.
Aid has gone to Africa for many purposes, only one of which is development. Donors use aids to advance their values, their commercial interests, their cultural aspirations, and their diplomatic and political objectives. Development organization’s aid has always sought t raise the living standard and reduce poverty in poor countries, but the concept of how aid is distributed to help achieve the gaol intended for the aid has shifted from decade to decade without any positive result. African countries have been among the world’s largest recipients of aid, many receive net official development assistance equal to ten percent (10%) of their GNP (at market exchange rate).
Quality of governance
As governments sought debt relief and additional assistance to supplement their dwindling foreign exchange earnings, donors and institutions began to condition their aid on stabilization and economic adjustment or reform programs. In the 1990s the focus of aid began to shift back to policies perceived to enhance growth, because the state was seen as an obstacle to the phenomenon. Development specialists were asking themselves why investment and growth still remained low even after the economic reforms, the answer they came up with indicated ‘the quality of governance’. Where public institutions are weak, incompetent, or corrupt and government lack transparency or predictability, even the best reform will not bring growth. By 1997, the largest donor sources (World Bank, France, European Union, Germany and Japan) provided just above half of net aid flows.
Organizations where the governments have failed
Organizations in developed countries have become increasing sources of aid to Africa, using resources from the citizens of their countries as well as their official aid agencies. Now aid to Africa is not only to government. Development organizations have proliferated in number and activities, and many donors channel their aid only through them because governments have failed them in meeting their goals for the aid. So to conclude, the fact that donor countries and organizations have shifted from government level to indigenous or local Non Governmental Organizations is really an added value of the said Institution.
Churches can also provide humanitarian assistance
Not only development organizations can provide aid. Churches and companies are all referred to as organizations, so whatever the former can do the latter will also be able do it.
As for what forms of assistance should development organizations provide, to my own point of view would recommend; ‘humanitarian assistance’. As there is too much of poverty in Africa where most families cannot afford a single meal per day for complete seven days in one week. So if through development organizations schools, health centres, and orphanages are set up or built to host these destitute (orphans, street children, prostitutes and widows), will be an excellent gesture.
Stop shipping arms and ammunitions
Talking about the assistance that does more ham than good to developing countries, I would simply state ‘arms and ammunitions’ ship to developing nations as aid in the name of national security, while the citizens of that said country most times go to bed hungry for days in the week, no adequate medical equipment and medications in their hospitals, no pure drinking, and no electricity to attract investors to come to their countries. These arms and ammunitions are at same time used to terrorize the populace, so as far as I’m concerned this aid does nothing than harm to developing countries.
Philip Yayah Kpakiwa is a native of Sierra Leone currently living and working in Senegal. He is the founder of the Conquerors for Christ Movement Africa and a member of the VoiceOver 2015-network.
