By Wesley Macheso
In her landmark book, Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo discusses why aid does not really work in most African countries that are dependent on the West for survival.
She views the aid that comes to these countries as harmful because it perpetuates corruption and dependency, rather than promoting sustainable development and economic growth.
Today, Moyo’s sentiments have been echoed by United States (US) President Donald Trump, who, among other things, has frozen aid provided to us through the US Agency for International Development (USaid).
Come to think of it, Trump’s threat to completely shut down USaid would be a disaster for the developing world.
The agency is key, especially in the health sector, where it provides assistance in several areas, including HIV and Aids, malaria and tuberculosis, just to name a few.
USaid has also proven to be vital in the development of vaccines during pandemics.
In Malawi, this agency is funding several organisations working towards improved health services. As such, the death of USaid could well signal our own demise, on top of massive job losses.
Understanding this, we cannot afford to take Trump’s threats lightly.
Whether USaid is completely shut down or not, one thing for sure is that, as Africans, it is about time we re-strategised and seriously considered the future of our countries.
For more than 50 years, we have been receiving aid from the West, which, as Moyo observes, has not significantly developed us.
Those who give out aid cannot continue to assist us forever. If you give someone a starter pack or a boost, you expect them to gradually pull themselves together and eventually stop depending on you.
But this has not been the case with Africa. We do not want to stop depending on the West and we have even coined fancy terms for them: ‘development partners’.
Looking at our situation, one cannot blame President Trump for his radical sentiments.
While we are heavily dependent on foreign aid, our own governments here are notorious for corruption and the first principle of our leaders is self-enrichment.
When you think of the Cashgate scandal and several other scandals that have followed over the years, it is clear that we have enough resources to push ourselves forward but we have been careless with those resources.
There is always a way in which some influential people manage to siphon public funds, either through corrupt procurement processes, the courts or any other means that work for them.
And while we are doing that, we expect to receive aid from taxpayers in rich countries.
Some have argued that the West owes us the aid we receive because they have been a huge part of our underdevelopment.
The argument is that colonialism and other forms of Western dispossession have left Africa destitute and as such, we need foreign aid as a form of reparations.
While this is a very interesting argument, the question of how much the West owes us still remains.
Where do we draw the line between claiming what was stolen from us and being de
