A Bootstrap Strategy

Fire of Liberty

Anyone who reads my blog are aware that I'm strongly opposed to our nation or any other nation sending massive quantities of money to the poor areas within Africa. Now I'm all for helping folks out who need help but I'm also aware of the detrimental effects to a nation when it continues to receive what is basically welfare payments from more benevolent nations. As long as the West continues to pump money in Africa all they do is create an environment of sloth, irresponsibility, corruption. What's even worse, the leaders within these nations have discovered that the West has created an enormous ATM that seems to never run out of cash. So even after these nations rake in such massive transfers from the West, they generally refuse to tackle their problems because they know that a gaggle of "do-gooders" in the West will bemoan the dire straits in Africa and call for more money to be sent into these countries. Since there is an open cash-box that seems to be full all the time, you'll continue to see these nations get back in the queue with their hands open waiting for more. To understand this mentality, you only has to look at Charles Murray's Losing Ground or Marvin Olasky's The Tragedy of American Compassion to realize that when the you pour massive amounts of money at the problem like poverty, you create a culture of dependency that only knows that their checks will continue to roll in on the first of the month and thus have no incentive to change their behavior or improve their lot in life.

I guess this is why I applaud the efforts of President Bush and the Paul Wolfowitz over at the World Bank that is stressing that the distribution of money to these nations shouldn't be spent willy-nilly but is much more principled and requires efforts on the recipient's behalf. Amongst the many requirements for these nations to receive this cash, they have to initiate or go about implementing effective economic/political liberalization, agree to accept money as a loan and not an open grant that you can go back to time and time again. So you could say that the President as well as the World Bank have decided to introduce a little bit of welfare reform in the field of foreign aid. While the West is taking this approach on the lending side, there are folks working on the receiving side or should say the dissolution of such massive transfers. One individual who is making great strides in helping Africa get out of this "culture of dependency" is James Shikwati, economist and author of Reclaiming Africa, who notes that folks in Africa have got to take a "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality and push away from the hog trough or they will continue to be mired in poverty for more decades. Though it'll be a challenge to move the governments of Africa in this direction because of the objections within the elites, bureaucracy, populist leaders, NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations) and the folks who are fearful of change or losing such cash, Shikwati notes that it can be done. Just check out what the Christian Science Monitor has to say about the Kenyan economist's ideas and how such a mentality is growing in Africa, here's a sample:

In this famine-prone area of eastern Kenya, he's begun a hunger-fighting project that involves changing attitudes, not doling out money or food.

He's encouraging traditional farmers to think like entrepreneurs and develop their own new methods and tools. And he's persuading agribusiness firms to view residents here not as famine victims but as potential customers. By connecting producers and suppliers, he aims to jump-start new markets, and break dependence on food aid.

And Shikwati isn't alone in challenging the Western aid system.

"Donors need to abandon the idea that the solution to Africa's problem is money," argues Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan economist and radio talk show host. "In fact, money may be Africa's Achilles heel." Shoveling food and money into Africa "makes African governments lose the incentive to invest in long term solutions," he says.

I'd say that if the NGO's, IMF, UN, foreign governments and others offering more money would just listen to Shikwati's ideas and implement plans like the ones created by President Bush and World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, they'd see Africa rise out of the bog of poverty, starvation and illness and finally get to sit at the adult's table next Thanksgiving.

So bravo Mr. Shikwati!!!

Here's some more on Shikwati's thoughts from Germany's magazine Der Spiegel. Also check out George Ayittey's Africa Unchained and P.T. Bauer's Equality, the Third World, and economic delusion.