Yes, Aid does work but not well enough in Africa:

Yes, aid does work, but not well enough in Africa. I think we need to discuss from that scenario and further explain much why aid has been working enough in other part of the world like Asian and not well enough in Africa? It is not true not all Aid accorded to Africa does not work, there are big successfully projects in Africa which have been funded with donors are sustainable helping a lot people of Africa.

Zambia today depend on oil transported via a pipe line starting from Dar-es-salaam port of Tanzania, constructed three decades ago with the help of aid from Italian government. Thereafter, If I could be awarded a chance to review the book of Dambisa before released into the public, I could suggest the title of her book to be “The problem is not aid but how that aid is used” It is not true that all African problems we have today is because of aid? For instance if a country receive aid of about US$ 60 million for implementing various project in natural resource sector, and then later on an evaluation by independent consultants revealed that up to half of the funds allocated may have been lost through corruption and mismanagement. What is the problem with Aid? That’s why I said Dambisa tends to disguise her self as helper to African economy problem, but in real sense she want to mount her income (April 3, 2009 Dead Aid becomes New York Times bestseller). Sometime we need to be honest and transparency wherever possible, on my view the main problems conquer with Africans is selfishness, unserious ness and laziness. Healing all those aforementioned reasons with serious initiatives of utilizing our resources effectively; improving aid effectiveness, we can lift out our continent with abject poverty we have today.

I do understand, African countries we are renowned with a lot of natural resources, but we need to have priorities on what we want to achieve, this will enable to address issue of corruption and mismanagement of many funds. Civil societies’ organizations and other activist’s initiatives should have specific vision and mission aiming on addressing the issue of development and not donor driven as most they are wright now (They don’t have specific vision they are changing according to funds). In this globalization trend we must become more competitive if we really want to benefit from it. The key challenges are to identify the main constraints to competitiveness, devise the necessary reforms, and implement them in accordance with international standards and the particular characteristics of each country. Taking into account the limited absorptive capacity of existing formal labour markets in Africa, the promotion of Youth Entrepreneurship is one of the few feasible option to stimulate demand side of the labour market and create employment opportunities both informal and formal sectors.

Development is the process which takes time, the current USA we have today had worse situation rather than Africa 200 years ago. But seriousness, hardworking and patriotism has made them to be where they are today. We have a long way to go, we should change our mindset and think about helping our continent we can be an important driver of changes. Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own efforts. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success. We need to work harder and harder to address issues of corruption, mismanagement of funds and good governance in Africa. We need to be serious for what we get regardless where it comes from for the benefit of having African progress.

Stephen J Nyagonde
National Representative
Young Earth Scientist Network- Tanzania,
Internship WWF Tanzania Office,
Rubeho Environmental Action Project-REAP,
Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG),
Rubeho, Mpwapwa, Dodoma,
Email: stnya19@yahoo.com, snyagonde1987@gmail.com
Mobile: +255713058745, +255765111101