Aid Debate Recap
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On Monday, we noted that the Munk debates program would feature a discussion about foreign aid and we encouraged those who watched to post their thoughts and reactions. ONE’s Policy Advisory Board member Paul Collier, along with Stephen Lewis, Dambisa Moyo, and Hernando de Soto talked for almost two hours about the opportunities and challenges of foreign aid. The purpose of the Munk debates is to “enliven and elevate public discussion of the political, social, and cultural issues shaping the course of the world’s events and Canada’s future.” This goal was certainly accomplished – the debate participants engaged in a lively discussion about their thoughts on how and why foreign aid has affected Africa and what are the best ways to reduce reliance on donors to finance programs. Exchanges like this are helpful to educate people about foreign aid and the array of perspectives about it.
While there was disagreement between the two ’sides’, represented by Moyo and de Soto, arguing that aid does more harm than good, and Lewis and Collier, arguing the opposing view, there was common ground. The debate participants agreed that African countries cannot continue to rely on foreign aid to the extent they are now, that strong leadership and good governance are critical to transitioning from aid dependence, and that aid has had mixed results over the past 60 years. There was also agreement on the importance of the private sector in economic growth, through investment and job creation.
The audience voted before and after the debate on whether foreign aid does more harm than good. The outcome? The majority of people do not believe that aid does more harm than good. This means that both before and after the debate, the majority of the audience believes that aid does more good than harm. Before the debate, 61% of the audience voted ‘against’ the principle that aid does more harm than good, compared to 59% of the audience who voted after the debate. The opposing side, who believe aid does more harm than good, had 39% of the votes before the debate and 41% afterwards.
What do you think? Watch the webcast and let us know.
-Lisa Fleisher
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June 7, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Thank you for sending me this message about Water for the World; but, I will not sign the petition. There are far too many problems with America’s water to worry about sending more of our money abroad. The Chesapeake Bay, our nation’s largest natural estuary is dying! Maryland has been forced to sue the EPA because although cleanup was approved more than 25 years ago, NOTHING has been done. When President Obama announced he was serving seafood at his inaugural luncheon, I was so concerned that anything caught in the Bay, on which DC sits, would be contaminated I wrote the White House.
If the President wants to embrace environmental concerns, boost employment, and build state economies, which our last administration failed to do, then he should support our own water clean-up needs first before spending taxpayers money in foreign lands.
Good luck with the bill, but you won’t get my signature.
June 7, 2009 at 9:30 pm
After just 2 hours of hearing about alternatives to aid, 2% of previous aid proponents decided to switch sides.
If just 2% of ONE supporters are similarly enlightened by watching this debate then Africa will surely be on the road to prosperity and a new direction where entrepreneurs and self determination are celebrated.
June 8, 2009 at 11:05 am
ONE is already more than adequately addressing the issues of trade & investment in Africa – which is WHY ONE has over 2.5 MILLION members in the USA alone!
The fact that only 2% of the people were temporarily swayed during the debates speaks to the soundness
of the policies advocated below:
http://www.one.org/c/us/issue/17/
AS ONE, debbie
June 8, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Aid gives money directly to foreign governments. If these foreign governments utilized this money in a way which promoted entrepreneurship and foreign investment in business, these “third world countries” would be much further along in their development. Approximately 63% percent of people living in 12 various third world countries said they wish the western world did not send their government aid, this proves aid is not helping these people, but hurting them by keeping these corrupt governments in power. The people suffering are not receiving help, and government to government aid will not change that. Enterprise is the only way to solve the poverty crisis, and the people of ONE need to realize that.
June 8, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Sam, please check the link that I provided above. ONE members DO realize what you’re saying is correct and NO ONE has ever stood in the way of investment in & trade with African countries.
Can you provide me with one instance where ONE has taken a stance AGAINST trade & investment in Africa?
Until you can, please desist from the verbal diatribe.
All the Best, debbie
June 8, 2009 at 8:18 pm
How does having 2.5million members er volunteers mean ONE is addressing the issues? American Idol is the most popular TV show, does that mean its the best? Substance people, offer solutions. Most of the 53 African countries are Aid-dependant and underdeveloped, surely we should rethink this policy, no? Well, some of us will.
June 9, 2009 at 12:26 am
Sam, are you saying that aid stifles entrepreneurship? Running your own business is always an avenue in a democratic, free-market society, which many African countries already are.
There are instances where aid in the form of microcredit actually spurs local enterprises. That is one kind of aid that ONE advocates for, an instance of aid that is NOT government to government. ONE is also working with the recently formed Frontier 100 group (http://www.igdleaders.org/sections/whatwedo/whatwedo_frontier100.asp) which is businesses in the US helping businesses in Africa.
ONE is trying to help to bring aid to alleviate some really deadly crisis in health, water, etc. Indigenous efforts can tackle these issues too; ONE is not stopping them from doing so. How long do we wait, and how do we guarantee, that investment in businesses will solve these immediate needs?
June 9, 2009 at 10:20 am
Hey Debra, some good points, but ONE seem to take offense to any free-market solutions being offered by people like Dr. Dambisa Moyo. Surely, there is common gorund where Africa’s development can be enhance without the name-calling. Although it seems like some in the Aid community are offended by the possibility of dissenting voices rather than participating in dialogue. Like they say in Malawi, when two elephants fight, its the grass that suffers.
June 9, 2009 at 10:39 am
Sylvan, can you be SPECIFIC who you are talking about when you say: “some in the Aid community are offended by the possibility of dissenting voices rather than participating in dialogue”?
Can you give us SPECIFIC conversations, organizations & individuals who you think meet your own criterion above?
Because without giving us specifics, what you do is to contribute to the situation that you decry & further alienate us from finding common ground with each other.
All the Best, debbie
June 9, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Moyo’s arguments sound great unless you know what you’re talking about, at which point, the only logical conclusion is dismiss her book as another attention seeking public relations exercise catering to the uninformed pessimistic right wing looking to escape moral culpability and justify inaction on Africa. She sure does make a great poster child for the hard right though.
Here’s the sad part, these things aren’t reducable to brief soundbites, but it’s hard to get people to care enough to even look into it enough to move past the most basic and intro levels of debate ie aid is doing more harm than good.
This all seems rather simple and overblown to me. This entire “debate” hinges on false dichotomies and broad generalizations. “Huge” amounts of “aid” money have been wasted. Most of it was given for purposes having nothing to do with development so holding it to development outcomes seems a little silly. Until the end of the Cold War speaking about “aid” can be somewhat of misleading because it was pretty much used to buy geopolitical allies (very little went for development) so that’s pretty much a write off and useless for trying to gauge future outcomes. Also, the “huge” amounts referenced by righties like Moyo and Easterly break down to be very little on a per capita basis. $2.3 trillion in aid has been spent in the last 50 years. That also works out to be around $15 per person per year. Again most of which was given for purposes having nothing to do with development. Here might I highlight the better part of the more and better aid policy demand.
$15 per person most of which was given for non development purposes, lots of which went to technical consultants or warlords or dictators, lots of which was wasted (on the prerogative of the donors), while confronting the world’s worst pandemic disease, amidst decolonization and countless struggles for power (many of which were funded and fuelled by the donors at the expense of the recipients) did not single handedly lift all of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations of the world out of extreme poverty and therefore we should end aid? I might be alone here, but the argument that you need to learn how to manage your $15 better seems a little ridiculous. Especially keeping in mind that the $15 we’re talking about is one week’s worth of subsidies for a cow in the EU or that in North America we spend a couple thousand annually per person on health care. Human equality? Anyone?
June 9, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Not to speak for Mr. Mbewe, but I think he means organizations like ‘ONE’!
June 9, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Thank you Ridiyen haha. I wasn’t being specific, but I think alot of western organizations have taken a defensive position against an one who says anything different, by labelling the polemics and misinformed. I’m not sure how that helps the idea of coming together around a table and having a meanigful discussion.
June 9, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Bryan, you’ve written alot, and your passion is to be respected, but at some point you have to also respect the desire for Africans to get themselves out of the doldrums of poverty and try and compete on the global stage like every other continent. There are ways to achieve this in Africa, maybe we should concentrate on those solutions.
June 9, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Agreed … so please be SPECIFIC and give us an example of where we can “concentrate on those solutions”.
Your obtuse rhetoric is getting us nowhere in this discussion.
It also amazes me how this part of Bryan’s post went right over your head:
” Moyo’s arguments sound great unless you know what you’re talking about, at which point, the only logical conclusion is dismiss her book as another attention seeking public relations exercise catering to the uninformed pessimistic right wing looking to escape moral culpability and justify inaction on Africa. She sure does make a great poster child for the hard right though.”
Had I said that Moyo makes a great poster child for the hard right, one of you would have been all over my statement but with Bryan, his passion is to respected?
Seems like a double standard to me.
June 9, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I won’t entertain the ‘double standard’ comment. Africa has been viewed as second-class for way too long so all some of us are trying to do is get a seat at the table.
June 9, 2009 at 9:20 pm
And no ONE here is standing in the way of Africa getting a seat at the table.
June 9, 2009 at 9:47 pm
DNFTT
June 9, 2009 at 10:05 pm
I wonder who the trolls are? (Sigh) And as far as no ONE standing in the way of Africa, what exactly has been done by the do-gooders to help Africa become self-reliant and a serious player on the world stage? Please, name just ONE thing? (and not things like donated medicines, we need developmental facts)
June 9, 2009 at 10:17 pm
http://www.one.org/c/us/issuebrief/746/
June 10, 2009 at 10:24 am
Did you just take credit for AGOA? Please say ‘yes’ so I can provide details on the numerous demerits of your beloved AGOA.
June 10, 2009 at 2:31 pm
lol
June 10, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I guess you are. Wow. OK, here’s an easy one, how much input did African countries have in the creation of AGOA? And to make it easier for you, when I say input I mean, anything, percentage, consultative, recommendations, suggestion,anything. I’ll give you a hint, the number is less than 1; not so ‘LOL’ now, huh?
June 11, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Why is One continuing to rely on groups like the World Economic Forum,
the G8, the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization? They are owned by corporations and are well known for their human rights, environmental, and civil rights abuses. They have complete disregard for the sovereignity of the people. PLEASE consider attending the World Social Forum…
I also see groups like this coming across as neocolonialist.
I do not know. Maybe I am just jaded by aid groups ever since Katrina. People of the Global South
do not need the North to tell them what to do.
I DO admire the work you do. Just please be careful who you do it with.