The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
An African journalist calls for aid donors to stop propping up repressive, corrupt and incompetent governments.
Tren: Jeffrey Sachs, Bono and Bob Geldof all call for massive increases in aid transfers to African countries. What do you consider the consequences of this will be?
Mwenda: The road to hell is always paved with good intentions. The calls by Sachs, Bono and Geldof fall into that category. First, their calls for more aid assume -- and wrongly so -- that the primary problem in Africa is lack of a resource base to generate revenue to invest in what the World Bank prefers to call "poverty reducing expenditure areas" -- free primary education, basic health care and infrastructure like roads. ...
The primary problem for Africa is one of governance. The poor in Africa do not have basic social services because they are ruled by repressive, corrupt and incompetent governments. These governments spend millions of dollars annually on their corrupt and ineffective militaries, on ostentatious consumption by the political class, and on obese, profligate and highly incompetent bureaucracies. The institutions are very corrupt and incompetent that they stifle both domestic entrepreneurial initiative and frustrate foreign direct investment. ...
Foreign aid is the subsidy governments in Africa employ to avoid facing the consequences of their own folly. Without aid, many governments in Africa would stare regime collapse in the eye. Some would be stupid, retain the old ways and collapse. But many would be forced to reform their monetary and fiscal policies, to be frugal and prudent, to put in place public policies and political institutions that favor rapid economic growth and capital accumulation. They would have to listen more to their own people and foreign investors in policy making and policy orientation. In short, they would be forced to establish good, effective, accountable and democratic governments. Good and accountable government is not a product of altruism, but enlightened self-interest. Sachs, Bono, Geldof, Tony Blair -- and all the many good but naive people of the West -- need to learn that simple, commonsense logic.
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http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052306C
Tren: Jeffrey Sachs, Bono and Bob Geldof all call for massive increases in aid transfers to African countries. What do you consider the consequences of this will be?
Mwenda: The road to hell is always paved with good intentions. The calls by Sachs, Bono and Geldof fall into that category. First, their calls for more aid assume -- and wrongly so -- that the primary problem in Africa is lack of a resource base to generate revenue to invest in what the World Bank prefers to call "poverty reducing expenditure areas" -- free primary education, basic health care and infrastructure like roads. ...
The primary problem for Africa is one of governance. The poor in Africa do not have basic social services because they are ruled by repressive, corrupt and incompetent governments. These governments spend millions of dollars annually on their corrupt and ineffective militaries, on ostentatious consumption by the political class, and on obese, profligate and highly incompetent bureaucracies. The institutions are very corrupt and incompetent that they stifle both domestic entrepreneurial initiative and frustrate foreign direct investment. ...
Foreign aid is the subsidy governments in Africa employ to avoid facing the consequences of their own folly. Without aid, many governments in Africa would stare regime collapse in the eye. Some would be stupid, retain the old ways and collapse. But many would be forced to reform their monetary and fiscal policies, to be frugal and prudent, to put in place public policies and political institutions that favor rapid economic growth and capital accumulation. They would have to listen more to their own people and foreign investors in policy making and policy orientation. In short, they would be forced to establish good, effective, accountable and democratic governments. Good and accountable government is not a product of altruism, but enlightened self-interest. Sachs, Bono, Geldof, Tony Blair -- and all the many good but naive people of the West -- need to learn that simple, commonsense logic.
...
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052306C
posted by Patrick Henry at 20:31
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