The issue is not new. In Africa the tide of aid money, however well-intentioned, has only promoted corruption in government and dependence among citizens. Dambisa Moyo, Zambian economist and former head of economic research and strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa at Goldman Sachs, has drawn a contrast with such countries as Argentina and Brazil, where a policy of investment has worked to grow economies.
Growing enough food needs money — for better seeds and fertiliser, a water pump to irrigate the crop and a bike to take it to market, a radio or a mobile phone to find out about crop prices and cultivation information, and so on.
So it comes down to the economy. And that means moving from donor-dependency to trade-based self-sufficiency and self-reliance — which is what these many poor and hungry people say they want anyway!
A Harvard University study led by Professor Calestous Juma showed that Africa could feed itself by making the transition to economic self-sufficiency. Top-down funding and hand-out donations are short-term solutions with consequences including an inability to establish longer-term planning. The result is depressingly common and predictable. Such aid creates, encourages and perpetuates a culture tailored to, and indeed expert in, obtaining funding and spending it in dependent fashion. So it distracts and distorts efforts for self-sufficiency. Donors need to fund initiatives that really support people in achieving independence and self-reliance. This includes effective agricultural extension services that provide up-to-date, practical information to farmers — especially by women for women. Farmers need information on new seed varieties, how to grow these in local conditions, and how to market the crop.
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