I've heard many times that Africa is a "blackhole" or "bottomless pit" when it comes to aid from the International community. It seems the old axiom of "feed a man to fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for the rest of his life" still holds true today. So how do we go about "teaching them how to fish?"


How do you feel US foreign aid should be spent in Africa?

What are the major obstacles to ending poverty in Africa? How do you feel we should solve them?

Is what we're doing now effective to combat these problems?

For purposes of this debate I am going to assume we are talking of sub-Saharan Africa.

1) For the most part we should end aid to Africa. Some specific programs to some spicific nations could be saved perhaps, but the vast majroity of it is merely money wasted.

2) African culture. I do not think we can solve that problem.

3) No, we fund tyrants and warlords while making no meaninful difference in the life of the average citizen. I have an online friend Kim duToit who is an immigrant to the United States from South Africa. He wrote an excllent piece on this very issue called: Let Africa Sink.

Which programs should we keep and which should we cut? Why? Maybe my question wasn't worded well but that's what I'm trying to get at.



Ok fair enough. Can you expand on why you think African culture will make this impossible?



Seems like one of the obstacles is tyrants and warlords, should we get rid of them through force? US or NATO?

We should end all foreign aid to Africa and everywhere. It is just not the job of the American government to use tax-payer money as aid to other countries. Also, it is not our business to interfere with other nations, whether by military or aid.



A good place to start if you want to help the problem of poverty would be to eliminate foreign aid and to promote private charity. Individuals and organizations should be the ones who donate and help end poverty. End government welfare and increase private charity.



No. It has been shown that all welfare eventually fails. In the United States, since we began welfare, poverty has increased. If government welfare cant even end poverty in its own country, how could it possibly end poverty in other countries?

I'm all for private charity but I don't think private donations will solve the problem. If we want our aid to be effective, I think that we have to first clean up the corruption, get the warlords out of power, and then build a lasting infrastructure. I think we need a "Marshall Plan" or a Tennessee Valley Authority-esq program, something that can serve the people of Africa long term once it's up and running. Obviously the US shouldn't have to do this alone, the UN and other world relief programs will have an integral role but I don't see how private donations are anything other than a short term fix.

Well I think that aid should be tied to reforms. Yet I also think free trade will help Africa a lot more than free money would.



Poor government is probably the worst. Then I would have to list market access and Western nation's subsidies on agricultural products.
Unfortunately some of these things are not so simple to solve. Mugabe is not going to step down as a condition of a aid and trade agreement.

No industrialized nation is going to send any of it's money with the exception of free money to Africa without some kind of market protections. In other words no one is going to invest in Africa and money coming into the nations in the form of aid is not investment. So that factor relies heavily on Africa..producing better governments.
Nothing is going to change until they realize this and stop trying to relate it all back to colonialism. They could also take advantage of the one of the useful things the colonials left them with...government...then they might actually get somewhere. Just the very basics of a functioning prosperous governing system is nonexistent in most African nations.


When I turn on the news and see those dying children it is more than obvious..painfully so..that what is being done is solving nothing.

I think we can all agree that the state of the governments in much of Africa is deplorable.

The problem as I see it is one of cause vs. effect.

Poor governments, almost without exception, govern poorly. Good governance cost money. Underpaid enforcement agencies will find other way to raise funds.

Corruption is less the cause of poverty than its inevitable result.

Waiting for good governance to magically appear is simply a pipe dream, it never happens.

For poor down-trodden people to reform there governments they will need help. Even the US didn't do it completely alone and we were far better off in the Revolutionary war than Africa is now.

Poor governance therefore is not a reason to second guess aid, but simply another target for increased aid.

The Orange Revolution in the Ukraine came with years of Western funding and support. It will cost money to fund similar initiatives in Africa.

I look at it this way The fundamental decision in whether or not America as a nation accepts the reduction and indeed, eradication of extreme poverty in Africa as a goal or not.

If the answer is yes, aid is simply a must.

Trade is nice, but if most Africans have nothing to trade the effects will only be superficial.

Economic reform must reach deep into the heartland of the rural poor, and this means supplying people who have no means of repayment.

So in short, if poor governance blocks the effectiveness of aid, then aid should be directed through civil society to ensure better governance.

Uhmmm.... I think US should certainly send aid to Africa, and in greater amounts that it is doing now. Seriously, can anyone know what is going on over there and think it's not necessary to help? And with so much money it becomes a moral obligation to do so. If America cuts some of its most ridiculous and unnecessary expenses, there will be enough money to spare. And even without cutting the wasteful spending, there is still plenty...
P.S. In my opinion, the problem of US is not lack of money, it's financial mismanagement