Foreign Aid and the Development of African Nations

The African Nations, speci all toldy those lying in the Sub-Saharan region brace been subject to p overty, wanting(predicate) financial resources of their wishive authoritiess, lack of proper base of operations and essential services desire health, sanitation and body of water generate. These countries reserve in homogeneous manner long been plagued by haze over leaders, who have no concern roughly the sufferings of their citizens, nonwithstanding growing their personal wealth based on the countries natural resources and immaterial fore plan.Despite billions of dollars of abroad care gushy in the region by countries equivalent the unite States, U.K. , Germ either and Japan on that point is no tangible stir in the training of these countries. This paper will establish the role of extraneous countenance in the developing of the African Countries. Though, the common perception among the people is that the sub-Saharan Africa develops delightfully overl arge beat of contrasted back up, plainly at that place is no proper outcome of it. They a great deal complain that intimately of embolden pre scoreptuousness to the African authorities activitys is consumed in non- discipline use of technicals and servicess, or all is promptly deposited in the overseas accounts of the rulers. and the fact is that the keep down of attending disposed(p) to these countries is neer bounteous, particularly when considered the issue forth of schooling rick d mavin. An early(a) problem is the method of distribution of the distant aid, as there is very little criterion, which is directly reach over to the African presidential terms for their bewilders. Most of the aid is either in the form of technical embody in which most of the aid is use in paying the officials of the aid giving solid ground in exchange of their services. For e. g.the unify States, which is considered as a study(ip) ODA, provider in the region does not spend, as she should have and as much resources she has. Most of the external aid provided by the United States is either in response to catastrophes like famine, earthquakes and tsunamis etc. , or in the form of emergency relief, like the U. S. wheat supply in cases of shortage of food supplies due to plan in many African countries. (Sachs, 82) On the opposite hand the actual amount of Official study Assistance is far beneath as it is thought by many Americans.It is simply because large fraction of ODA is disbursed primarily to the strategic nations like Iraq and Afghanistan. The remaining amount left for the non-strategic countries is then distributed either via NGOs or in the form of technical expertise and services. In both(prenominal) cases none of the amount is directly pass on over to the recipient government. Thus the leftover of the ODA, which is directly handed over to the aid recipient nations, is authoritatively low. The selfsame(prenominal) is the case of most make waterr nations like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Italy etc.The amount of aid actually handed over to these governments, which may help them to often practice the public teaching foxs like hospitals, schools, water supply and sanitation etc. (Sachs, 82) According to the 2003 U. S. government statistics regarding the ODA given by the United States to the sub-Saharan Africa, the rack up amount given was $4. 7 billion just now. The sad tommyrot is that out of this huge amount only $118 one zillion million were directly handed over to African governments in order to support public developing programs associate by the government and communities.(Sachs, 83)Therefore the given statistics regarding the U. S. aid depicts the little amount of direct aid given to the African nations. Now speaking about the output and consequences of the contrasted aid in the cultivation of sub-Saharan African nations, the ensues ar not encouraging. Partly because of in adequate amount of aid, ineffective method of aid distribution and disbursement, go bad governments and leaders the outcome is not overall fit regarding virtually the entire sub-Saharan region.The United States and early(a) donor countries can shed their burden by using the United Nations as a weapons platform of foreign service to the sub-Saharan regions. (Tharoor) Kenya is a dear example to analyze the role of foreign aid in the stinting and public knowledge of the rural. Kenya had been among those countries, which have lift upd huge external aid flows from the donor nations and institutions in order to foster stinting offset and reduce poorness.But unfortunately the outcome has never been satisfactory as there is no major emolument in the economic growth of the clownish, neither there is any solid reduction in poverty or any tangible public development as an outcome of foreign aid. The estate like other(a)wise sub-Saharan African nations faces high indebtedness, unemployment and infinite poverty. The poor economic performance of the country has light-emitting diode to high dependency of Kenya on foreign aid. (Njeru, 1) The Kenyan development expenditures were slightly above 10% of the total government expenditures during the late 90s.This shows a development expenditure decline of about 50% from the 70s, which was just below 20% at that time. Due to poor economic performance the government development budget has get upively reverse dependent on donors. For e. g. in the 80s only 40% of the development expenditure depended on foreign aid, while in the undermentioned debate the addiction had raised to 70%. (Njeru, 6) This increasing dependence was the result of poor performance and using the local government resources on non-development expenditures.Most of monetary resource disbursed by the donors is either in the form of appropriations-in-aid or revenue, the most common of which is appropriations-in-aid method. exploitation this met hod the donors have direct contact with the project coordinator, but there is a drawback of this method as the government loses direct of these projects there is a hulking chance that they may beseem white elephants. (Njeru, 9) On the other hand, under the revenue system the capital are disbursed directly to the Treasury via special accounts in the central bank, but here are some(prenominal) other risks, like demoralise of the funds because of gutless accounting system at the Treasury.(Njeru, 9)During the post-independence period Kenya receive heavy inflow of foreign aid particularly from the British. In the 70s and 80s there were high development activities in telecommunication net operates, land settlement schemes, health and tuitional activity firmaments. During the 80s Kenya had enjoyed the highest level of foreign aid flow and there were about 600 active development projects in the above-mentioned sectors. (The Role of Foreign Aid in Development, 37)The major setback in the initial development onward motion was brought by former hot seat Kenyatta and his successor Daniel arap Moi, as they not only backtracked the on going progress by making some unsound decisions like price control, marketing boards which soon adversely affect the prices and production incentive. Import substitution was also an strategic drawback, which resulted in poor economic condition and force the government to stall many public development projects. (Erixon, 14) Corruption is also an important factor, which has lead to the wastage of large amount of foreign aid.According to the Transparency Internationals index of corruption Kenya was among the 10 most corrupt countries. According to TI the incidence of corruption is about 50% in most ministries, city councils, parastatals, SOEs and other governing bodies. (Erixon, 14) President Kenyattas regime was plagued by his so-called land reforms in the name of which he received large amount of foreign aid and subsequently b ecame the largest landowner in the country. His alleged upgrade to his tribesmen and kinsmen, the Kikuyu, also resulted in mass corruption and departure of large amount of donors money.Using foreign aid to support their own kindred has become a norm in the Kenyan politics. (Cohen, 7) Presidents Mois regime is also attach by revilement of foreign aid in esteem of the sexual congress and political supporters. For e. g. the Kenyan government received $873 million in official development financial aid in the fiscal year of 1991/92. All this aid was either on grant basis or loan basis and supported some 654 public development projects. These projects have about 2,000 sub-components, in order to give every ethnic group a fair price of the fund.Not surprisingly a large amount of the fund and project resources were not employ accordingly. (Cohen, 13) barely the public developments on district level were also done on ethnic and political basis, as those areas where the residents ar e either the tribesmen of the president or true to him will receive a large sum of budget and public development programs, while those who couple him like the Kikuyu, the people of the former president Kenyatta receive marginal amount of budget and public development funds. (Cohen, 16-17)President Mois government and leaders have been marked with much corruption and use of foreign aid on their own behalf. According to a withstander report, President Moi, his associates and relatives have allegedly moved more than 1 billion pounds of government money to more or less 30 countries including Britain. Other relatives who have been involved in corruption of millions of dollars government money include Mois sons, which have moved 384m and 550m pounds respectively. (Rice) This report clearly depicts how ruthlessly these corrupt leaders have looted their country and fellow countrymen.The same is the character of NGOs in this regard, as most of the NGOs working in Kenya have their loyal ties with one of the political parties or ethnic groups and they only work in their interest. Moreover those NGOs which are truthful to their electric charge and objective face constraints and suppression from the government and they are only allowed to work according to the interest of the government officials, and their interest is always to do a favor to their kinsmen or political allies.In this way the people in real and dire need are often neglected, only because they do not have enough political power or ethnic notification with the people in the office. Botswana is another case and a different story. The country has been the best example of good governance and leadership in the unpolluted by far. It is the only country, which has been democratic in spiritually and practically throughout the entire post-independence period. The country has actively promoted the its citizens sociable and economic development throughout its post-colonial history.The country led by its found er Sir Seretse Khama and his successors were dedicated to deliberate land and market economy. Khama compete an important role in developing a law-respecting political culture, which was wholeheartedly endured by his successors. (Rotberg) Though Botswana has received a heavy amount of foreign aid inflow the public development of the country in not based on that primarily. The main factor, which contributed in the countrys success, is its good governance and lack of corruption.According to Transparency International Botswana is the to the lowest degree corrupted country in the African continent far better than many European and Asiatic countries. (Williams) Botswana has shown its capability of utilizing the amount of donors funds. Botswana has the strongest state institutions, professional polished services, strong planning systems and centralized aid guidance systems. All these have helped the country to utilize the funds wisely and accordingly with the minimum loss and misuse possible. The effective use of aid effectively contributes to the project plans, but also gave the country more control over the aid.This is in contrast to Kenya where the foreign aid froze twice due to poor compliance of the Kenyan government to the conditions of the donors. (Renzio, Whitfield & Bergamaschi, 1-4) After the independence Botswana was among the poorest countries of the world and there was lack of proper infrastructure and social and economic institutions. In the initial post-independence period the country has used large amount of foreign aid, but the leadership was wise enough to use the foreign tending in proper way.The government also pet grants to loans and used diversified donors and also made a habit of refusing to accept aid when not necessary. (Togo, 3) The government wisely used foreign aid in not only developing the public sector like health, transportation, sanitation and water supply, but also used the chance to invest the aid severely in the rhombus m ining industry which after boosted the countrys economy and help Botswana to pound her dependence on foreign aid. (Togo, 4) But in the 90s the situation has changed and the new generation of leaders have emerged which are not willing to follow the elbow room of Khama.They have allegedly used the government funds as their personal possessions acting double as the directors of private funds thus reserving these funds for the projects chair by their firms. Furthermore in 1992 the credibility and respect of the Botswana government was further tarnished by the notorious hold Corporation scandal in which the Vice president and other high-ranking officials were allegedly involved. (Togo, 5) Despite all these downfalls and shortcomings emerging in the new general of politicians, the country is still the least corrupt as compared to other African nations.According to recent studies Botswana has received the highest level of foreign aid up to 1980s, which has played a significant role in the development of the country. The foreign assistance had been as high as $200 per capita in 1980s. But the studies show that aid has only played siginificant role in public development in the early years of independence, when the country relied completely on the British aid for its expenditures. But in the next decade the ratio of aid had declined sharply, and the revenue from diamond mining far exceeded the aid. In the late 80s the role of aid fell to 3% of GDP from 29% in 1967.Therefore foreign assistance played significant role in the first 2 decades of the country history. (Togo, 6) The founder president of Botswana made his priority to secondary winding education in order to increase the counterpoise of the natives in the countries civil service and other extensive development projects, like mine development, construction of dams and irrigation. The government wanted to provide the natives jobs and reduce poverty. Thus they used the foreign aid initially to promote educat ion and then focused on the infrastructure like roads, electric power and water supply, which will become the basis of the mining industry.(Togo, 8) The government than acquired $2. 5 million loan from the World Bank to finance the Shashe composite diamond-mining project. The government also won technical assistance from several developed countries. The foreign assistance acquired was more often than not used in the development of the infrastructure of the Shashe building complex project. Then the aid was used for the development of the adult male and somatogenic capital. (Togo, 8)Thus Botswana used foreign assistance for the development of the human capital by promoting education and physical capital by developing the infrastructure.In this way one can easily conclude that foreign assistance played an important role in the development of the country in the first two decades. But when the case of Botswana is compared with that of Kenya, it becomes clear that foreign aid is not t he sole factor in the success of a country. In the last four decades Kenya has received more foreign assistance than Botswana, but the country never became economical strong as Botswana did. The primary resolve was the different in the vision and approach of the rulers of the two countries.The Kenyan first two rulers have been among the most corrupted and autocratic type of rulers and they have no interest in the welfare of their fellow citizens. They ruthlessly used the countries resources as personal possessions. On the other hand the Botswana founder president Khama and his successors have been honest to their country and fellow citizens and wisely used their countrys resources as well as the foreign assistance they had received to develop their countrys economy, public sector institutions and infrastructure. Therefore foreign aid has never been the primary factor in any countrys development.