Why Foreign Aid is hurting Tanzania and other African countries!

I dont like the Move kwa sababu hao foreigners wana interest kubwa na serikali hii. kwa hiyo itakuwa sawa na kumpigia gitaa mbuzi. Jk anapendwa na Marekani, Why? kwa sababu is a Yes man to them. Mikataba aliyoahidi kuipitia ndiyo ushahidi tosha.
Nchi wafadhili hawatatusaidia lolote katika hili kwa sababu wao pia ni wamoja wao

kichuguu said:

Naona kama wewe unafikiri kwa kuangalia pafupi sana ndugu yangu, unachukulia kuwa misaada ni right ya nchi yetu. Hata kama views zangu ni simplistic, they are more realistic: lazima tubebe msalaba wetu. Misaada itumike kama nyongeza ya juhudi zetu. Hatuwezi kutegemea misaada kama sehemu ya mapato yetu na kuipangia bajeti hata kabla haijafika; mwaka jana serikali imelalamika kuwa misaada iliyokuwa wanaitegemea kwenye bajeti haikufika. Kumbuka kuwa misaada hii haiji at no cost, na watoa misaada wanaweza kuikata ghafla bin vuu, utasemaje. Swala la kukatiwa misaada siyo geni sana.

1. Mwaka jana bajeti ya serikali yetu ilipata pigo kwa vile "wahisani" waliokuwa wameahidi kutoa misaada hawakufanya hivyo. Kumbuka kuwa "wahisani" hao hupata fedha hizo kutokana na kodi zinazolipwa na raia wao pamoja na makampuni yanayofanya biashara nchini mwao. Kwa nini sisi tusijikusanyie kodi kama wao. Misaada inayokuja ni ziada ya mapato yao; kama hawakupata ziada hiyo hawataleta midsaada hiyo.
2. Miaka ya hivi karibuni, Kenya ilikatiwa misaada yote lakini kama tunavyoelewa, uchumi wa Kenya na serikali yao leo ni imara kuliko wetu.
3. Mwaka 1965, mwaka mmja tu baada ya muungano, tulikatiwa misaada mingi sana kufuatia muungano wetu wa Tanzania na msimamo wa nchi hii kuhusu UDI ya Smith huko Rhodesia. Jambo hilo ndilo lilimsukuma sana Nyerere kufuata siasa ya ujamaa na kujitegemea kwa nguvu. Ilikuwa kuwa baada ya muungano ule, walimtaka Nyerere afanye mambo kadhaa kuhusu Zanzibar, ambayo hayakuwa in the interest za nchi ila kwa ajili ya interest zao wenyewe; Nyerere hakukubaliana nao. Vile vile walitaka Nyerere akubaliane na UDI huko Rhodesia, jambo ambalo pia hakukubaliana nalo. Kutokana na msimamo huo wa Nyerere wakasimamisha misaada yao yote. Ndiyo maana ile Nkurumah Hall pale UDSM haikukamilika, na kuna baadhi ya barabara zilivunjwa pale Dar kwa vile zilikuwa zimejengwa na wajerumani. Hospitali ya Ocean Road nayo ilipata msukosuko wa namna hiyo.

Kwa hiyo mwenzangu sijui una maana gani unapotaka tuendelee kuwa wategemezi kama vile wao ni baba zetu. Ndiyo maana wakishasema jambo kuwa raia wao waruhusiwe kuchima dhahabu ama sivyo watakatisha misaada, tunatetemeka. Kwa maoni yangi, ni wazi kabisa kuwa overnight independence over foreign aid inawezekana.

Je umesoma ile post ya TOSCO kuhusu foreign investment? Anatishia kuwa nchi yake ya Uimgereza itasitisha misaada kwa Tanzania kutokana na kesi ya Middleton na Ben Mengi, come on!

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Kichuguu naona you are putting words in my mouth. Wapi nimesema misaada ni RIGHT YETU?
Realistically, ni kwamba bajeti ya mwaka huu ni tofauti na miaka iliyopita.

Kwanza, ni bajeti kubwa kuliko zote zilizowahi kutokea, tokea taifa hili lipate uhuru.
Pili, imefocus kwenye few important things rather than being spread out.
Tatu, imejaribu kujenga uwezo wetu wenyewe katika kujenga infrastructure kwa kutumia kodi katika mafuta.

Ukweli ulio wazi ni kwamba our imports ni nying kuliko exports, hili linaeleweka. Kuna sector nyingi ambazo zinaweza kuleta maendeleo kwa taifa hili bila kila mtu kurukia katika siasa.

Ninachosema, sio tutegemee misaada BALI sio sawa kwenda nje na kushawishi nchi hizo zisitupe misaada. Nina uhakika tutaweza kuendelea bila msaada LAKINI katika kasi ya chini, misaada ni kama addition inayotupa ile energy to leap.

Hivi ukiondoa ile percent ya misaada katika ile bajeti, ile inayobaki ni bajeti ya mwaka gani?

Insurgent said:

Kichuguu naona you are putting words in my mouth. Wapi nimesema misaada ni RIGHT YETU?
Realistically, ni kwamba bajeti ya mwaka huu ni tofauti na miaka iliyopita.

Kwanza, ni bajeti kubwa kuliko zote zilizowahi kutokea, tokea taifa hili lipate uhuru.
Pili, imefocus kwenye few important things rather than being spread out.
Tatu, imejaribu kujenga uwezo wetu wenyewe katika kujenga infrastructure kwa kutumia kodi katika mafuta.

Ukweli ulio wazi ni kwamba our imports ni nying kuliko exports, hili linaeleweka. Kuna sector nyingi ambazo zinaweza kuleta maendeleo kwa taifa hili bila kila mtu kurukia katika siasa.

Ninachosema, sio tutegemee misaada BALI sio sawa kwenda nje na kushawishi nchi hizo zisitupe misaada. Nina uhakika tutaweza kuendelea bila msaada LAKINI katika kasi ya chini, misaada ni kama addition inayotupa ile energy to leap.

Hivi ukiondoa ile percent ya misaada katika ile bajeti, ile inayobaki ni bajeti ya mwaka gani?

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Wengi tulikuwa na imani kubwa na huyu bwana.

Katika miaka hiyo hiyo miwili ambayo wewe unaiona ni michache kumekuwa na tuhuma mbali mbali za rushwa ambazo hakuna chochote alichokifanya. Wakati wa kampeni alisema atapambana kwa nguvu zote ili kuiondoa rushwa Tanzania, lakini tuhuma za mhindi aliyelipwa $12 million kama commission mpaka leo hajazifanyia kazi, tuhuma mbali mbali dhidi ya Mkapa hajazifanyia kazi, tuhuma dhidi ya Richmonduli, BOT ununuzi wa ndege ya Rais, magari na helicopters za jeshi.

Na wakati huo huo ahadi zake za 'kuipitia upya' mikataba yenye usiri mkubwa ya uchimbaji wa madini mpaka leo haijafanyika, ahadi ya maisha bora kwa kila Mtanzania ilikuwa ni usanii tu na ahadi ya ari mpya, nguvu mpya na kasi mpya imedumaa! na wewe bado unataka tuendelee kusubiri tu! Tumpe miaka mingapi mingine ili tuone matunda ya ahadi zake!? Ama kweli kuna wadanganyika na WADANGANYIKA!

"JAMANI KWANZA HABARI TUNAYOHANGAIKA NAYO HAPA HAIJAANDIKWA NA WAANDISHI WA MAJIRA, IMEANDALIWA NA WATU WA NJE AMBAO SIKU HIZI WAMEKUWA NA KAZI YA KUWASAFISHA VIONGOZI NA HABARI HIYO IMEPELEKWA MAJIRA KUPUNGUZA KASI YA TAARIFA YA KUTAJA MAJINA ILIYOTOLEWA NA DR SLAA NA LISSU. HABARI HIYO NI YA KUTUNGA NA WALIOFANYA HIVYO WAMEFADHILIWA NA MMOJA WA WATUHUMIWA WALOTAJWA NA DR SLAA. WALIOPELEKA HABARI HIYO MAJIRA NDIO WALIOTUNA ILE YA ZITTO YA IRINGA

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." HUYO NI MHUSIKA MKUU ALIYETOA TAARIFA HIYO.

Kwa hiyo pamoja na kuwa mada ya UMUHIMU WA MISAADA na UMUHIMU WA MISAADA HIYO KUTUMIKA VYEMA NA KUWAFIKIA WALENGWA PAMOJA NA TANZANIA KUJIANDAA KUTOTEGEMEA MISAADA ni mada muhimu lakini ingetafutiwa ukumbi wake na si huu wa kutegemea habari ya KUTUNGWA na hata humu ndani kuna michango inayoonekana kutaka kuvuruga watu.

Kumbe watu wa hapa JF ni rahisi kuhadaika hivi? Kwa nini mnashindwa kupambanua na kugundua kuwa hii imetungwa kwa lengo la kupunguza makali ya uchafu uliotajwa?

Ka taarifa yenu, zimeelekwa nyingi newsroom kwa wahariri, wamezitupa, Majira ndio wametumia (nasikia mhariri wao Kulangwa anatafuta U-DC). Mchezo mbaya sana huu wa kulisha watu propaganda na kuacha kujadili mambo ya maana. Bahati mbaya ni kwamba kinara wa propaganda hizi naye katajwa, na anahusika. Sasa wantumia vijigazeti na wahariri wenye njaa kudanganya umma na kupotosha hoja za msingi.

Na sisi JF bila kusoma between the lines tunajiingiza kichwakichwa kujadili propaganda zao. Ama kweli ndiyo maana CCM wameweza kutawala, maana kama wanaweza kucheza na sisi tulioona darasa kidogo watashidwaje kucheza na akili za Watz mbumbumbu na wenye njaa? Natoboa sasa. Hii ni kazi ya Rostam. Bahati mbaya imegonga mwamba.

Hata ikiwa kweli sioni shida yoyote; mbona Kenya wamewekewa vikwazo kwa miaka 8 wakati wa Moi na bado wakaendelea kupeta kuliko sisi tunaopewa misaada kila kukuicha.

KWa maoni yangu ni vema iwe hivyo ili tupate akili ya kutokuwa tegemezi na uone kama tutakufa.

Kwani hiyo misaadainamnufaisha nani? Mbona dawa hospitalini hakuna na watu wanakufa kwa kushindwa kununua dawa ya Malaria ya shilingi 800/-?

Misaada isipokuja nadhani ma-land cruiser mayai yatapungua mijini na yale majumba motomoto yanayoporomoshwa kila siku yatapungua, au yataendelea kuporomoka kama kawaida lakini mishahara ya walimu, madaktari na wafanyakazi wa serikali ndo hatutaiona tena, hapo ndo mambo yatakuwa magumu maana mtu mwenye njaa huwa ana-mood mbaya kila siku. Labda hapo Mtanzania hatakuwa na subira tena.

Belgium hails Tanzania on use of donor funds

2007-09-20 10:07:43
By Correspondent Pascal Mayalla


Belgium Technical Cooperation has praised Tanzania for making effective use of donor funds, saying that was crucial in helping the country succeed in implementing its development programmes.

BTC Resident Representative Nabuye Shone made remarks to that effect at the opening of the second batch of a contract management training programme for senior government officials from mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar funded by the Belgian Government and officially opened in Bagamoyo yesterday.

``My organisation is responsible for the implementation and supervision of bilateral agreements between Belgium and Tanzania.

We are satisfied with the way Tanzania spends donor funds,`` he said, adding that the prudent of donor funds by Tanzania had encouraged his government to extend more development assistance to the country.

Shone explained that his country would direct more support to programmes seeking to reduce poverty in Tanzania and promote partnership between the two countries.

``The ongoing Contract Management Training for Civil Servants is part and parcel of a giant education programme.

It endeavours to support Tanzania to achieve increased and more equitable access to quality education, enrolment expansion, quality improvement and capacity building to optimise human, material and financial resources,`` he noted.

According to the BTC representative, a local and international scholarship programme support by the organisation enables Tanzanians to attend higher education courses in various Tanzanian and Belgian universities and other institutions.

``The programme increases Tanzania slots up to 120�per year. So far, we have spent more than�2 million euro on the programme from 2005 to 2007,`` he said.

He said there has been a significant shift in Tanzania`s development cooperation with the donor community, particularly with respect to the presentation of the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (Mkukuta) since 2005.

``This has put emphasis on leadership and ownership of the development agenda. The introduction of the first draft of the joint assistant strategy (JAS) intensified close consultations with development partners in defining future cooperation based on alignment, harmonisation and national priorities,`` he pointed out.

He observed that in the last few years Tanzania has changed its development cooperation modalities from classical projects to budget support.

``In recent years, this has made more donors orient their support towards the new modalities of basket or pool funding, SWAP (sector-wide approach) and budget support,`` added Shone.

Belgium has so far contributed more than half its commitment to the 2003-2007 Indicative Development Cooperation Plan through new modalities of cooperation, in particular basket funding, since 2004.

Belgium has so far sponsored 40 officials for the training programme, run by the Arusha-based Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI).

George Yambesi, Permanent Secretary in the President�s Office (Public Service Management), is expected to close the programme going on at Bagamoyo.

Meanwhile, the newly arrived US Ambassador Mark Green has applauded the Millennium Challenge Corporation Board of Directors for approving a $698 million (over 827bn/-) poverty reduction grant to Tanzania.

``It is a great honour for me to arrive in Dar es Salaam as the new US Ambassador to Tanzania at the very moment the largest MCC agreement in history is being finalised.

When I was a congressman, I helped write the Millennium Challenge Act. Now I look forward to bearing witness to a project that, once, completed, will ensure a better standard of living for all Tanzanians,`` he said in a statement issued in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Ambassador Green noted that the terms `MCC` and `Millennium Challenge Act� may be confusing to some at first, adding that soon people will learn how the programme can make a huge difference in the lives of Tanzanians.

He observed: ``When the new MCC agreement is signed with Tanzania, it will build an even closer partnership between our two nations.

It is not merely a grant but an undertaking between Americans and Tanzanians to address important challenges like improving roads and electrical power.

It also calls for a renewed emphasis on transparency and fighting corruption.``

The envoy said he would be discussing MCC with the citizens he would meet throughout Tanzania, including how it can encourage further reforms.

The MCC Board of Directors on Tuesday approved the assistance, to be spread over the next five years.

The package seeks to reduce poverty, stimulate economic growth and increase household incomes through targeted infrastructure investments in the transport, energy and water sectors.

• SOURCE: Guardian

Nimesoma maandiko yote ya wachambuzi na kugundua kuwa Bw.Rostam ni kidonda Ndugu hivyo wote wenye kuipenda Tanzania waelekeze mashambulizi yanayostahili kwa huyu Bwana ambaye ndipo mahali uchafu na uozo ulipo stawi,kwanza huyu jamaa ni nani serikalini? na huyu jamaa ni nani kwenye baadhi ya vyombo vya habari?Pia nitapenda kujua japo kwa ufupi Elimu yake na makazi yake ya kudumu.niwieni Radhi kama nitakuwa nje ya Topic kwa vile leo ndio mara yangu ya kwanza kushiriki,Wasalaam Alyukum

This is totally stupid! A nation that depends on aid to alleviate poverty is doomed to fail! Especially the kind of aid that Tanzania is receiving.

Jua linakuchwa hilo!

Kuna kila uthibitisho "madakitari" wetu wameishiwa mbinu pamoja na majaribio yote ya kujaribu kuponya. Tufanyeje kuiokoa nchi toka kwenye Life support?

Mzee Mwanakijiji said:

This is totally stupid! A nation that depends on aid to alleviate poverty is doomed to fail! Especially the kind of aid that Tanzania is receiving.

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Co-sign!

You are absolutely right.

Wanajamiiforum Salaam. Hii ni mara ya kwanza kuchangia mada japo ni Musomaji mzuri wa Makala zinazoongelewa. Nimeona leo nichangie mada hii.

Ripoti aliyoandikwa Bw Erick ambaye alikuwa Minister Chancellor Ubalozi wa Norway, Dar Es Salaam hadi alipoachishwa kazi 2007 kuhusu ufisadi Wizara ya Maliasili ni hiyo.

Naomba muisome na kuitafakali. Tusifanye ushabiki jamani.

Wasalaam

Here is a report regarding misuse of AID in Tanzania by Mr Erik Jensen who used to work for Norwegian Royal Embassy in Dar.
Read and weep for your beloved country !

DOWNLOAD FROM HERE

could not open it... demaged !!! hujuma nini ?

Masaki said:

Here is a report regarding misuse of AID in Tanzania by Mr Erik Jensen who used to work for Norwegian Royal Embassy in Dar.
Read and weep for your beloved country !

DOWNLOAD FROM HERE

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Weep not my friends.Hii ni report ya donor mmoja tena kwenye sekta moja na kwa kipindi kifupi tu.fikiria kuna sekta na maeneo mangapi yanayopewa fedha na wafadhili toka tupate uhuru? Tanzania is a bottomless pit as far as aid is concerned.
Mbona hao donors wanajua nini kinaendelea na bado wanazidi kutoa pesa tu.

Nami nashindwa kuelewa!

Yaani mtu unaona ndoo imetoboka, maji yanamwagika- yet mtu bado unazidi tu kutia maji!

Sasa mtu wa kumlaumu ni nani?

Wana JF,

Nimetumiwa hii habari na kuona heri niiweke hapa maana tumekuwa pia tukisema sana huu mchezo wa kutembeza bakuli. Kutembeza bakuli kweli kunauwa sana Africa. Haya someni wenyewe.
______________________

Money from rich countries has trapped many African nations in a cycle of corruption, slower economic growth and poverty. Cutting off the flow would be far more beneficial, says Dambisa Moyo.

(From:- Why Foreign Aid Is Hurting Africa - WSJ.com).

By DAMBISA MOYO

(See Corrections & Amplification below.)

A month ago I visited Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. This suburb of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is home to more than one million people, who eke out a living in an area of about one square mile -- roughly 75% the size of New York's Central Park. It is a sea of aluminum and cardboard shacks that forgotten families call home. The idea of a slum conjures up an image of children playing amidst piles of garbage, with no running water and the rank, rife stench of sewage. Kibera does not disappoint.

What is incredibly disappointing is the fact that just a few yards from Kibera stands the headquarters of the United Nations' agency for human settlements which, with an annual budget of millions of dollars, is mandated to "promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all." Kibera festers in Kenya, a country that has one of the highest ratios of development workers per capita. This is also the country where in 2004, British envoy Sir Edward Clay apologized for underestimating the scale of government corruption and failing to speak out earlier.




Giving alms to Africa remains one of the biggest ideas of our time -- millions march for it, governments are judged by it, celebrities proselytize the need for it. Calls for more aid to Africa are growing louder, with advocates pushing for doubling the roughly $50 billion of international assistance that already goes to Africa each year.

Yet evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. It's increased the risk of civil conflict and unrest (the fact that over 60% of sub-Saharan Africa's population is under the age of 24 with few economic prospects is a cause for worry). Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.

Few will deny that there is a clear moral imperative for humanitarian and charity-based aid to step in when necessary, such as during the 2004 tsunami in Asia. Nevertheless, it's worth reminding ourselves what emergency and charity-based aid can and cannot do.

Aid-supported scholarships have certainly helped send African girls to school (never mind that they won't be able to find a job in their own countries once they have graduated). This kind of aid can provide band-aid solutions to alleviate immediate suffering, but by its very nature cannot be the platform for long-term sustainable growth.

Whatever its strengths and weaknesses, such charity-based aid is relatively small beer when compared to the sea of money that floods Africa each year in government-to-government aid or aid from large development institutions such as the World Bank.

Over the past 60 years at least $1 trillion of development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Yet real per-capita income today is lower than it was in the 1970s, and more than 50% of the population -- over 350 million people -- live on less than a dollar a day, a figure that has nearly doubled in two decades.

Even after the very aggressive debt-relief campaigns in the 1990s, African countries still pay close to $20 billion in debt repayments per annum, a stark reminder that aid is not free. In order to keep the system going, debt is repaid at the expense of African education and health care. Well-meaning calls to cancel debt mean little when the cancellation is met with the fresh infusion of aid, and the vicious cycle starts up once again.

In Zambia, former President Frederick Chiluba (with wife Regina in November 2008) has been charged with theft of state funds.



In 2005, just weeks ahead of a G8 conference that had Africa at the top of its agenda, the International Monetary Fund published a report entitled "Aid Will Not Lift Growth in Africa." The report cautioned that governments, donors and campaigners should be more modest in their claims that increased aid will solve Africa's problems. Despite such comments, no serious efforts have been made to wean Africa off this debilitating drug.

The most obvious criticism of aid is its links to rampant corruption. Aid flows destined to help the average African end up supporting bloated bureaucracies in the form of the poor-country governments and donor-funded non-governmental organizations. In a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in May 2004, Jeffrey Winters, a professor at Northwestern University, argued that the World Bank had participated in the corruption of roughly $100 billion of its loan funds intended for development.

As recently as 2002, the African Union, an organization of African nations, estimated that corruption was costing the continent $150 billion a year, as international donors were apparently turning a blind eye to the simple fact that aid money was inadvertently fueling graft. With few or no strings attached, it has been all too easy for the funds to be used for anything, save the developmental purpose for which they were intended.

In Zaire -- known today as the Democratic Republic of Congo -- Irwin Blumenthal (whom the IMF had appointed to a post in the country's central bank) warned in 1978 that the system was so corrupt that there was "no (repeat, no) prospect for Zaire's creditors to get their money back." Still, the IMF soon gave the country the largest loan it had ever given an African nation. According to corruption watchdog agency Transparency International, Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire's president from 1965 to 1997, is reputed to have stolen at least $5 billion from the country.

It's scarcely better today. A month ago, Malawi's former President Bakili Muluzi was charged with embezzling aid money worth $12 million. Zambia's former President Frederick Chiluba (a development darling during his 1991 to 2001 tenure) remains embroiled in a court case that has revealed millions of dollars frittered away from health, education and infrastructure toward his personal cash dispenser. Yet the aid keeps on coming.

A nascent economy needs a transparent and accountable government and an efficient civil service to help meet social needs. Its people need jobs and a belief in their country's future. A surfeit of aid has been shown to be unable to help achieve these goals.

A woman waits at a medical center in Kuyera, Ethiopia.



A constant stream of "free" money is a perfect way to keep an inefficient or simply bad government in power. As aid flows in, there is nothing more for the government to do -- it doesn't need to raise taxes, and as long as it pays the army, it doesn't have to take account of its disgruntled citizens. No matter that its citizens are disenfranchised (as with no taxation there can be no representation). All the government really needs to do is to court and cater to its foreign donors to stay in power.

Stuck in an aid world of no incentives, there is no reason for governments to seek other, better, more transparent ways of raising development finance (such as accessing the bond market, despite how hard that might be). The aid system encourages poor-country governments to pick up the phone and ask the donor agencies for next capital infusion. It is no wonder that across Africa, over 70% of the public purse comes from foreign aid.

In Ethiopia, where aid constitutes more than 90% of the government budget, a mere 2% of the country's population has access to mobile phones. (The African country average is around 30%.) Might it not be preferable for the government to earn money by selling its mobile phone license, thereby generating much-needed development income and also providing its citizens with telephone service that could, in turn, spur economic activity?

Look what has happened in Ghana, a country where after decades of military rule brought about by a coup, a pro-market government has yielded encouraging developments. Farmers and fishermen now use mobile phones to communicate with their agents and customers across the country to find out where prices are most competitive. This translates into numerous opportunities for self-sustainability and income generation -- which, with encouragement, could be easily replicated across the continent.

To advance a country's economic prospects, governments need efficient civil service. But civil service is naturally prone to bureaucracy, and there is always the incipient danger of self-serving cronyism and the desire to bind citizens in endless, time-consuming red tape. What aid does is to make that danger a grim reality. This helps to explain why doing business across much of Africa is a nightmare. In Cameroon, it takes a potential investor around 426 days to perform 15 procedures to gain a business license. What entrepreneur wants to spend 119 days filling out forms to start a business in Angola? He's much more likely to consider the U.S. (40 days and 19 procedures) or South Korea (17 days and 10 procedures).

Even what may appear as a benign intervention on the surface can have damning consequences. Say there is a mosquito-net maker in small-town Africa. Say he employs 10 people who together manufacture 500 nets a week. Typically, these 10 employees support upward of 15 relatives each.

A Western government-inspired program generously supplies the affected region with 100,000 free mosquito nets. This promptly puts the mosquito net manufacturer out of business, and now his 10 employees can no longer support their 150 dependents. In a couple of years, most of the donated nets will be torn and useless, but now there is no mosquito net maker to go to. They'll have to get more aid. And African governments once again get to abdicate their responsibilities.

In a similar vein has been the approach to food aid, which historically has done little to support African farmers. Under the auspices of the U.S. Food for Peace program, each year millions of dollars are used to buy American-grown food that has to then be shipped across oceans. One wonders how a system of flooding foreign markets with American food, which puts local farmers out of business, actually helps better Africa. A better strategy would be to use aid money to buy food from farmers within the country, and then distribute that food to the local citizens in need.

Then there is the issue of "Dutch disease," a term that describes how large inflows of money can kill off a country's export sector, by driving up home prices and thus making their goods too expensive for export. Aid has the same effect. Large dollar-denominated aid windfalls that envelop fragile developing economies cause the domestic currency to strengthen against foreign currencies. This is catastrophic for jobs in the poor country where people's livelihoods depend on being relatively competitive in the global market.



One watchdog group estimates that former Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, above in 1995, took billions from the country.

To fight aid-induced inflation, countries have to issue bonds to soak up the subsequent glut of money swamping the economy. In 2005, for example, Uganda was forced to issue such bonds to mop up excess liquidity to the tune of $700 million. The interest payments alone on this were a staggering $110 million, to be paid annually.

The stigma associated with countries relying on aid should also not be underestimated or ignored. It is the rare investor that wants to risk money in a country that is unable to stand on its own feet and manage its own affairs in a sustainable way.

Africa remains the most unstable continent in the world, beset by civil strife and war. Since 1996, 11 countries have been embroiled in civil wars. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in the 1990s, Africa had more wars than the rest of the world combined. Although my country, Zambia, has not had the unfortunate experience of an outright civil war, growing up I experienced first-hand the discomfort of living under curfew (where everyone had to be in their homes between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., which meant racing from work and school) and faced the fear of the uncertain outcomes of an attempted coup in 1991 -- sadly, experiences not uncommon to many Africans.

Civil clashes are often motivated by the knowledge that by seizing the seat of power, the victor gains virtually unfettered access to the package of aid that comes with it. In the last few months alone, there have been at least three political upheavals across the continent, in Mauritania, Guinea and Guinea Bissau (each of which remains reliant on foreign aid). Madagascar's government was just overthrown in a coup this past week. The ongoing political volatility across the continent serves as a reminder that aid-financed efforts to force-feed democracy to economies facing ever-growing poverty and difficult economic prospects remain, at best, precariously vulnerable. Long-term political success can only be achieved once a solid economic trajectory has been established. Proponents of aid are quick to argue that the $13 billion ($100 billion in today's terms) aid of the post-World War II Marshall Plan helped pull back a broken Europe from the brink of an economic abyss, and that aid could work, and would work, if Africa had a good policy environment.

The aid advocates skirt over the point that the Marshall Plan interventions were short, sharp and finite, unlike the open-ended commitments which imbue governments with a sense of entitlement rather than encouraging innovation. And aid supporters spend little time addressing the mystery of why a country in good working order would seek aid rather than other, better forms of financing. No country has ever achieved economic success by depending on aid to the degree that many African countries do.

The good news is we know what works; what delivers growth and reduces poverty. We know that economies that rely on open-ended commitments of aid almost universally fail, and those that do not depend on aid succeed. The latter is true for economically successful countries such as China and India, and even closer to home, in South Africa and Botswana. Their strategy of development finance emphasizes the important role of entrepreneurship and markets over a staid aid-system of development that preaches hand-outs.

Ghana has recently seen encouraging developments, including the spread of mobile phones.




African countries could start by issuing bonds to raise cash. To be sure, the traditional capital markets of the U.S. and Europe remain challenging.

However, African countries could explore opportunities to raise capital in more non-traditional markets such as the Middle East and China (whose foreign exchange reserves are more than $4 trillion). Moreover, the current market malaise provides an opening for African countries to focus on acquiring credit ratings (a prerequisite to accessing the bond markets), and preparing themselves for the time when the capital markets return to some semblance of normalcy.

Governments need to attract more foreign direct investment by creating attractive tax structures and reducing the red tape and complex regulations for businesses. African nations should also focus on increasing trade; China is one promising partner. And Western countries can help by cutting off the cycle of giving something for nothing. It's time for a change.

Dambisa Moyo, a former economist at Goldman Sachs, is the author of "Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa."

Corrections & Amplifications

In the African nations of Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Somalia, Mali, Chad, Mauritania and Sierra Leone from 1970 to 2002, over 70% of total government spending came from foreign aid, according to figures from the World Bank. This essay on foreign aid to Africa incorrectly said that 70% of government spending throughout Africa comes from foreign aid.

1. Mie naona Afrika inatumiwa tu kama shamba la Bibi! Wanajua bibi ni mzee: hana meno tena!

2. Je hakuna raisi jasri SSA anayeweza kusema sasa misaada basi??