Britney Spears has shaved her head, Madonna and Angelina Jolie are adopting countless children, Katie Price and Peter Andre are getting married and then divorced. These stories have been splashed all over our newspapers; it makes for easy reading… even celebrities have their problems. But what we should really be talking about is far harder to swallow, Africa and the failing humanitarian aid efforts.
Africa has been the target and unfortunately the victim of foreign aid that has on the whole failed to work over the last 50 years. In July 2005 millions of people turned out in support of Bob Geldof because they wanted to ‘Make Poverty History.’ The plan was simple get the public excited by hosting huge concerts across the globe. Then create the ultimate fashion accessory of a white plastic wristband that sported the slogan and advertised to the world that you were an active and passionate solider in the fight against poverty. All this public attention and media furore would in turn pressurise governments into working together and eliminating third world debt. Simple!
But four years on what has really been done? There is no denying that the G8 summit came at an unfortunate time, as it was interrupted by the London bombings and was followed by a summer of bad news from Iraq to Hurricane Katrina. Optimists might hope that Live 8 disappeared from headlines because it has as Geldof put it “scored 10 out of 10 in aid and 8 out of 10 on debt relief.” While the cynics among us might have blamed the limited attention spans of western audiences that are more interested in celebrities and Jeremy Kyle than the many crises befalling Africa. Either way Live 8 like so many others before it vanished from the public eye.
As a general rule for every good foreign aid project, which are coincidently usually pretty small, there are dozens of failures costing millions of pounds. There is a general belief in Africa that aid fails because it enriches the wealthy and powerful at the cost of ordinary people. Foreign aid weakens the state in Africa and the only people who seem to grow stronger are the donors, governments and NGOs. It damages the prospects of normal people to better their lives, which in turn, turns ordinary Africans in to victims.
Many NGOs across the continent are practically patronising treating those they are supposed to be helping as inferior and failing to truly recognise the hard working and entrepreneurial culture. The continent is in need of a hand up, not a hand out. Microfinance programmes are an ideal way for an NGO to actually make a difference for the better, but so few have chosen to go down that road.
Distrust in NGOs is rife across Africa, and yet thanks to corrupt governments they have become an integral part of life. Far too many seem more interested in getting rich from the suffering of others. Staying away in extremely comfortable accommodation with their malaria tablets, hand sanitizers and satellite phones they have no understanding of the troubles befalling the recipients of their work. Dropping off food parcels and clothes once a month is all well and good but unfortunately it only perpetuates Africa’s problems rather than doing anything to solve them.
Those of us funding the organisations through donations need to start demanding to know exactly how our money is spent, and having a say in where our donations go. Education and sustainability should be the two key words for NGOs in Africa instead of aid. Aid is a temporary solution but far from a cure. We need to work alongside communities instead of for them. By improving local facilities and educating locals in the best ways to manage and maintain them will ensure that eventually foreign involvement will become redundant.
Whilst there are many well meaning NGOs and volunteers who truly do want to make a difference and change things, very few have actually been able to achieve what they set out to do. AfriKids is a relatively small charity which is showing all the markings of being extremely successful in their area of northern Ghana. With only 6 members of staff in the UK and the entirety of the Ghanaian branch run by locals. They proudly proclaim that their philosophy is to listen to the community’s needs, empower them to make the necessary changes themselves and to ensure absolute sustainability.
Controversial journalist and film maker Sorious Samura, who is famous for his shocking documentary ‘Cry Freetown’ as well as his ‘Living With…’ series which was broadcast on Channel 4 and CNN visited several of the AfriKids projects in February 2008 whilst making a documentary entitled ‘How to Make a Difference in Africa’ and was incredibly impressed with their ethics and methodology.
“I believe history will judge AfriKids as one of the few charities who manage to answer the million dollar question: how can we make aid work for Africa? The way they give in Ghana seems to me as the ultimate upgrade of aid in Africa.” Being aware that overall sustainability is dependent on the overall economic situation of the region, AfriKids have developed a range of project that will create job opportunities and inject investment and skills into the local economy as well as raising an income for AfriKids Ghana.
Dan Salmons, Head of Innovation for Barclaycard has even gone as far as to say that “AfriKids is genuinely transformational for Ghana; a model for perhaps how all aid will one day be conducted; locally led, effective and sustainable.”
We are constantly bombarded with negative images of Africa, as a continent ravaged with war, Aids and poverty. Every few years Bob Geldof will pop back up again shouting at us to ‘give him our f-ing money’ and we will kindly oblige but we in the western world surely have a duty to give to projects, charities and NGOs who are actually making a difference, who are willing to be held accountable and are transparent with all of their expenditure. Live 8 has come and gone and not even a fraction of what was promised has been delivered 4 years on.
Make Poverty History has done not been able to keep its promise, while it was a great exercise in increasing public awareness; it did nothing to combat the root of the problems facing the most troubled continent on earth. Don’t just donate blindly to charity because they have a sad advert research where and how your money is likely to be spent. The road to hell was paved with good intentions and a lot more than good intentions are needed if we are to do anything to help truly make poverty history once and for all.
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