The Worst Form Of Inequality

In the second half of the twentieth-century, African countries were able to gain their independence and strive to create unified countries. However, many countries were plagued with civil wars and the issues left behind the colonial era. The adversities faced by these new African nations are at the hands of their old colonial powers and the neo-colonialism that has taken place. These new independent countries were left to unify their people of different backgrounds, create a strong government and economy, and leave the post-colonial legacy behind.

In the late nineteenth century the European powers of the world began imperializing Africa. This annexation, occupation, and division of African territory has since led to much strife within the continent and has caused many struggles politically. This period known as the “Scramble for Africa” has led to the many problems that Africa faces today and has been the root of several wars in Africa to assume control. After World War II many European imperialists began to give African nations autonomy. This seemed like a step forward for African nations, but without any plan to transition into self governance many African nations have faced bloody civil wars and corruption. Along with political struggles, numerous African nations face rising debt and other economic problems. Many of these political and economic issues stem from the “Scramble for Africa”. Once the European countries left Africa had very little to support itself. To explain the issues left by imperialism the three African nations of Rwanda, South Africa, and Sierra Leone will be put under the scope.

Riddell, Roger C. 2007. Does Foreign Aid Really Work? 1st ed. OXFORD: Oxford University Press, USA.

Modern African states have various problems ranging from corruption, to armed conflict, to stunted structural development. Africa’s ongoing political instability and economic crisis have hindered the improvement of Africa. Thus, the lack of money, advancement in technology, and climate has hampered economic development. Despite European mistreatment and oppression African’s have endured hardships that have encouraged economy, education, and political

The JSTOR Review by Kristian Hoelscher on the book Dead Aid elaborates how Moyo “half-right” in her critique of foreign aid nonetheless Hoelscher mentions how “her review is unfortunately shallow and lacking nuance” in the areas of acknowledging the successes of aid in Africa. Additionally, another review of JSTOR by S.U. Fwatshak reiterated how “aid could not have been the fundamental reason why Africa poor… African’s problem are rooted in a mosaic of a factors (157).” These two reviews provided to be good sources to shed light on the issues of foreign aid and to counter-balance the Moyo’s critique on aid. Lastly, the book is quite short with only one-hundred and eighty-three pages therefore it seemed so like some concepts needed to be elaborated more but were not. On the other hand, the reason I choose this as a source because it does a suitable job in showing the history of aid, speaking on aid effectiveness, and exemplifying the stagnant economic growth (e.g. ten percent Africans are living in poverty in the 1970s compared to seventy-percent now (Moyo 33)). While, I wished the book concentrated more in a section of Africa, such as Sub-Saharan, it was an insightful and factual

The large cash injection would then create a “greasing the gears effect” and allow for the jumpstart of economic development. Between the years of 1948 and 1952 the U.S. granted $13 billion to revamp the European economy (Dambisa, 2009: 35). This particular method achieved great success in post-World War II Europe and was known as the Marshall Plan. Due to its effective and unquestionable success in this era, the model was applied to economic development in Africa with the confidence that the same outstanding results would ensue. However, the application of the Marshall Plan to Africa is problematic for three reasons. One, the Marshall Plan had a rigid duration period of five years while, the concessional loans and grants to Africa over the last 50 years have been unending (Dambisa, 2009: 36). Two, European institutions were already in place to receive the aid efficiently and effectively. In Africa, however, these same institutions are either non-existent or grossly ineffective due to corruption (Dambisa, 2009: 37). The vast amounts of corruption have been heavily documented. Mobutu Sese Seko, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997, for example, stole an equivalent of U.S. 5 billion dollars from his people (Dambisa, 2009: 48). However, even the less corrupt rulers of many African countries had few options as to what to invest the aid money on. Consequently, the bulk concessional aid goes directly into consumption without a variety of investment outlets. This process does not solve the problem but instead, allows for the cycle to continue. Lastly, three, the money from the Marshal had specific targets to repair physical infrastructure such as, roads, communications, sewage, factories, and electric systems (Dambisa, 2009: 37) In Africa today, the scope of the

Democracy never properly developed in Eastern Europe. The leaders and the elites of the newly independent Eastern states believed that Western-styled constitutional governments would produce Western-styled democracies that would be stable and prosperous, as well as effectively guarantee their power against challengers. Democracy strangely benefited the old elites and extremists were elected into government. The democratic roots planted in Western Europe were unable to take hold, leaving Eastern Europe vulnerable to communism.

International development and underdevelopment are major issues in global society today. John Perkins’ book The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is a very critical account on the activities of private corporations such as MAIN and international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and how many actions are based on self-interest, corruption and greed. The book does an exceptional job at giving us an insider’s perspective on why debt induced developing nations are in a constant state of underdevelopment from the corrupt actions of Economic Hit Men and their colleagues Jackals who deal with the dirty side of the business and political economics. Global economics and debt have

In came into vogue that economic theory could benefit Third World countries, so humanitarians began to evaluate the best ways to help Africa through the markets [Barnett 100]. Furthermore, leaps were made in bolstering the efficiency of aid efforts, and it was discovered that the most effective systems were conglomerations of the state and NGOs [Barnett 107-108]. This may suggest that humanitarian efforts were transformed into vehicles for disseminating governmental and economic agendas, but conversely, aid organizations wished to increase their impact by cooperating with governments and the markets. Humanitarians were growing to appreciate the codependence of these avenues and that “everything was connected to everything else,” so they leveraged this new insight to the Africans’ benefit [Barnett

Every year sub-Saharan Africa receives around $134bn in loans, foreign investment and development aid, according to the UN. Nonetheless, sub-Saharan Africa is still the poorest region in the world. For many years the international community has debated over the reasons why every year billion and billions of dollars are not taking sub-Saharan Africans out of poverty. Three major groups have prevailed in the discussion. First, the people who totally blame Africa for not doing its job right, completely forgetting that most of the funds are not administrated by Africans. Second, the people who believe that even though aids are not working, the international community should keep investing funds in Africa even if is failing; one day they will work.

Africa was identified as the world's poorest inhabited continent. We waste over 30 million pounds of food a year. That food that we waste can go to African. To help people in need of food. This year, nearly 9 million children younger than five years old will die needlessly, more than half from hunger-related causes. Chronic hunger affects more than 925 million people in the world and is, in and of itself, a potentially deadly condition. Poor people do not have the resources—whether land, tools or money—needed to grow or buy food on a consistent basis. People in African starve each day. Not every poor person is hungry, but almost all hungry people are poor. More and more kids die each day of thirst and starvation. Millions live with hunger and malnourishment because they simply cannot afford to buy enough food, cannot afford nutritious foods or cannot afford the farming supplies they need to grow enough good food of their own.

Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid was an enjoyable read that presents a well-rounded discussion pertaining to foreign aid, and does not particularly aim to please. I believe Moyo’s opinion and thoughts regarding aid in Africa to be mostly valid, based upon her upbringing in Zambia and her extensive and diverse educational background. Dambisa does fantastic work of noting other’s publishings, projects, and/or approaches to the effects of aid on underdeveloped nations. The purpose of this review is to not only give the audience a basic understanding of Dead Aid, but to also offer up my personal critique of the concepts and ideas presented by Moyo.

Over the last 50 years, the world has struggled to maintain an economic balance and stability, while flourishing countries try to maintain a steady income to support its people and relations with other countries. Therefore, when a continent like Africa fails to maintain a stable government and economy, super powers such as America decide to intervene with its relations. Africa has great potential to become another pillar of the world’s economic structure with its mass amounts of uncultivated land. Unfortunately, corruption and irresponsible governments hinder that progress. Foreign aid while helpful should be limited to a yearly amount because it allows the government to repudiate responsibility and gives room for corruption; it creates a

In recent years, Ghana’s economy has suffered from other infrastructure project failures, along with poor fiscal policies that have placed the government into deep debt and caused extensive depreciation of their currency. Other economic issues that Ghana faces due to large amounts of foreign aid are inflation and Dutch disease. Their Central Bank has been unable to efficiently regulate the flow for aid to the country, which results in uncontrolled inflation. Dutch disease has been an issue for them due to the market for oil that began expanding in 2010. Their poor infrastructure and the struggle to provide clean water are also constraints that limit how successful Ghana can be without some developmental assistance (CEPA, 2010). Ghana is now one of the sub-Saharan African countries that receives the most developmental assistance and foreign aid, a stark contrast to the hopeful outlook that their country began with.

Africa is made up of 54 nations and is today the least developed region of the Third World, this despite its immense possessions of for example minerals and natural resources. The majority of Africans, particularly in the Sub-Saharan parts, lack the most basic needs and as a result falls to the bottom of list of growth income per capita (UNDP, 2007). The Sub-Saharan in addition inhabits 13 percent of the earth’s residents and in addition accounts for 25 percent of the malnourished group in the developing world (FAO, 2006). The data found on Africa’s postcolonial development is abysmal, not only has the developmental fruition been austere but it has drastically fallen behind other Third World countries. An illustration of this is revealed in 1997, when the GPD per capita for Africa was the trivial sum of $560, compared to $4,230 in Latin America. Between 1986 and 1993 Africa’s real GNP per capita declined by 0.7 percent, at the same time as it inflated by an average of 2.7 percent in the rest of the Third World. When going back to the pre independence period it can be affirmed that Africa is worse off now than it was before. Real income per capita has descended by 14.6 percent and the reality is that only half of the debts have been paid off, whilst the rest of the restitution is constantly being rescheduled. The majority of Africa’s overseas arrears (which measures up to approximately 80 percent) is owned by Western authorities and monetary establishments, this