I am doing a research on the impact of aid on economic growth of uganda but my preliminary results indicate that aid has worsened the economic situation of uganda and poverty levels are increasing. we need to identify our priorities and orient aid depending on our priorities. I have realised that donors do not want to finance the productive sectors and you can not uplift the standards of living of your people without supporting them to engage in productive activities.Its high time to caution our leaders and negotiators to carefully look into the importance of the aid on economic development.

Get up! Stand up! Stand up for your right! Don’t give up the fight!

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.”
Robert F. Kennedy

The wish of opposition in Uganda for commonwealth to do something to cause Uganda government to make certain reforms is not unique. The appeal to supra yet weak international organisation is characteristic of our time and this spirit is slowly but surely playing in the hands of the small but powerful clique of individuals who are working towards one global government. All international organisations are only powerful when US government wants use them, otherwise, they are useless. We should only be happy whenever they visit our country as did commonwealth. This is the only significant moment we can benefit from them. So, organisation on international level is not necessarily geared to strengthening national but global agendas.

It is the wish and the cry for democracy, good governance and peace that will drive men into a one global government in hope for tranquillity but only to wake up for a fascist form of government where human rights is a thing of the past. The ability of World Bank to influence political behaviour of governments is a reflection of the subtle force behind it. This may sound ridiculous but it is in the making.

It begins slowly by losing nationalism, patriotism and we look for outside authorities to solve our internal affairs. Why should Africans generate into weaklings to the point where we must go to those who divided and continue to divide us for resolving and supervise our governments? Once the people in form of opposition make it their occupation to see nothing good in the seating government, and at any slight opportunity find it almost fissionable to cause unrest, not only do people cheapen themselves, but play in the hands of the enemy.

Why should any one expect that the commonwealth’s presence or absence will affect the president and not affect the country in any way? Has the suspension of Pakistan produced immediate results? And will the suspension affect one individual?

This is not to condone bad governance but it is to probe into what bad governance immerges from? It is a misunderstanding of international geopolitical aspirations of great powers that make us draw premature conclusions of our situations. The man who manufactures guns is interested in war. The man who deals in strategic minerals and other minerals is active in acquisitions of these resources. Stable governments too have their unique problems that pertain to being stable. They can hardly be stable while Uganda is stable. So we are contending with powers in this highly completive world. War and refugees are a blessing to those who benefit from them. Diseases are not all that bad for those who are interested in making money. This is the contradictory world we live in!

So, international organisations such AU, Commonwealth, UN and what not, are mere kraals where some big power can efficiently manage international affairs. No wonder then, even after UN disserted Rwandans in the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has not seriously questioned the usefulness of such membership. You remain there any how. Even when you are suspended from such a useless body and you happen to be of small mind you mourn. But mourn for what?

This is a proof that we are mangled by some one. Hardly can any citizens of any country on the globe can effect significant changes without outside interference. Who knew that George Bush’s election would be marred with malpractices? When it comes to Africa why should it be stranger? We should be more thankful for the invisible Devine hand that still intervenes in man’s affairs.

Is not worth that we Africans learn to manage our affairs without appealing to the powerful countries whose leaders are also questionable in many areas? When we want changes in Uganda we go report our leader to Tony Blair, McKinnon or George Bush or who ever, including Human Rights watch. But the truth is that every where the power that influences certain events is at work.

Where does this attitude leave us? Our leaders become weaker and weaker, unable to make independent decisions based on national interests. Our interests get mixed up with foreign interests and we realise that all along were serving not our interests. Great people make great leaders. If want great leaders we the people must be ready to stand for the values that define us as a people. If we want our leaders to resist foreign cultural aggression that is being forced on us, we must prove to our leaders that we can stand without foreign aid and determined to eat one meal a day rather than eat three meals a day in a toilet.

If we all knew what it means for an African leader who is revered at home and must go beg for help at the door of Paris donor club simply because he must meet the promises in his election manifesto, then we would think twice before make our leaders a laughing stalk abroad.

Therefore, Ugandans we should try a little harder to support government efforts and also request our government to minimise aid dependence. Uganda needs not make premature steps in development. The grid for rapid growths tends to open doors to even useless investment that ruin society. And nothing comes without a price tag on it, so we should critically and suspiciously question any thing that is imposed on us from democracy, religion, feminism to aid.

While it is possible that a neighbour may be more capable to provide for his family than my father, it does not mean he is more loving than my dad. Let us learn to live within our means and treat our people as our Children. Only then, can we minimise the chances of foreign manipulations as we experience the dad’s loving care.

My the God of all creation bless our land and Nation- Uganda.

Kayumba David
Brussels
Email: kayumbadavid@yahoo.com

I’d be very interested in suggestions of how to duplicate the results of “removal of aid” because I’m not entirely sure it will happen magically (maybe I’m just a cynic?).

Surprisingly (or not), it’s been uncovered here that various political heavies in Canada (and apparently in the US) do actually read blogs (or have “their people” read them, whatever). It’s amazing to read something in a blog at 1:00 am and see the issue addressed at Question Period the next day – repeatedly, so as to confirm it’s not a coincidence.

With respect to the two children I support through World Vision, I cannot and will not pull the plug. That being said, if my charitable donations can go to a better end in the future, I’d like to make an informed decision, rather than operating on guilt.

MMK, thanks for your enlightening blog.

I do not think that people should starve or die of curable diseases. But what makes me sadder is that most such tragedies are entirely man-made. It will not take Canadian grain to solve the problem of hunger in Ethiopia – if a cup of maize meal for a family is regarded as a solution – it will take a fundamental change by Ethiopians of the communities in which they live.

I think your heart is in the right place, and I only hope that between your empathy and the suffering of many Africans, there can be a way of being a global citizen that does not depend on paternalism and guilt.

Marius – I think you make a much needed point. There is this idea floating about that German wealth was based on American charity. It was anything but that. Tell us more…

Nor, as the World Bank has reported, does aid conditioned on policy reforms generally work. But those problems were evident during the Marshall Plan itself.

A study by George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen found that rapid economic growth in countries that had been occupied by Germany during the war occurred “irrespective of the timing and extent of Marshall Plan aid.”

In West Germany — the plan’s most often cited success because of the subsequent “German Miracle” — economic recovery began before aid started flowing and coincided with Ludwig Erhard’s elimination of many of the Allied Control Commission’s extensive restrictions on trade, production, prices and distribution.

In every country formerly controlled by the Nazis, growth did not resume until rigid economic controls were removed. The arrival of Marshall Plan funds did not correlate with the resumption of growth.

In a review of West Germany’s economy from 1945 to 1951, German analyst Werner Abelshauser concluded that “foreign aid was not crucial in starting the recovery or in keeping it going.”

The economic recoveries of France, Italy and Belgium, Cowen found, also predated the flow of U.S. aid.

Belgium, the country that relied earliest and most heavily on free market economic policies after its liberation in 1944, experienced the fastest recovery and avoided the severe housing and food shortages seen in the rest of continental Europe.

It is questionable whether the level of U.S. aid, which never totaled more than 5% of GNP of Marshall Plan countries, had a significant financial effect.

In West Germany, U.S. policies actually led to a net loss because reparations and Allied occupation costs amounted to 11%-15% of GNP.

France’s military spending in North Africa and Indochina in 1949-50 equaled nearly all of the Marshall Plan funds it received during that time.

Marshall Plan aid also subsidized the Netherlands’ military repression of an independence movement in the East Indies.

The Marshall Plan let other countries maintain otherwise unsustainable economic policies.

Austria, Greece and other recipients of high per capita level of U.S. funds began their recoveries only as that aid flow came to an end.

Britain, the recipient of the most U.S. aid, had the slowest European growth rate in the postwar era.

The lessons for Iraq should be clear. Aid is not a necessary or sufficient condition for economic recovery.

The experiences of postwar Europe and parts of the developing world in recent decades confirm that economic freedom, not foreign aid, leads to growth and prosperity.

As a citizen of a (relatively, per capita) wealthy country, watching my government pi$$ away billions in graft and stupid make-work projects (google “gun registry” and canada for an example), I’d rather that cash go toward feeding & educating children in another country than supporting ill-conceived government programs at home.

We have social programs in place that are designed to help the less-fortunate in our own country (not that it always works, as inevitably there will be those parents that shouldn’t have had children, and squander their welfare dollars on alcohol & drugs rather than food and milk, but that is not something that I as an individual can do much about). We have storehouses of grain sitting idle and, at times, rotting, while people in Africa and Asia starve. It makes no sense to me.

I’m not a pure socialist, in that I don’t see a utopia developing should the wealthy just share their wealth. However, to NOT offer a helping hand when one is able to seems inhumane to me.

Canada, through CIDA (a gov’t agency), provides $ for projects. I suspect this is where the local (receiving company) graft occurs. God knows that same graft is likely happening at home (trust me when I tell you that a large portion of Canadians cringe when our most corrupt gov’t in history has the gall to lecture about attaching aid dollars to “cleaning up” government – Paul Martin and his cronies could teach despots large amounts on how to SUCCESSFULLY hide the corruption and thus earn a place at the “grown up” table).

If all aid to Africa ended tomorrow, would the citizens of the various recipient countries benefit? I find that hard to believe. Instead, the shape and form of the aid should change – build & staff schools to ensure access to education (without fees), that is the sort of thing that comes to mind for me, but I don’t live there (hence my question).