Brett Tilford

What should we do about poverty?  That’s the question haunting me lately.  It’s easy to be removed from the plight of those less fortunate than myself but following Jesus doesn’t give me that out.  When the world becomes your neighbor (which I think Jesus taught) then the world’s problems become your problems.  By extension I am now forced to consider poverty “my problem”, and that’s a big shift for me.  So what is the uniquely Jesus thing to do in this situation?  I’ve read the headlines, seen the images on t.v., and listened to the talking heads discuss, rehash, analyze, and argue over what should be done.  No one seemed to be questioning the fact that poverty exists or that it’s one of the true evils of our time (I mean how do I explain to my daughter that the problem isn’t that there isn’t enough food for everyone, it’s just that we can’t get it to them). The big question seemed to be what we should do about it?  It’s such a huge challenge.  I felt like the first thing I should do is educate myself.  I’m no economist but I figured there were books out there for someone wanting to try and understand, so I picked up the book The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities For Our Time by Jeff Sachs from my local library.  However, I wasn’t even halfway through with it when I heard about the release of a book entitled Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working And How There Is A Better Way For Africa written by Dambisa Moyo.  I haven’t read Dead Aid yet but after reading The End of Poverty and dozens of articles about Dead Aid I have quite a conundrum on my hands.  Let me explain.

The core argument of The End of Poverty seems to be something like this: the key to ending poverty is to help the world’s poor get a firm grasp on the first rung of the “economic ladder”.  If only we could get their economies up to that first rung then history shows us (Poland, Spain, India, China, etc.) that it will continue to climb.  In the case of Africa there are a handful of issues holding these countries back from the first rung: disease (like aids and malaria), lack of clean water, environmental challenges, lack of education, lack of infrastructure (roads and bridges) and poor government (among other things).  Sach’s argument is that what’s needed is for developed countries to commit billions of dollars over the next 15-20 years to counteract these challenges and get Africa on the first rung.  An analogy that comes to mind is the flywheel.  The most difficult revolution for a flywheel is the first one.  You push and push and push and it finally goes around once.  Then it’s a little easier the next time and even easier the next so on and so forth.  Sachs essentially argues that aid won’t solve everything but it’s extremely important to get the economic flywheel churning.

However, Moyo argues in Dead Aid that the problem is aid itself!  Aid is like a never ending cookie jar for government and it fosters corruption.  She cites that in the past 30 years Africa has garnered over 1 trillion dollars in aid and asks the provocative question “What good has it done?”  She argues that all aid to Africa should end within 5 years.  This would force African governments to stop waiting for handouts and engage in trade, microfinance, and private investing.  Aid is fine for natural disasters (like famine or flood) but right now it’s only hurting Africa… not helping.

Here’s an article that’s pro Dead Aid and here’s an article against it.  I may follow up with a post once I’ve read Dead Aid, however for now I think it’s a really important debate we should be engaging.  So what say you?  Is economic aid helping or hurting Africa?