Redefining the Lens Through Which Aid is Delivered
Is there more African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can do to be more resourceful and less dependent on foreign philanthropists?
Decades of inequitable development, colonialism and political uprising have made the continent a global destination for charitable funding from philanthropists. Initially, most funding was focused on government institutions, but times have changed, and these resources are being shifted toward sustainable social and economic reforms. International humanitarian organisations like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have spent millions of dollars engaging the continent on shared interests and values.
In early 2022, the agency donated nearly $1.3 billion to assist people on the brink of starvation from drought in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. The agency works with African countries on several projects that aim at building resilience to climate change, supporting democracy, strengthening health systems, and boosting agricultural productivity. Similarly, the Australian government runs projects across the continent. Between 2020-2021, approximately 2.5 million Africans benefited from the work of 26 Australian non-governmental organisations. These initiatives make it easy to applaud philanthropists’ support to the continent and ignore the challenges they pose to the continent’s independence.
The issue of being dependent on philanthropists is not bad but there are consequences, and it is demanding time for Africa to stop ignoring the backlash that comes from being dependent on philanthropists.
There are civil society organisations (CSOs) in Africa, particularly international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) that operate strictly through a top-down approach. These organisations claim to work in the interest of their beneficiaries but barely respect the perspectives of the people/institutions they serve. Projects implemented by these organisations are based on donors’ requirements, not on what the communities need. This will continue if Africans cannot start to embrace domestic resource mobilisation. Africans tend to be complacent with and feel entitled to the little that is donated or gifted to them.
Impact of foreign aid on developing countries
Humanitarian aid should be given to people in need, but how much aid is enough to do this? Africa receives so much assistance from philanthropists which has led to foreign-aid dependency among nations.
A British activist and writer, Dr Teresa Hayter critiqued the idea that the purpose of aid is to alleviate poverty. She stated, that “the actual function of aid from Western governments and their agencies, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is to subsidise the operations of the private corporations and banks of the West.” She moved on to further explain that “Aid was, and is, used by governments and big multilateral aid agencies to ensure that the governments that receive it adopt policies that favour not just capitalism in general, but the interests of their private corporations and banks in particular.” Hence, from the above, one can assert that although humanitarian interventions should be implemented with the aim of promoting positive humanitarian results, several humanitarian organisations inevitably have ulterior motives.
Also, a Zambian economist, Dambisa Moyo raised concerns on the impact of aid on Africa in her book. Her synopsis was that the aid Africa is receiving is not promoting economic growth, instead it has condemned the continent to poverty and extended its reliance on Western aid. It was explicit in her write-up on the kind of aid she meant – “systematic aid,” the sort of aid that is transferred from government to government, or through the World Bank Group. Moyo gave a background of such aid from the Bretton Woods system (July 1944) and the Marshall Plan. She wrote that it worked in Europe because the continent had a limited scope, and institutions to use it, unlike many African countries. She believes that the problem with Africa is Africans.
Too much aid has suppressed innovation and is preventing growth within the continent. Bauer (1972) known as a critic of foreign aid, saw it as not only failing to speed up but damaging economic development. The apparent motive of foreign aid, at least in the post-World War II era, was to provide a helping hand in international development based on P.N. Rosenstein-Rodan’s big push model, 1943. Paraphrasing the model “insufficient investment across sectors of the economy and infrastructure is keeping developing countries behind.”
It is therefore important for civil society organisations in Africa to be aware of these issues and strive to re-strategise to adapt to this reality. They also need to reposition themselves to be preferred allies of communities they operate within. Most importantly, they need to tailor their messages to win the support of community members and attract diverse support from these groups. Such support can be technical, material and or financial.
Way Forward
It is no doubt that a key difficulty in attaining the sustainable development goals (SDGs) within the next few years is the availability of sufficient resources to drive the needed action. There is growing competition for meager donor resources from numerous actors. Often, for a country to obtain funding, it depends on its lobbying strategy. They will have to compete with other nations’ projects.
Government institutions in the region must learn new ways to leverage the available resources to support and maintain the country’s development programmes pointed at attaining economic stability and contributing to sustainable development. Resource mobilisation refers to the steps or activities required to obtain new and additional resources for an institution. Resources are not just money. It could be in-kind donations from communities, raising support from volunteers, or from business-oriented projects. African nations that are dependent on international funds need to design and operationalise a transformative agenda prioritising domestic resource mobilisation strategies. There is a huge need to push private investment in these countries to meet development goals. If this is not done, most countries will continue to be dependent on bilateral aid rather than moving towards investment.
Shifting to local resource mobilisation is a big step. It is not going to happen overnight but with time, Africans will have to start being financially independent and foster their own peace and development. The task local non-governmental organisations (LNGOs) will face in the future is to explore alternative funding to boost financial stability without interfering with their institution’s mandate.
This would mean developing a new set of skills and a culture of innovation. Africans’ minds need transformation through capacity building, and that is where capacity building organisations come into play. The experiences from Kenya and Botswana provide useful information for CSOs in Sub-Saharan Africa to use in strengthening their nations’ capital formation strategy. It is imperative that policy makers hasten measures to develop domestic resource agendas focused on financial models that can be used to maintain the region’s independence while being sustainable all at once.
About the author
Anthonette Quayee
Environmentalist Anthonette Quayee holds experience in protected area management, community-based natural resource management, climate change, illegal wildlife trade and research. She is now supporting the West Africa Civil Society Institute's Knowledge Management Unit in collecting and organising knowledge that aims to improve West African Civil Society Organisations.
