Research released by a coalition of African and UK partners
reveals that Africa loses almost six and a half times the amount of
money that it receives in aid.
"It says something about this country. It says something about our
standing in the world and our sense of duty in helping others... in
short - it says something about the kind of people we are ... And that
makes me proud to be British."
As exhibited by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who made the above
comment on 8 June 2013, governments of wealthy countries like to tell
tales of generous aid spending and a common responsibility to help those
less fortunate in the world. But there is another story to tell. And it
is not a story of what is given to continents such as Africa, but of
what is taken away.
Research published today reveals that whilst the continent receives
$30 billion in aid a year, this figure pales in comparison to the $192
billion leaving the continent via illicit financial flows, the
repatriation of multinational company profits, debt repayments, loss of
skilled workers, illegal logging and fishing, and the costs imposed as a
result of climate change.
When these losses are compared to overall financial inflows -
including not just aid but foreign investment and remittances - Africa
is left with a $58 billion a year net loss. To put it in to context,
that is over one and a half times the estimated $37 billion a year extra funding it would cost to deliver universal health coverage for everyone in the world.
These figures expose the true financial relationship of wealthy
countries with Africa, a relationship that is seldom mentioned by
politicians. It is a relationship in which the world doesn't aid Africa,
but in which Africa aids the world.
False narratives
Debates on the role of wealthy governments in ending global poverty
tend to focus on how much aid we should give. UK politicians, for
example, line up to defend the aid budget in a time of austerity and
increasing public hostility, while the media and NGOs often publically
applaud them for doing so, reinforcing the image of the UK's
benevolence.
Yet despite years of public fundraising campaigns and aid
'generosity', we are still nowhere near to witnessing the end of global
poverty. In fact, this aid obsession merely acts as a smokescreen that
hides the true causes of global poverty and reinforces paternalistic
notions of Africa as a poor and corrupt continent with helpless people
in need of intervention from wealthy countries.
It is a smokescreen that hides the fact that these wealthy
governments often have a large role in causing the conditions that their
'aid' is supposed to help fix.
The current system is one that facilitates a perverse reality in
which: companies are allowed to promote their 'corporate social
responsibility' whilst routing profits though tax havens; wealthy
philanthropists donate money whilst their companies dodge tax; and
short-term fundraising tactics mean NGOs push the idea that donating a
few pounds to charity will solve poverty whilst simultaneously ignoring
the systemic injustices that keep Africa poor.
Complicit countries
However, Africa is not poor, though its people are being kept in
poverty by a combination of inequitable policies, huge disparities in
power, and criminal activities perpetuated and sustained by wealthy
elites, both inside and outside the continent.
For example, $35.3 billion a year is lost in illicit financial flows
facilitated by the global network of tax havens. Tax havens
jurisdictionally linked to the G8 countries or the EU are responsible
for 70% of global tax haven investment, and the UK is at the heart of this with at least ten tax havens under its jurisdiction, or 11 if you count the City of London.
The illicit haemorrhaging of finance is most clear in resource-rich
countries. Whilst it would be logical to assume that these countries
would have lower levels of poverty, in fact the reverse tends to be
true.
Of the world's poorest one billion people, one-third live in resource
rich countries. Additionally, resource-rich countries account for 9 out
of the 12 countries at the bottom of the Human Development Index (HDI),
a measure of wealth, life expectancy and education, illustrating the
impact of corruption facilitated through tax havens and secret corporate
activities.
Action, not just aid
Real progress on global poverty requires that politicians stop hiding
behind this aid propaganda and instead take concrete action to tackle
the real causes of poverty. This includes urgent action to close down
the UK's network of tax havens, to tackle the looming debt crisis, to
end the plundering of African resources, and to tackle climate change.
Politicians are only telling us half the story when it comes to the
world's financial relationship with Africa. It is time that we expose
the aid myth and demand that politicians take responsibility for their
part in sustaining global poverty. Change requires that countries be
judged not just on their aid, but on their action.
from here
SOYMB's position on global poverty is that it is a component of capitalism and caused by the laws of capitalism and that the only way to tackle this and put an end to poverty is its complete abolition in favour of a system of socialism. Politicians, obliged to adhere to corporate masters and prop up corrupt business practices, have no interest in egalitarianism and free and open access for all. Within socialism there will be no need for 'aid' because all will share in the common wealth and there will be no profits to be creamed off by a tiny minority.
JS
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