THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 167, August 4, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
LISTENING TO THE AFRICANS FOR A CHANGE
By David Rothbard & Craig Rucker
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE FOLLY OF FOREIGN AID PROGRAMS THAT HAND MONEY TO POLITICAL
ELITES WHO GOVERN DESPOTICALLY & CORRUPTLY & SUPPRESS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT -- THE ERRONEOUS ASSUMPTION
THAT STRENGTHENING THE STATE WILL LEAD TO DEVELOPMENT -- THE KEY TO CREATING FAVORABLE CONDITIONS FOR
INCREASED CAPITAL FLOWS IN AFRICA & KEEPING AFRICAN CAPITAL ON THE CONTINENT: SUCCESSFUL POLITICAL &
ECONOMIC REFORM, RESULTING IN THE DEVELOPMENT & STRENGTHENING OF CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTAL
INSTITUTIONS & FREE MARKET ECONOMIES -- C-FACT & ITS NEW APPROACH FOR ASSISTING THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES TO
DEVELOP THEIR RESOURCES & TASTE THE FRUITS OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM
FULL STORY:
While musicians gathered for “Live 8” and world leaders gathered for the G-8 conference, few were listening when Moeletsi Mbeki,
brother of South African President Thabo Mbeki, told the G8, "The best way to keep Africans poor is to continue handing money to
political elites who suppress development."
Mbeki noted that the Marshall Plan pulled Europe and Japan out of the doldrums that followed World War II because it was driven
by the principles of strengthening constitutional democratic political institutions and free markets. Most African aid, however, has
been provided under the erroneous assumption that strengthening the state will lead to development.
The world press failed to report that the New Partnership for Africa's Development (the African Union’s own economic development
arm) told the G-8 that "lifting Africa from extreme poverty will require more than increased official development assistance or debt
relief" and that "the key to creating favorable conditions for increased capital flows in Africa and keeping African capital on the
continent will be its successful political and economic reform."
Concerts and conferences help focus attention on Africa’s extraordinary economic and health-related problems. Even Bono’s group,
DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) demanded that rich nations open their markets, quota and duty free, to African exports, remove
agricultural subsidies that hurt African farmers, and allow African nations to harness the power of trade in their own way to maximize
poverty alleviation and economic growth.
This part of the message was not well communicated to the millions who tuned in Live 8 and signed petitions. No wonder that
Cameroonian journalist, Jean-Claude Shanda Tonme, complained that "they still believe us to be like children that they must save, as
if we don't realize ourselves what the source of our problems is,” adding, "Our anger is all the greater because, despite all the
presidents for life, despite all the evidence of genocide, we didn't hear anyone at Live 8 raise a cry for democracy in Africa."
As we began traveling to world trade and environmental summits on behalf of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (C-FACT),
our hearts were stirred for those living in poverty in nations with rich natural resources, but corrupt and oppressive, or just misguided,
regimes. Over the past two years C-FACT has devised a new approach for assisting the developing world to taste the fruits of
economic freedom and develop resources for human use in ways that do not harm the environment.
It will require nothing less than a whole new mindset, based on cooperation as opposed to edict. We see the beginnings of this new
mindset in the Millennium Challenge Corporation, created by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002 as a new template for providing
U.S. foreign aid.
The Millennium Challenge Account, which issued its first grants earlier this year, limits aid to nations that meet standards for
governing justly, encouraging economic freedom, and investing in people. The 16 nations that, to date have qualified for aid, have
met measurable goals for civil liberties and political rights, the rule of law, control of corruption, public health and education and
empowerment of women, among other stamdards.
A $110 million grant to Madagascar, the first approved, will help formalize its land tenure system, modernize the nation’s land registry,
expand land title services to rural citizens, improve the national banking system, and set up a body that identifies investment
opportunities for rural citizens to reach markets. It will train farmers and other entrepreneurs in production, management, and
marketing techniques.
British journalist Matthew Parris recounts that, during a recent visit to Ethiopia, he went to a village in which women walked with
buckets and rope in sweltering heat to get water from a dirty, uncovered well. He wondered why no one had installed a cheap bush
windmill and a pipeline to deliver the water to the villagers and was told that the villagers were waiting for UNICEF or some
non-governmental organization for assistance. “But it is too far, too hot for them.” Meanwhile, the regional authority was, with
foreign aid money, building a huge, multistory office 100 miles away, but no one was addressing the property rights and financing
issues that would have encouraged a local entrepreneur (or even the local community) to do this simple job of installing a windmill
and water pipeline.
C-FACT’s mission is to put teams together to serve fledgling entrepreneurs and local communities in developing nations in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America as they formulate and carry out their own economic development goals, goals that are consistent with a
free society and a cleaner environment. CFACT's Social Entrepreneurship and Free-Market Environmental Demonstration (SEFED)
program is seeking others who truly want to lift African and other poor nations out of poverty.
SEFED will create work groups in which governmental bodies, non-governmental organizations, financial institutions, capital
suppliers, and environmental activists will work with local leadership to facilitate economic development, while, at the same time,
incorporating social and environmental health standards.
It will take new coalitions to make real progress. Poverty is not the predestined fate for millions of Africans and others around the
world. It can be eliminated, but it will take far more than conferences and concerts to fund and do the hard work necessary to make
its elimination a reality.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Africa South of the Sahara -- Black Africa
Foreign Aid -- International Economic Development
David Rothbard is C-FACT’s President and Craig Rucker is its Executive Director. C-FACT is a public interest organization based
in Washington, D.C., and promotes free market and technological solutions to concerns about environment and development. It
maintains an Internet website at www.cfact.org.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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