Please stop the aid!

There have been a number of recent posts on the benefits and costs of overseas aid and the following interview with a Kenyan economist is a good one to get your students thinking about an alternative point of view.

The interview with Kenyan economist James Shikwati was published in 2005 and he is firmly of the opinion that overseas aid is a significant factor in causing rather than reducing many of Africa's problems.

A snippet of the interview is given below and the rest can be seen on the "Der Spiegel" website.

SPIEGEL:

Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa...

Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

But before your students rush to the conclusion that aid to Africa should be stopped, it is not surprising to find that not everyone agrees with James Shikwati's "solution". In fact, one of the leading development economists, Jeff Sachs, calls Shikwati’s criticisms of foreign aid “shockingly misguided” and “amazingly wrong.” and goes on to state that millions of lives are at risk.

Food for thought - more on James Shikwati's belief that the free-market is the most effective tool to save Africa can be seen in this New York Times article.