What Africa needs is trade, not more aid

I recently met Hassan Ahmed (not his real name), a resident of Wajir County who is married and has seven children. All of them have dropped out of school for lack of school fees. The furthest any of them has gone is Form Two. He has had to sell everything to get by in life. His ageing parents depend on him for their livelihood and medication.

He has been left with no assets other than the one emaciated camel in his homestead. He stares bleakly at the blue sky in the sweltering heat of North Eastern Kenya; a statistic of poverty and want.

I am sure he cares nothing about last week’s proclamation that through the Millennium Development Goals, poverty has been halved in the world. He cares less because he and his animal still cannot access clean, reliable water.

Last week, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) met in New York. I almost thought they were giving us maize meal as a way of tackling poverty in the developing countries. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) team has increased the number achievable goals from 8 as per the millennium development goals to 17 in the SDG. I don’t really know about the details of the status report from the Millennium Development Goals. But at least the MDGs had a lifespan and much clearer targets.

SDG is much broader and even more complicated with 169 targets grouped into 17 goals with a 15-year time frame. I wonder whether UNGA considered the ability of the developing nations to implement these goals.

Take the case of Kenya; I have not seen any report that has taken stock of the MDGs. It is difficult to confirm the achieved percentage of the intended targets out of the eight goals. In the case of eradicating hunger, the people of Kenya are still facing challenges to ensure there is enough food for the ever-increasing human population and the flight of farmers from the food crops and other activities for lack of a market, poor prices and ineffectual and uncoordinated policy.

The child and maternal deaths are still high and the prevalence of HIV/Aids is still worrying, with reports of increased infections especially amongst the young adults. On maternal deaths, at least First Lady Margaret Kenyatta is engaged in something worthwhile, but despite that, we are wide off the mark.

We are also still destroying the vegetation and killing our wildlife through poaching. The rate of desertification is alarming. Especially in Northern Kenya where charcoal is the main source of energy.

Kenya still faces unfavourable balance of trade with many countries. We still export raw materials only to receive the finished, but expensive products. These are just but a few of the examples of the unmet goals.

So why have the MDGs been a poor show, especially in the developing nations? And why am I reluctant on the SDGs mantra?

One, the development goals of the United Nations are pegged mainly on the Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the developed nations. There seems to be a gap between the intended targets of 0.07 per cent of the gross national income of the most developed countries and the actual aid received, which is roughly half that amount. Secondly, and most importantly, when the governance systems of the less developed countries are weak, the ability of these countries to repay the loans is weakened because they are never put to good use. Think of the billions of dollars of aid money poured into the developing world in the 1980s.

In many African countries aid is misused and often does not reach the intended recipients.

At least for the SDGs, there is a sense of urgency to put public money where there is maximum impact on livelihood and where there is value for money. But a lot needs to be done.

Peace and problems caused by international terrorism are the main drawbacks for many poor countries. The exploitation of natural resources has been blamed for the seemingly intractable security problems across the region. Looked at keenly, the looming shadows of powerful forces in the West is ever large.

For example, SDG goal number 16 refers to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. Yet sometimes the developed nations, instead of being facilitators of the SDG goals, perpetuate injustice and inequality. A good example is the conflict in the Middle East where western nations take sides in conflicts for their own interest and in the process, destroy the necessary peace for development.

The conflict between Palestine and Israel is another good example of double standards in balancing the interest of the donor countries.

In my view, emphasis should be placed more on balanced trade between nations.

Poor countries should be supported to gain access to the markets of the developed countries. Trade, not aid should be the way to go.