Is pouring more financial aid into Africa the best way to help that continent develop?

The answer is quite obvious.

Unfortunately, it won't stop nations from continuing to throw money into that bottomless pit.

Not just a bottomless pit. Corruption to the highest levels.

Pass out condoms or offer free sterilization. Some regions have an unsustainable population. Quite taxing to the natural environment in those areas.

It hasn't worked until now, why would it help going forward? You need to go through the hardship of becoming successful on your own in order to be able to sustain it and pass the knowledge down to your children. All over the world there are examples of how handouts do not work at anything other than to sometimes make the givers feel better about themselves for helping the less fortunate without putting effort into a real solution.

That's not stopping China!

Financial aid might be a good thing if it went to the people who need it. Instead it is creamed off and deposited in the rulers overseas bank accounts. Yet to see a poor dictator. Most of these "desperately poor" countries seem to have no problem sustaining major size armies. And the success story of a well being dug in a remote village in Africa does not even begin to justify the million upon millions that the continent has had thrown at it.

No, you can keep your help and stop meddling in our affairs that include arming rebellions, support dictators, eliminate our good leaders. But I doubt this will ever happen so yes my land is doomed.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for life! Throwing money at problems does nothing! It's just an easy answer and a way for countries to say they have done something. It's quite saddening that many countries in Africa are leaderless and lawless. Giving money will do nothing to repair these issues.

I don't think Africa will ever develop into a prospering continent - too many religious and tribal wars going on with no way of stopping them without taking out the bad seeds and having the entire place run by the UN.

The other problem is that the people themselves just head for the refugee camps as soon as things get tough. Hand outs are not the answer. Education is... that and the forced removal of religious and politically corrupt nutters.

I voted no in the poll. I don't think money is the best way to help Africa. Though I do think finances are part of what is going to help, maybe a small part. I believe that looking at the continent as a whole and thinking about helping the continent as a whole is also not the best way to approach the situation.

It may sound simplistic, but helping out a community seems like a better approach. My view is based on a belief in Christ so it does include telling people about Christ, but to send people to help with a school, or technical or medical know-how to train people on a small scale can in time lead to big results for millions. We can't just "fix the Africa problem(s)" with a new piece of legislation or large donations.

My view is based on a belief in Christ so it does include telling people about Christ,

I very much doubt talking about Jesus, Buddha or any other religious figure is gonna help. In the contrary. In a continent filled with deaths due to religious extremists, bringing people to talk about Jesus will only bring more deaths.

Tho I do agree with the rest of your post. Africa is a huge continent. Perhaps sending people to help in schools and small communities could lead to big results.

But then some religious extremists might come, kill and destroy everything again.

It's no good blaming Europe for the troubles in Africa. Africans wanted independence from European powers and they got it. Since then most of the independent countries have made no progress at all, or even gone backwards. That is entirely the fault of the crooks running those countries.

The irony is that Africans are voting with their feet and flooding to Europe, clamouring to live under the governance of Europeans once again.

I feel like this was an extremely loaded question. Plus, I don't think a simple yes or no is sufficient for this one.

"Pouring financial aid" suggests that any financial aid sent to Africa is done haphazardly. I don't think any one person here thinks that Africa should get zero financial assistance from the world. But obviously you can't just throw money at a problem and hope that it gets resolved magically.

I suggest a less biased wording of a question, or more possible answers next time, then you don't get a 90 / 10 split.

The problem I see with Africa is that global trade for a few resources means that there is an influx of money to a small minority in power, corrupting them while getting rid of the pressure to develop their local economy. African countries need to stop being focused on exports and to develop their economies foremost for their own internal needs.

Building roads, rails, houses, reliable electric grids and the like necessitates a minimal input of imported goods but great amounts of labor, which they have. They also need to rationalize their agricultural sector from the ground up. Having small families cultivating small plots is an economical waste, if productivity increases, you just have a lot of idle labor still tied to the plot of land. You need less farmers with more land per farmer... however, just using huge multinational companies to do so is a disaster, because then all the profits gained from this flee the country. They must build local middle classes to keep profits inside the country and help feed the local economy.

We often talk about the balance of trade, but it's only half the picture. The balance of trade is only about the movement of goods, but the movement of capital (money) is just as important, the sum of the two is the current accounts balance and represents whether a country gets richer or poorer from global trade. And the reality is that though most African countries have huge trade surpluses, these are balanced by massive capital flight, and their current accounts balance is often a small surplus if not a huge deficit.

As Mark G says condoms, sex education, agriculture education, seed, the means to fresh water and get rid of the military dictatorships, then you can start working with the issues that confront the continent.

Between the religious wars, the tribal wars, corrupt leaders (mostly educated in Europe and the West), there's little that can be done. The African peoples have to take control of their own destinies. Throwing money and U.N. "Peacekeepers" at the problem only makes the people more dependent on Europeans.

Financial Aid is not working in African countries and has been a political, economic and humanitarian disaster. The biggest issue is with government to government aid and funds from large monetary institutions. Unfortunately most foreign aid has gone to the corrupt politician of the government thereby giving money only fosters authoritarianism and tyranny. In the end the money does not go to the selected cause.

Is pouring more financial aid

Editorialize much?

I agree with Nessie.

That's like saying: "Is dumping more money into your children's college fund going to guarantee they'll be successful in the future?"

I still think you all could have asked a multiple choice question like "Which is the best way for the world community to assist in (sub-Saharan) African development.? A. Direct financial support, B. Educational programs C. Medical aid D. Other .... or something like that

Not to mention, not all parts of Africa are underdeveloped.

No that is absolutely not a good idea at all, Norway have already given close to 80 million$ and more to South Sudan without knowing where and what the money is going to!! The corruption is intense in the African continent, and i think that every nation that is willing to give money to the African continent are certainly willing to take a risk that the money they are giving are not being used for the right help and needs for the country!!!

No. Africa's a mess corruption-wise. The Red Cross. a Bill Gate's project, or some other carefully monitored charity would probably be a better bang for the buck in terms of aid getting to and helping the people who need it most. Wish it wasn't so, but sad to say that's the case. I know there are a lot of great people living there, but the corruption runs pretty deep in that part of the world.

Been there, for 8 months, mostly Central African Republic and neighbouring countries. People there are much more educated than is assumed. They are very aware what is going on. They certainly don't need to be taught about farming. Most of the roads are built by foreigners for foreigners, so they can shuttle around to look after their 'interests'. Natives neither can afford nor need cars. Foreign 'consultants' are there for the resources, timber, minerals, diamonds. African countries would be much better off, if the meddling by ignorant and self serving outsiders would stop. All foreign institutions, first of all the World Bank should be kicked out. Foreign aid is the transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

Investment, not aid. That's what Africa needs.

fund green energy projects and give Africa a means to industrialize without becoming another China. As Africa becomes the next world factory, at least it'll be a green one.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123758895999200083

An interesting read for those whom favor financial aid.

Although I agree that simply handing money out is no way to FIX anything ( See Dollar diplomacy ), that you DID basically FEED the question in a manner to always get a NEGATIVE response.

These people don't need to be given fish. They need to be taught how to fish.

But we are talking about people who are tremendously backward here. Foreign peacekeepers in Nigeria were actually asked by Nigerian troops if they could please have access to the machine that tells you if terrorists are in a passing car. When told no such machine exists, they acted like they were being lied to.

Teaching people like that is less like an uphill battle and more like climbing a cliff with your bare hands.

such a binary choice for such a complicated situation. No money and the continent gets funded by the highest bidder looking for a 2nd tier nation for use as a playground. Fund the continent and continue business as usual. Not really a choice is there....

This might be easier to answer if all countries in Africa were the same. But they're not. Some are pretty well off. And it's not like all of the many countries have the same culture. Northern Africa is populated by entirely different peoples to the rest of the continent.

Most private Japanese aid I'm aware of is pretty grass roots level (very effective when dealing with local communities). There's quite a few volunteers doing their bit. If you watch some if those "terrible" shows on TV here, you might be aware of this.

First, let me ask who (which country) is giving the most to Africa in financial aid? (per percentage of population not the amount of money! What's the poverty level in Japan? I'm probably under it or nearly!