The darkest side of global development.
By Anthony Kalulu @KaluluAnthony. | December 1, 2022.
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Contrary to what most people think, global development as an industry has a darker side that makes it nearly impossible for those of us who are battling abject poverty in the global south, to ever escape poverty.
This post may help answer those who often say “billions in aid have been sent to places like Africa, yet their people still live in poverty”.
The basic part:
The basic part of it is that humanity doesn’t even believe in directly supporting those of us who live on < $1.9 a day, in the global south.
Today, only 1% of all the money that is intended to end global poverty (Official Development Aid and Humanitarian Assistance combined), is what goes directly to the extreme poor in the global south as a WHOLE.
Specifically, only 1% of all Official Development Assistance (funding from agencies like USAID, UKAID etc), and an even smaller portion (0.4% in 2018 alone) of all international humanitarian assistance (all charitable global antipoverty funding included), is what goes directly to local and national grassroots organizations in the global south, today.
Moreover, for the latter (i.e., humanitarian assistance), the 0.4% in 2018 was an increase, according to the 2019 Global Humanitarian Assistance Report. In earlier years, that figure was even smaller.
And when it comes to Africa in particular — the ground zero of the global fight against poverty…
In 2018 alone, only 5.2% of the $9 billion in US foundation funding that was specifically earmarked for Sub Saharan Africa, went to local organizations in Africa — the African Visionary Fund, a partnership between the Segal Family Foundation and other US grantmakers, says on their website, quoting a report from the US Council on Foundations.
And since the total amount of development aid and international humanitarian assistance that goes directly to the global south as a whole is just ~1.4%, it is safe to say that, overall, the total share of this, which goes directly to grassroots organizations in Africa alone, is well in the 0.1%’s, all philanthropic global antipoverty funding included.
But that is not all:
Humanity doesn’t just stop at refusing to support those of us who live on < $1.9/day in the global south. Rather, it goes further by taking away from us even the little that we have, awarding it all to the global north.
This leaves WE the ULTRA POOR in the global south even poorer, all the while making rich countries in the global north even richer.
What I really mean:
Far from helping us escape poverty, the only time the world actually provides those of us in the global south with REAL AID, it only buries us in more debt, essentially placing a final nail in our coffin of poverty.
What is that real aid?
This kind of aid is often given in huge sums, but is very, very deadly.
This is the aid from large funding agencies that is primarily given as loans to national governments in poor countries (not to we the citizens who live directly on <$1.9/day), which aid only impoverishes WE the POOR even more, through decades-long, sky-high interest payments.
A little context:
Ideally, the only form of aid that has the potential to transform the livelihoods of WE THE POOR in the global south, without thereafter enslaving us for decades, is the aid that is genuinely philanthropic in nature. But currently, as I have already mentioned:
#1. Only 1% of this form of aid, is what goes directly to the extreme poor in the global south as a whole.
#2. The 0ther 99%, meanwhile, remains in the hands of the people from the development sector (specifically western global antipoverty agencies), not even in the hands of the dreaded corrupt government officials in poor countries like mine.
The development sector, sadly, are the last people WE the ultra poor can ever, ever get the chance to work together with on anything, unless when rolling out their own predetermined solutions, which solutions only reach a few random poor communities, and are often short-lived.
Then comes the real aid:
At present, the only real aid that actually reaches the world’s poor (or more specifically the corrupt national governments of poor countries in the global south), is the aid which, by its very nature — rather than the way its recipients use it — impoverishes WE the POOR even more.
This is the money that comes from large bilateral and multilateral agencies (IMF, World Bank, IFC etc), which money is solely provided to our national governments, not to those of us who subsist directly on <$1.9/day, and is intended for government-led development projects.
This money, however, is called aid, but that is not what it is.
In reality, this money is mostly given as loans, like this one.
And as someone points out here in The Guardian, rich countries actually “receive more in interest payments from recipient countries [on this kind of aid]”, than what they give as aid — a bill which is then wholly passed on to those of us who live directly on < $1.9 a day.
Secondly, as said in the same Guardian article, and also here, this kind of aid even comes with lots of strings, like the fact that most of it must be spent on [overpriced] goods/services provided by contractors from the donor nations — implying, much of the original aid itself instantly goes back to the donor nations, yet it must still be repaid by the poor.
This form of aid is what then becomes the national debt in developing countries, which debt is then directly footed for decades by those of us who live on <$1.9 a day (through taxes), impoverishing us even more.
A bonus read on this topic, is Jason Hickel’s article “Aid in Reverse”, where he explains that “In 2012, the last year of recorded data, developing countries received a total of $1.3 trillion, including all aid, investment, and income from abroad. But that same year some $3.3 trillion flowed out of them. In other words, developing countries sent $2 trillion more to the rest of the world than they received.”
Mr. Hickel further explains in the same article that, as of 2017, “developing countries have forked out over $4.2tn in interest payments alone since 1980… on a scale that dwarfs the aid that they received during the same period.”
That’s, the interest alone resulting from the aid received by WE THE POOR in the last 40 years is far higher than the total aid we received in those 40 years, yet the original aid itself which resulted in the $4.2 trillion interest, is also still owed.
And just to make this clear:
Some people are quick to argue that the reason the total amount of money that flows out of developing countries is bigger than the aid that flows in… is because some politicians and wealthy people in developing countries are probably trying to protect their wealth by moving it to safer places in the global north.
But here is why you can’t spin this: the figure $4.2tn is what flowed out of the developing world specifically as “interest” on the aid that was received within a 40-year period, and this figure was bigger than the aid itself that was received by poor countries during the same period.
There is no way the money that was transferred by wealthy people in developing countries into the west can be counted as “interest”.
That’s, there is no way you can mix the two.
Some reflection:
Many people in the west often ask why poor countries, especially in Africa, have remained poor despite receiving billions in aid, for long.
On almost every online forum where people are discussing economic hardships in places like Haiti or Africa, the very first thing you read is people saying “billions and billions of dollars have been sent to these countries in aid, yet their people still live in abject poverty”.
Others are even very quick to place the blame on the usual scapegoat that is the “corrupt government officials in poor countries”.
What these people don’t realize is: 1) aid has always gone back to those who give it, taking along with it even the little we had , and 2) true aid, i.e., that which is truly philanthropic in nature, has always remained in the hands of the people from the global north, and has largely never ever reached those of us who live in ultra poverty, in the global south.
My appeal to those of you who genuinely care about the world’s poor. I know you people exist:
I know you people who genuinely care about the world’s poor are out there, and are in the millions. So, here is my humble message for you:
As you have seen, for those of us who are directly sweating out the direst forms of poverty in the global south, finding a path from chronic poverty is like overturning an entire mountain seated on your head.
On the one hand, even those people who send charitable dollars to help us escape extreme poverty, do it in such a way that is literally intended to make it impossible for people like us to ever see a single penny of it.
On the other, when it comes to government-level cooperation between the developed world and our impoverished countries, or between large bilateral/multilateral agencies and We The Poor, it is all about dragging us into more debts that even our grand, grand children will still owe.
So, this is my message:
For decades, the world has taught people like you, to be wary of those of us who are directly battling ultra poverty in the global south (under the premise that people like us could be fraudsters), and has instructed you to avoid any direct connection with people like us as much as possible.
The world has even given you a final, irrevocable instruction which says, ‘if you are to help the world’s poor exit poverty, you must only do so by placing your support behind the right people in the global north’, i.e., by strictly channeling your support only through western charities.