This summer, the United States and its most prosperous allies should take tangible steps to combat starvation and despair among one-sixth of the human population. At the G8 summit in Scotland on July 6-8, Britain’s Tony Blair is expected to ask western leaders to double the amount of development aid they give to Africa.
The move follows the recent decision by the rich countries, via the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank, to forgive $40 billion in debt owed by 18 of the globe’s poorest countries.The write-off amounts to just $1.5 billion a year, or a paltry $180 million from the U.S.
Clearly, debt relief must be only the start of a long-term push to help the poorest of the world’s poor.The U.S. gives far less in development aid than most Americans think. Less than 1 percent of the federal budget goes to non-military foreign aid, just $23 billion (in fiscal 2006) of Uncle Sam’s $2.6 trillion spending.
The situation in Africa and parts of Latin America looks hopeless, but past efforts show that’s not the case. For example, in the 1960s the “Green Revolution” largely ended Asia’s frequent famines. Similar efforts could succeed in Africa, focusing on improved seeds, better soil quality, proper fertilizers and small irrigation projects. Education, health care and infrastructure such as sewers and clean water also should be high on the list of aid projects, leading to lower child mortality. Better child survival would slow population growth, because families no longer would think they must have many children to work or care for aging parents.
The misery the world’s poorest people endure is practically unfathomable to us in the first world. About 1 billion people survive on less than $1 a day – not enough to buy food, much less health care. Extreme poverty kills 8 million human beings a year, primarily from famine and disease. About 3 million children a year die just from malaria, a disease that should be preventable. Hundreds of millions of people drink filthy water or live in shelters unfit for animals.
Nowhere do poverty and despair keep a stronger grip than in Africa. Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs calls the ongoing African death toll a “silent tsunami.” Of the 21 nations where more than a third of the people are severely undernourished, 17 are in Africa, says the World Food Program. Of the 18 nations that qualify for the recent debt forgiveness, 14 are African: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Against this backdrop, Blair has been asking the G8 leaders to increase development aid to Africa to $50 billion a year by 2010. So far, there’s no commitment from President Bush. Non-military U.S. aid to Africa comes to $3 billion a year, two-thirds of it aimed at HIV/AIDS response and emergency food aid. While emergency food deliveries are necessary, they don’t fix the inability of nations to feed their people. Much of the remaining $1 billion a year in U.S. funds for Africa is spent paying U.S. contractors who dispense the aid, not on actual assistance.
Some assistance that reaches the ground has been misapplied. For example, malaria can be prevented if Africans in disease-ridden areas sleep under mosquito nets that cost about $5 each. Instead of just providing the nets, the U.S. tried to sell them – to people who don’t have any money. When that didn’t work, the U.S. spent down its budget on advertising. The episode would have been farcical, except that in the midst of the bungling, many more Africans came down with the deadly illness.
Africa isn’t the only place needing help. Of the nations that will benefit from the recent debt relief package, four are in the Americas: Bolivia, Guyana, Nicaragua and Honduras. All suffer ethnic and racial divisions and lack basic infrastructure. As in Africa, many Latin governments are fragile democracies that could fall if they don’t deliver on promises to improve people’s lives.
In 2002, Bush warned that poverty enables terrorists to find havens among despairing people. The CIA has said that global poverty is among the serious long-range threats to U.S. national security. For the sake of America’s interests, as well as the humanitarian obligation, Bush should support efforts to boost aid to the world’s poorest.
