Development Assistance

Last updated June 2009

Africa faces significant human development challenges. But African struggles to meet these challenges can be successful, and international support in this area can make a real difference to the continent's future. Greater investment in people has been proven to reduce poverty and promote economic growth and stability. It is also essential to ensuring the achievement of higher levels of health and education, which form the foundation for sustainable human development.

The efforts of African governments to meet the basic needs of their people and to ensure access to essential services are hindered by a lack of adequate resources. Despite repeated commitments from the U.S. and other wealthy countries, the international community is failing to adequately support African efforts to promote human development.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted in 2000 by most of the world's governments, including the U.S., seek to improve health, education and the environment across the world, with the overarching aim of reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by half by 2015. The United Nations (UN) estimates that meeting the MDGs will require a doubling of development assistance worldwide, to $100 billion annually. The 2007 Millennium Development Goals Update commissioned by the UN confirmed again that halfway to the 2015 deadline, sub-Saharan Africa is making the least progress of all the regions in the world and is not on target to meet the MDGs. In September 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon launched the Millennium Development Goals Africa Steering Group to address the gap between rhetorical commitment and effective sustained action.

The total amount of international aid in 2006 fell $46 billion short of the funding needed to reach the MDGs, and at current projected levels that deficit will rise to $52 billion by 2010. This trend is particularly striking in sub-Saharan Africa, where the UNDP estimates that aid flows will need to double by 2010 to meet the cost of financing the MDGs.

The U.S. is the richest country in the world, but it fails to provide its fair share of development assistance to African countries. U.S. spending on foreign aid has declined, relative to both the size of the U.S. economy and the federal budget. In fact, it donates the least aid, percentage-wise, of any other industrialized nation in the world, even when the dollar was the highest. Despite repeated promises from wealthy countries to provide 0.7% of their Gross National Product (GNP) for development assistance, not one of these countries comes close to that figure. In 2006, just 0.17 % of the U.S. GNP went toward official development assistance (ODA), a decline from .22 % in 2005.

U.S. official development assistance from 2000 to 2004 only increased by 56%. Most of the increase in U.S. assistance to Africa came in the form of emergency HIV/AIDS funding, food aid and emergency assistance for post-conflict relief in Liberia and southern Sudan. While this is positive, there was only a very minor increase in official development assistance, which is intended to contribute to sustainable development as opposed to humanitarian and emergency relief operations.

In 2004, the U.S. Congress established the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to provide aid to countries that meet specific economic and political criteria defined by Washington. Each year, the Board of Directors selects certain countries that are eligible to apply for funding in the upcoming fiscal year (FY). There are 11 African countries receiving MCA grants in 2009. The eligibility criteria dictated by the U.S. reinforce an old-style imperialist relationship with poor countries. They also create competition among poor countries for a portion of the relatively meager MCA funds.

Over the past two decades, African countries have paid out more in debt service to foreign creditors than they have received in development assistance or in new loans. From 1970-2002, Africa received some $540 billion in loans and paid back $550 billion in principal and interest. Yet Africa remains today with a debt stock of $295 billion. Experts estimate it would take an annual commitment of $18 billion a year to reverse the AIDS crisis in Africa that claims 7,000 lives a day. Sub-Saharan Africa pays almost $13 billion in debt service to the wealthy nations and institutions every year. After debt relief and the elimination of school fees, 1.5 million children returned to school in Tanzania almost overnight. This drain of Africa's resources reinforces the need for debt cancellation in order to enable African countries to focus their own resources on their own critical development needs.

Overall, the U.S. has consistently failed to commit the level of aid that would be commensurate with its own interests and obligations, or with African countries' needs. The United States is a key player in international financial institutions, and could influence debt relief and cancellation in that capacity. The United States has also committed to allocating a certain amount of its national income to international aid, and reneging on this can only serve to cheat low-income countries of much-needed funding and persuade other developed countries that it is acceptable to withdraw themselves The widening gap between rich and poor is a globally destabilizing phenomenon that U.S. policies should seek to address. As the world's wealthiest and most powerful country, the U.S. has the obligation and the means to help improve the lives of the world's poorest people and to provide decisive support to African efforts to achieve sustainable development.

Links

Africa Action Talking Points on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
October 29, 2009
"This updated Africa Action resource explains what the Global Fund is, and includes FAQ, resources, links, and information..."  Go > [PDF] [GlobalFundTalkingPoints_11.01.09.doc]

Invite- Today in Zimbabwe: What's Happening in the Ground"
October 27, 2009
Please join us for this event  Go >

The Future of Global Health: Ingredients for A Bold & Effective U.S. Initiative
October 27, 2009
"President Obama’s Global Health Initiative (GHI) represents an historic opportunity to achieve bold and ambitious targets in the fight against the most daunting global health challenges of our generation. Click here to the civil society report on The Future of Global Health..."  Go >

New Report Identifies Priorities and Price Tag for President Obama’s Leadership on Global Health
October 23, 2009
"Members of the media are invited to a special teleconference call and join Africa Action with Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, UN Special Advisor on the Millennium Development Goals, Director of Columbia’s Earth Institute, Dr. Peter Mugyenyi, director of Uganda’s Joint Clinical Research Center, and The Hon. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) Thursday, October 29, 2009, 10:00 AM ET. Click here for RSVP information..."  Go >

'Owning up to Africa': Gerald LeMelle on Sirius XM Satellite Radio
August 14, 2009
"Secretary of State Clinton in Africa: Click here to download an interview with Gerald LeMelle, executive director of Africa Action on Sirius XM Satellite Radio (33min:45)..."  Go >

Stop Vulture Funds Sign-on Letter
August 12, 2009
"This letter urges Members of Congress to co-sponsor the "Stop VULTURE Funds" Act (H.R. 2932). This bill will help preserve the poverty reduction gains achieved through global debt cancellation efforts by making it illegal for so-called “Vulture Funds” to profiteer from poor country debts at the expense of impoverished citizens of heavily indebted poor nations and U.S. taxpayers who have supported international debt cancellation..."  Go >

Secretary of State Clinton Begins Tour of Seven African Countries, Civil Society Responds
August 4, 2009
"This letter, endorsed by 20 organizations and 15 independent analyst, urge a new U.S. engagement with Africa. The letter takes much of the rhetoric of President's Obama's Ghana speech and couples it with specific policy prescriptions targeting the U.S. State Department upon the beginning of Secretary Clinton's trip to Africa (August 5-14)..."  Go >

Media Briefing Booklet: President Barack Obama's Visit to Ghana July 10, 2009
July 10, 2009
"Over the past decade, Africa’s status in U.S. national security policy has risen dramatically, for three main reasons: America’s growing dependence on Africa’s oil exports, Africa’s importance as a major battlefield in America’s “Global War on Terrorism,” and Africa’s central position in the global competition between America and China for economic and political power..."  Go >

Africa Action Talking Points on Climate Change and Africa
December 12, 2008
"The United States, the European Union, Russia and Japan together make up almost half of the world’s carbon emissions. According to United Nations data, Africa produces only four percent. However, it is the African countries that stand to suffer most from the detrimental effects of a warmer planet..."  Go >

Millennium Development Goals 2007
"This UN document tracks progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and finds sub-Saharan Africa still trails behind other regions..."  Go >

Africa and the Millenium Development Goals 2007 Update
“Using the same data and statistical methodologies as the global 2007 report, this UN document argues that urgent scaling up of assistance is necessary to get African countries on track to meet the MDGs. . .”  Go >

Millennium Development Goals – Basic Information
" The United Nations Development Program website with resources on the Millennium Development Goals, including country progress reports, goals and indicators, best practices and more..."  Go >

Op-Ed: The G-8 and Africa
July 7, 2005 - Ann-Louise Colgan, The Examiner
"One of the main items on the G-8 Summit agenda is how rich nations can do more to support Africa's development. However, their grand gestures will make little difference to the majority of people in Africa unless the G-8 cancels all of Africa's debts and dramatically increases aid for the continent's development..."  Go >

U.S. Foreign Assistance to Africa: Claims vs. Reality
June 29, 2005 - Susan E. Rice, The Brookings Institution
"This report by former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Susan E. Rice from The Brookings Institution refutes President Bush’s claims to have tripled assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa. Rice finds that Bush has not even doubled assistance and the modest increases have mostly been in emergency food aid as opposed to assistance for sustainable development..."  Go >

Africa Action Rejects White House Announcement on Aid to Africa
June 7, 2005
"Africa Action today rejected as 'disingenuous' a new U.S.-UK initiative, which would provide a small increase in humanitarian assistance to African countries threatened with famine, but which does nothing to address the crisis of African countries’ illegitimate debts..."  Go >

UN Human Development Report 2009
"Prepared by United Nations Development Program (UNDP), this report argues that respecting cultural diversity and building more inclusive societies are vital parts of human development..."  Go >

Aid - Let's Get Real
June 20, 2002 - Salih Booker & William Minter, The Nation
"Africa Action's Salih Booker and William Minter discuss some of the problems with foreign aid in this article published by the The Nation magazine. They make recommendations about what rich countries like the United States should be doing to promote global development..."  Go >
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020708&s=booker
PDF

Statement on the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development
March 20, 2002 - Africa Action
"This Africa Action press statement on the Bush Administrations actions at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development argues that the cancellation of Africa's illegitimate foreign debts and the full funding of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS are the essential first steps for saving millions of lives lost each year in Africa to poverty and the related health crisis..."  Go >

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