Sub-Saharan Africa worse off now than 20 years ago (4)
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Dear Colleagues
Mr. Odutola asked a big question. And the answer is simple. Cor-
rupt African political leaders and African public service manag-
ers who steal massive funds from Africa for deposit in donor
countries AND donors who "fail to live up to their pledges" of
bogus aid are both parts of a single basically failed develop-
ment paradigm.
Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa recent comment also needs addressing. This
is in the last paragraph!
Recently the British Ambassador in Kenya spoke out about corrup-
tion in Kenya, but I cannot find much action by the British gov-
ernment over the past 30 years to help the world get rid of cor-
rupt practice by the companies that are based in Britain and
write the checks (cheques) that are received by corrupt Afri-
cans. Talk is cheap, and it may work politically for a dumb
electorate, but it does NOT solve the problem. Yes there is
something... but not very much.
The USA has its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act but it is tooth-
less and somewhat laughable if the issue was not so serious.
Spin and lies in NORTH politics and corporate accounting is as
serious as corrupt receipt of moneys by African political lead-
ers and public service managers. It is all part of one big cor-
rupt and disfunctional system that needs to be replaced with
something better.
And it can be.
My believe is that more than 95% of the world's population are
"good" people who try to get ahead by old fashioned hard work
and live a hard and honest life. A lot of good people work in
organizations where the rules require "bad" decisions. The prob-
lem is the organizations and the expectations. The good people
are not the problem. A lot of good people are working and sur-
viving at the margin and they don't have time for anything but
the living and surviving and the family's day to day priorities.
Not so many good people occupy the big positions of wealth and
power. Wealth and power are very attractive and very corrupting.
And wealth and power beats good in the present scheme of things.
I do not believe that the solution is having wealth and power
shared with the masses in a big program of wealth distribution.
I think that was Karl Marx's idea! It is not my idea of progress
to take existing wealth and simply share it. It is zero sum and
progress, in my view is not about zero sum, but about multiply-
ing global economic value / wealth because we have all used our
talents (because we have the opportunities) to build a better
world. If everyone has opportunity, wealth will multiply, and
scarce wealth becomes instead abundant wealth. So the poor catch
up with the rich and powerful... and that would be good.
Becoming rich and powerful is not the problem that constrains
development. It is using existing wealth and power to minimize
opportunity for others rather than using it to expand opportu-
nity for all. Changing the present is less interesting than
changing the future - quickly.
Moving forward requires the right sort of information. I call it
"management information". Mr. Odutola referred to "bogus aid"
and he has touched on a big subject. The only aid worth having
is aid that builds value in the beneficiary country - and that
has been a low priority for most aid. The only foreign direct
investment (FDI) worth having is FDI that builds profits and
economic wealth in the host country. Too little aid and too lit-
tle FDI can be shown to build wealth and produce benefit in the
SOUTH. And this, of course, explains why an Africa, rich in
natural resources, has socio-economic poverty! It is bizarre.
I want to see the numbers. I want to see transparency, account-
ing and accountability and effective monitoring and evaluation
(TAAME) that blankets everything that is being done in relief
and development... including FDI... and including government ac-
counts. The only reason we don't have TAAME is that the top 5%
referred to earlier have made TAAME a low priority and they have
sidelined serious work on the elements of TAAME. But now it is
possible to have the benefit of TAAME not by waiting on the
leadership to "buy in" and do it, but we can do it ourselves as
an Internet and global movement to put information "on the re-
cord" about everything that is good or bad about relief and de-
velopment. The Open Access approach to information in the relief
and development world can do for the management of development
what "Open Book" accounting has done inside the corporate world
where it has been applied.
Because 95% will usually win over 5%... and because we now have
simple and low cost technology to communicate and store and ana-
lyze information an open system of TAAME can now be implemented.
It will be interested to see whether or not it will be imple-
mented... and then if it is... how much real and tangible pro-
gress in relief and development will then be made.
Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa would like to see good/responsible leader-
ship in Africa that implements people oriented, transparent,
etc. development and then harassment of donors about bogus aid.
I don't think we should wait in this way. I don't think that
"big" leadership is going to change unless it has to... and the
way for big leadership to change is for good leadership to
emerge everywhere at the community level and do what communities
can do and need to do to have progress. If we wait for big lead-
ership to change we will wait forever! What we have to do is to
find good little leadership, and help it to have the opportuni-
ties that are needed for success.
I may not have all of this 100% right.... but it is better than
the 100% wrong that permeates much of the present relief and de-
velopment space.
Sincerely
Peter Burgess
in New York
Tel: +1-212 772 6918
mailto:peterb@afrifund.com
Database
http://www.afrifund.com/wiki/index.pcgi?page=AfrifundDatabase
Coffee: http://afrifund.coffeefair.com
For more information about TAAME, please contact me.