About Us Quarterly Magazine Foreword: Dead Aid
Foreword: Dead Aid Print E-mail
Saturday, 17 October 2009 11:25
By Rick Postma

Dambisa Moyo knows how to stir the pot. Moyo, a native of Zambia with degrees from Harvard and Oxford, makes the claim in her recently published book, Dead Aid, that after $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa over the last 50 years, the continent is not only worse off, but much worse off.

Moyo admits that numerous factors are having an impact: colonialism, corruption, tribalism, a lack of transparent and credible institutions needed for the rule of law, respect for private property and secure personal liberty. But by far the most significant culprit, according to Moyo, is systematic aid (aid between governments). The billions of dollars of aid pouring into many African countries can be compared to having a rich natural resource. African governments don’t need tax dollars from their citizens and therefore aren’t motivated to enhance the rule of law and respect for private property. On the contrary, governments are motivated to present as bleak a picture as possible so that aid will be increased.

So as a representative of an organization which brings aid to the developing world, why do I point to Moyo? Moyo isn’t nearly as critical of aid from charities. She praises programs which help the local people stand on their own two feet while warning against increasing dependency. She asks everyone to stop treating Africans as if they are children. To this we at Word & Deed heartily agree. One of our three areas of emphasis is that projects need to move beneficiaries to self-sufficiency. Creeping dependency can be a subtle challenge; projects need to have an exit strategy.

This issue includes project updates from Nigeria, Nicaragua and Malawi. In Nigeria, operating costs for Word & Deed’s Christian schools there are almost completely paid for by parents of the children – the project has a goal of self-sufficiency. In Nicaragua, families who lost their homes to Hurricane Stan have been provided with building materials but are expected to contribute the labor themselves – the project has a goal of avoiding dependency.

Pastor Christo Heiberg’s article about Logos Ministries in Malawi highlights something that Moyo misses altogether: The root cause of problems in our world is sin – a broken relationship with God which spills over into all we are and do. The answer, as Rev. William Pols points out in his meditation, is Christ, the God-Man who lived and died to deliver sinners from the curse and misery of sin. Given that sin is the key problem, then projects like Logos Ministries, which seeks to further education and equip pastors and elders of the church, are critical to bringing hope into the appalling conditions many Africans find themselves in.
May the Lord richly bless all involved with these projects and may thousands upon thousands of sinners be reconciled to Him through the blood of His Son.

Rick Postma is director of public relations for Word & Deed Ministries.
 
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