I commend you for attempting to introduce the subsidiarity principle into the debate on development aid. This common sensical principle requires that, first, providers of aid should not do for recipients what they can do for themselves and, second, an end or exit point should be envisaged for cessation of aid. But pushing through this principle will be a challenge because development aid has become a huge industry -- employing 100,000 people -- replete with its own lobbyists and activists. Rooted in the desire "to achieve something,†many are imbued with smothering paternalism or a mothering mentality that has transformed a once-noble idea into "crocodile compassion.â€
George B.N. Ayittey, a native of Ghana and president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington, D.C., USA.
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Thu, 19 Aug 2010 - 12:35
on "Why Development Aid for Africa Has Failed"
I commend you for attempting to introduce the subsidiarity principle into the debate on development aid. This common sensical principle requires that, first, providers of aid should not do for recipients what they can do for themselves and, second, an end or exit point should be envisaged for cessation of aid. But pushing through this principle will be a challenge because development aid has become a huge industry -- employing 100,000 people -- replete with its own lobbyists and activists. Rooted in the desire "to achieve something,†many are imbued with smothering paternalism or a mothering mentality that has transformed a once-noble idea into "crocodile compassion.â€
George B.N. Ayittey, a native of Ghana and president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington, D.C., USA.