Tuesday 23 October 2018

What Leaders Should Do With Donations For Africa

By Cynthia Snyder


Africa is among the continents of the world. It has a lot of natural resources despite the fact that it is known to be where people die of hunger more often. As a way of helping the poor living in this geographical region, world bodies package donations for Africa every year. The donations usually run into millions of dollars or more per country.

For example, power supply in the region still cannot be compared to what is obtainable in developed countries. Many countries in Africa still have an epileptic power supply despite the huge donations they get. This has hampered the growth of their economy in no small measure.

Tasking the leaders to provide jobs with the money they get would be fine. If much of the money is used for the good of the common man, there would be fewer cases of unemployment. This can happen by building industries, opening markets and improving the standard of education in the country.

Although Africa currently ranks high among those living in extreme poverty and hunger, the situation can change if the money that is made available is being used to support agriculture in large-scale form. There are many people in the affected countries who are interested in farming but they need to be supported with funds so that they can expand. This expansion can also create more jobs and food for the country's populace.

The poor state of health in the country does not make things better at all. Instead, the doctors are handicapped when they meet challenges that were caused by malnutrition, hunger and the other problems peculiar to Africa. Since the patients cannot afford to attend private hospitals or fly abroad, they remain sick until death calls. African leaders who would rather take treatments in foreign government-owned hospitals need to be reminded about this responsibility.

Part of the money can be used to make their countries clean. It is common to see wastes litter the streets because they lack a proper waste management system in many of the states. One of the ways to effectively prevent this is by buying machines that can convert these wastes to something more useful. An example is a machine that converts polymer to plastic.

Many times, when Africans travel abroad, they express surprise at the level of development they see in other countries. They are often amazed at the fine road network, availability of water, rural electrification and much more. Unfortunately, African leaders who travel abroad see these things and they feel less concerned about improving their own states. They should be constantly reminded about this when they receive the grants.

Since most of these grants come consistently, the government in these countries can use it to raise the pay of workers. This will help them work harder and thus improve the wealth of the country. Those who are dependent on the workers whose income has been raised will also have a cause to smile because of this. Even if it cannot be done across all the sectors of the economy, the government can start with just a few areas.




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