Delving into this aura of discussions is actually unleashing a Pandora box of sorts. While many a developing economy grapple with the ever mounting foreign debt, several schools of thought are beginning to emanate as to what would best prescribe medicine to curb this forth with. Whether foreign loans have outlived their usefulness so to say?
-What absorption methods would make a quick fix for any such monies from international loan schemes to have to cause tangible and sound economic achievements
-Whether we really need these loans anyway for much of them are subject to be misused by recipient governments while lenders look on?
-How about the trade not loans undertaking which has worked for well positioned Asian tigers.
In realty substantive arguments would call for a clearing of the air on the subtle effects of the thousands of billions of dollars ever pumped into our economies courtesy of IMF and its likes over the years.
The policy dictates of the solidly backed IMF, World Bank, and other multilateral lenders are such that whatever the situation, it’s only ideal that whichever monies they will advance can create positive economic change irrespective of political will of sitting recipient governments.
Sizable chunks of money are hoarded away in politicians’ private bank accounts. Rather daunting an experience that such is the money that’s approved by legislative bodies for public procurement and other development purposes. Populating the many creative schemes of corruption a case of Uganda are the Ghosts that are a household name and no facet of government ministry has been spared. So lucrative a scheme that has over nightly propelled several from rags to riches.
The situation has not been helped by the newly enacted international money laundering legislation thanks to the war on terror. Only some Governments have realized domestication of the laws while others continue to flout them locally. Needless to say that some mileage could be achieved as misappropriated funds would meet a dead end, for many belligerent thieves can’t risk keeping money under their pillows; but would rather channel it into real estate also avoid wiring it to any inquisitive bank. The only favorable explanation to the haphazardly constructed but often substandard new structures dotting the skylines of cities like Kampala
Unlike the many donor Governments that hire reputable audit firms back home like PWC, Ernst and Young, its not a pre-condition for disbursing loanable funds to recipients, I anticipate this would be a deterrent to errant borrower governments to allow for benchmarks in place tailored for the evil undoing
Political patronage serves to even strangle any right skills deployment to foster fruitful implementation, supervision as well as audit of critical development schemes; cronyism is just a tip on the iceberg on the many deficiencies bedeviling public works that come to the public eye.
To lesser extent it’s not vital a conditionality to have favored relations with recipient Governments that harness Democracy, but somewhat a window dressing form diplomacy takes precedence for multiplicity of donors to the extent of pampering dictators as long as they work for them, rather striking is a tinged tone that gets fronted to the so called pariah states, and the many rogue nations say Zimbabwe who continually unleash a barrage of insults on the “imperialists” as Mugabe likes calling them. Impunity in clear contravention of UN humanitarian aspirations is the order of the day but only gets a nod in some quarters from western capitals. Whatever is the cause of the two faced policy is cause for concern to many of us.
The norm of autocratic regimes is that self evaluation is alien territory devoid of traversing, right from flawed elections always supervised by western powers and waived to be free and fair, to the nascent clampdown on media houses to the ultimate organization of genocides and their likes while the world watches is the order of the day. We should note here that a government that steals elections will steal anything including money and land if given a chance.
We the Africans are positioned to be spectators while our countries waste away and donors pumping sycophants with hefty sums which they use to arm themselves, unleash the wrath of their brutal machinations on those with alternative ideas. All the funds will never benefit us or our kids for they are reimbursed under the guise of hospitality endeavors but ought to be paid at a latter date.
Any feasible endeavors to promote trade are a nemesis of such friction as to warrant a tirade of words. Some of the many failed attempts to come to responsible trade terms will remain an eye sore if not a scar on the faces of the earth. From Doha to any other multilateral arrangements, such is the spirals of lingering trade talks as remnant of the unethical haggling continues to haunt our trade regimes.
The newest trade battleground is EPA; here European and African trade negotiations lie in limbo as haggling drags on. Any signing of EPA agreements will deal a death knell to what remains of the vestiges of Africa’s trade with Europe, opening the flood gates of much feared subsidized products to our markets. Thus would be an uphill battle for Africans to sell to Europe. It’s pivotal therefore for Africa to stick to their guns and throw out this arrangement once and for all.
Home grown media houses seem to be getting a thorough bashing from the usually agile multifaceted international news giants. Their slot to rightly inform the world of an African renaissance has been high jacked. What continues to feature on Africa in many a western media thanks to the likes of CNN is the hunger stricken, AIDS infested and conflict ridden continent, catalyst enough to deter arrival of meaningful investors. In the ensuring battle of the air waves numerous local media houses simply reinvent themselves by running western style programmes to lure back some of their viewer-ship like in sitcoms albeit pressing home grown problems pivotal for development.
In his book Prof .Moyo Dambisa has however muscled in some of the stormiest economic discussions of the decade. The Harvard scholars emphasizes the mopping up of own resources instead of always harnessing donor Dollars flying around. The clearly well mobilized and much valued locally mobilized funds will be put to much use than the readily available easily accessible yet quickly economically destabilizing foreign dollars. People will resort to chasing the Dollars subject to ease of availability but with less absorption capacity for many a business concern leading to wastage.
If we are to look intently at what this entails, much substance ought to be attached to
Necessitating local capital mobilization and then juggling the international and local
Markets to sell our wares. The whole series of events given the operation, will offer tangible results for countless stake holders concentrating on the grass root capacity building as to stimulate a viable tax base and a highly effective local capitalization well oiled machine, its at this point given the acquired fiscal discipline, propel us to the best informed donor money utilization.
So Donor dollars should come in as second or third tier support if we are to realize any meaningful economic emancipation. The breast thumping as to who has splashed more into the debt till relative to the others should stop forthwith, a constructive engagement
Regime to bring down the spiraling yet useless Third world debt instituted. Meanwhile consultations on this matter are bound to continue to iron out modalities.
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