(Institute/University/College)
Foreign Aid: for war or for peace?
Former United Nations Secretary General Boutros-Boutros-Ghali delivered his watershed report, “An Agenda for Peace.” In the report, Boutros-Ghali reaffirmed the part of the international agency in upholding global peace and order. Confronted with critical regional and global instabilities that are posited by ‘failed states.’ the global community has allocated billions of dollars into complicated, multifaceted state building programs geared to incorporate power and rebuild local institutions. However, it is posited that these institutions destroy the natural political order that happen in these failed states; these heighten the intensity and brutality of the conflicts within these states. One of the primary examples when the international community allocates significant funds of states in flux is Somalia (Ahmad, 2012, pp. 313-314).
It has been argued that providing aid for conflict ridden areas in Africa is has been one of the more ‘celebrated’ concepts in the Western world-millions have conducted numerous initiatives towards alleviating the poverty in the region, and the level of foreign aid that is funneled into the region has become the barometer of a government’s involvement in helping the region climb out of poverty. However, rather than alleviating grinding poverty in the region, studies have shown that foreign aid has in exacerbated poverty in the region. The prevalent “culture of aid” has resulted in more African countries getting buried in debt, more vulnerable to inflation fluctuations and disruptions to currency market movements, and becoming more unattractive to foreign investors (Moyo, 2009).
In the decade of the 1980s-1990s, multinational agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund collaborated to implement their ‘traditional’ strategies to generate macroeconomic strength and development under the presumption that the gains from following this concept would incrementally flow down to the poorest sections of the society. Regrettably, this is the foundation of ‘neoliberal thinking” concepts that have been proven deficient and ill conceived. These principles have resulted in prices spiking to unprecedented levels, making the poverty rate in Somalia worse than before (Poverties, 2015).
In the course of the Cold War, the main goal of the United States in providing foreign aid to Somalia was to contain the Communist threat in the region. To the US, it was critical to develop alliances with underdeveloped countries, advocating that with foreign ‘assistance,’ the benefits of capitalism will be a stronger motivation for them to forge alliances with the West rather than the Communist East. When the USSR imploded, there was no justification left for US policy makers to continue the provision of aid to Somalia; without the protection of the US, the Somali government swiftly disintegrated and was soon overthrown. The US did not want to involve itself again in the region, but pictures of the famine quickly spread in the international community. This forced the US to intervene in the situation; the United Nations undertook a multilateral aid initiative, but soon withdrew after fears that it could not help the country without getting entangled in the raging civil war in the country (Hruskova, 2014, pp. 32-34).
At present, the United States has helped prop up the largely enervated Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu with the goal of repelling incursions by the Al-Qaeda connected al-Shabaab movement in the country. The link between aid and security in Somalia has frustrated many Somalis, stating that the aid-security connection must be severed, noting that though there is a tremendous amount of aid flowing into the country, the TFG seems to lack or deliberately removing any form of will to fight the extremists in the country. Majority of Somalis would like to see international aid be directed at the stronger regions of the country such as Somaliland and Puntland as well as redirecting humanitarian assistance to the southern regions of the country. Moreover, critics have also chided the United States and United Nations foreign assistance to Africa; these programs are bound to fail in that these policies are foreign to the needs and dynamics in Africa. This is due to the belief that foreign assistance has mainly benefited the ruling and bourgeoisie classes that allows them access to funds to bribe the government; the large part of the aid does not reach the target populations (Warsame, pp. 56-57).
It was shown that the lack of foreign intervention and assistance became the starting point for peace to thrive in the country. When the Barre government fell, the northern region seceded from the country and set up an independent “Republic of Somaliland.” Though unrecognized as a sovereign state, it has established a strong government that has contributed to the development of a strong military force and a capitalist market system. In the explanation of Somaliland officials, the primary reason for the success of the “country” was the absence of foreign interventions in their area. The solutions that were crafted and subsequently implemented in the country were crafted by Africans alone, and not with foreigners trying to dictate their own policies and interests into the talks.
In addition, the parties to the talks did not set pressure the others into acquiescing to the demands of the others. The two parties worked to resolve their differences with extremely negligible or non-existent external or foreign intervention. The foreign assistance dependent southern regions continued to degenerate. The former situation has resulted in an increasingly predatory and hostile situation for the civilians in the country. In this light, the international community must recognize that foreign aid contributes to the perpetuation rather than the reduction or elimination of poverty and other factors that fester into hostility and belligerence in the country. In addition, the global community must recognize that the solution does not lie with expatriate policy makers and programs, but with the Somali people themselves (Ahmad, 2012, pp. 330-331).
References
Ahmad, A (2012) “Agenda for peace or budget for war?” International Journal Spring 2012 pp. 313-331
Hruskova, A “Comparison of US foreign aid toward Somalia during and after the Cold War” Retrieved 30 July 2016 from <http://www.unob.cz/eam/Documents/Archiv/EaM_1_2014/Hruskova.pdf
Moyo, D (2009) “Why foreign aid is hurting Africa” Retrieved 30 July 2016 from <http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123758895999200083
Poverties (2015) “Poverty and famine in Somalia: the root causes” Retrieved 30 July 2016 from <http://www.poverties.org/blog/famine-in-somalia
Warsame, H “Role of international aid and open trade policies in rebuilding the Somali state” Retrieved 30 July 2016 from <https://www.ciaonet.org/attachments/19969/uploads
