Debt, AIDS, and Western Civilization

The easy answer is that you appropriate the additional funds and hope your opponents at the next general election are unable to track their progress through the many convoluted layers of the African bureaucracies. The more adequate answer is to demand the African bureaucracies have some extent of accountability for how the funds are used, and they must demonstrate tangible progress from tranch to tranch.

This is a familiar concept to non-profit and non-governmental organizations. It is known as restricted or designated funds. Enabling a similar system for state-appropriated funds to developing countries would be one way to balance the risks of corruption and the lack of accounting controls. But can the answer truly be that simple? Yes and no. The problem with so-called conditional aid is that generally there is a lack of oversight among the agencies designated to perform the tasks. In other words if ten million dollars are appropriated towards building AIDS clinics, no one who appropriated and designated those funds for that purpose will visit to ensure those clinics were built using those funds, and the agencies who build those clinics know that reality. They also know that no one except the tax authorities will care to take the time to inspect their annual 990 forms or their equivalents. Hence it is more sensible to designate the ten million dollars "for AIDS" or "for schools" or for some other indecipherably broad category. This does not suggest the agencies involved with fighting poverty in Africa all misappropriate funds and do not comply with their self-prescribed missions. Many of them have good intentions and provide invaluable services.

The same principle applies to debt relief. In the current circumstances debt forgiveness may be the only viable option, but it must be made very clear to the African states that this is a one-off deal, not a way of life. If debt forgiveness evolves into a regular trend, the enthusiasm to lend money to African states to encourage development will dwindle rapidly.

As with any other function, more accountability and more precise direction would go a long way towards "making poverty history". Inevitably the problem runs much deeper and beyond the power of the G8 leaders and legislatures. It runs to each voter and to each anti-poverty campaigner to understand the full scope of the complexities of the problem everyone would like to solve.

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