Health experts and aid organisations have warned that US funding cuts to HIV/Aids programmes in many African countries could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths on the continent. In South Africa alone, US funding halts could lead to 500 000 deaths over the next 10 years.
In the next decade, the US will not be alone in cutting aid. European nations could soon follow suit, redirecting aid money to bolster their military spending or cater to the nationalist whims of ascendant right-wing parties.
Faced with these developments, we in Africa must confront the harsh truth that the global geopolitical landscape is shifting rapidly and we must change with it.
While short-term solutions directed at bridging the gap left by vanishing aid are undoubtedly necessary, we must simultaneously devise long-term solutions which involve strategies to wean our countries off aid dependency.
There are several key continental strategies Africa should consider to break free from aid dependency:
First, according to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Africa loses $128 billion a year to corruption, equivalent to half of its tax revenue and a quarter of its GDP. Africa would need less aid if it effectively tackled corruption, wasteful spending and mismanagement of funds. Domestic anti-corruption institutions are not enough. The continent should establish robust pan-African anti-corruption institutions, including a credible peer-review mechanism and an African anti-corruption court.
Second, Africa loses $50 billion annually in illicit financial outflows. Some argue that the loss is more than the amount received through aid. While pressuring the global community to implement international tax conventions, Africa needs to coordinate a unified continental response to tackle illicit financial flows and other commercial crimes. This should include an intelligence and investigative body to track and identify culprits who would be referred to the African anti-corruption court.
Third, Africa, together with the rest of the Global South, should push to restructure the global financial and trade architecture, allowing more room for homegrown financial systems, including an African currency and efficient regional banks. Intra-continental trade, which is key to ending aid dependency, will not achieve optimal performance if the global financial architecture and value chain are not transformed.
Fourth, aid dependency will not end if Africa does not develop the capacity to feed itself and meet its energy needs. However,the continent should go beyond this and strive for genuine food and energy sovereignty.
Fifth, reducing aid in the form of technological transfers will require Africa to prioritise technology-focused education from the elementary to tertiary levels. The priority should be to lay the foundation for homegrown technological innovation in sectors such as agriculture, mining, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing.
Sixth, aid dependency is primarily a mindset issue, not just a structural one. Africa must cultivate a self-reliant mindset and reject the victim mentality. There should be comprehensive reform in education, particularly in life skills learning, with a focus on building collective self-confidence and liberating African minds from this dependency mindset.
It should not be forgotten that the success of these ambitious strategies hinges on the emergence of a new generation of African leaders with ethics, vision and the ability to establish capable states.
But, to build such visionary and ethical leadership, we need a serious conversation about what it means to be a capable state in the African context, and whether the current arrangement of state power, including the configuration of democracy, is conducive to it. And such a conversation should begin now and not in the future.
Father Stan Muyebe is the director of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
