Bush to Double Africa Aid to $9 Billion

No one can be wrong about everything, and the Bush administration’s latest moves with regard to African humanitarian and development aid prove it. According to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the US gave $1.4 billion to Africa in 2001. The aid has risen to over $4 billion, and Mr. Bush wants to increase that to $9 billion by 2010. Three cheers are in order for his proposed doubling of the tripling he has already done.

Secretary of State neoCon-doleezza Rice said in a recent interview with the Associated Press, Mr. Bush “should be known for increasing -- doubling development assistance and tripling it to Africa after a period in which US development assistance was essentially flat for decades. He should be known for the largest single investment in AIDS and malaria, the biggest health investment of any government program ever.” Regular readers will appreciate that this journal believes the eradication of malaria is a moral imperative, which won’t actually cost all that much. Mr. Bush’s Africa policy includes a $1.2 billion malaria initiative he launched a year and a half ago.

Also, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) deserves praise. PEPFAR provides about 800,000 Africans with drugs that enable them to live longer with the disease and that help to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Critics have complained that the faith-based component promotes ideology over science, emphasizes abstinence and is wrong about the alleged ineffectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV transmission. While there is some truth to this, there are 800,000 Africans getting medicine, and one is prepared to put up with quite a bit for that to continue.

Other critics complain that the Busheviks are too focused on market solutions and access to African resources. Nii Akuetteh, executive director of Africa Action, a Washington-based advocacy organization told CNN, “First of all, much of the aid is emergency food or medical aid, rather than true development assistance. Then there are conditions that are attached where the emphasis is more on countries that open up their markets so American companies can go in and privatize things like water and electrical service or have access to certain resources.” Both are straw-man arguments. Emergency food and medical aid is more important that development aid when there is a Darfur-like problem. As for focusing aid on places where the market operates rather than the government dictates, well, what can one say? Markets can do things that governments can’t. And no country has sustained economic growth without them.

In just over two years, Mr. Bush will be an ex-president, and the Kensington Review is very happy about that. One believes that he will go down in history are one of the worst, if not the worst American president ever. However, as Mr. Carter has proved, one can be a better elder statesman than politician with just a bit of effort. Mr. Bush could make a new career out of helping Africa, and he has built a decent foundation from which to work. Perhaps Laura should talk to him about it.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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