Bank Mzungu

I met with a pastor for coffee a month back in Lusaka. The topic: business. I helped him flesh out a few ideas to provide skills trainings and services for his church community. After helping him brainstorm, the real reason for our meeting slowly dawned on me. 'How are you going to seek funding?' I asked. 'Well, with your help. You know people, have friends and family back home, right? Can't you mail them asking for money?'

I thought of all the emails I have ever received in the States asking for a bank account number for some get rich quick scam.

'No, I don't really feel comfortable doing that.'


I'm sure liar wasn't too far from his vocabulary at that point.

I tried to explain that charity, especially the handouts he was seeking, aren't sustainable. Even if I was to collect money on his behalf, it would eventually run out. He and his church would be back to square one. A more sustainable, entrepreneurial spirit was needed - micro-finance to secure upfront capital, skills workshops to collect small funds or donations, selling the crafts made at the workshops, taking a small commission on the products sold by those trained to fund the center. As I was talking, I realized how much harder one method sounded than the other. Handout versus hard work. Ease versus the risk of failure. As much as I tried to relay the I was happy to help in any number of ways, I'm afraid I was only able to convince him that I was not going to be a funding source, that I wasn't his Bank Mzungu.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me. Its easy to feel like a walking dollar sign rather than a person in Africa.

These encounters may be microcosms of the larger aid industry. If you are at all interested in the theme, I would highly recommend 'Dead Aid' by Dambisa Moyo. She talks about aid to Africa over the last 50 years, and how it can be viewed as one of the chief mechanisms that has actually held Africa back from development. She is a Zambian, and her point of view is refreshing and insightful, providing a needed counter-argument to the typical Western arguments about the success or failure of foreign aid.

"Since the 1940s, approximately US$1 trillion of aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. This is nearly US$1,000 for every man, woman and child on the planet today."

That is A LOT of money. And where has this money gone? Has it reached the people who need it most, to help develop African societies, provide healthcare and education? Not necessarily, and definitely not efficiently.
"Foreign aid props up corrupt governments – providing them with freely usable cash. These corrupt governments interfere with the rule of law, the establishment of transparent civil institutions and the protection of civil liberties, making both domestic and foreign investment in poor countries unattractive. Greater opacity and fewer investments reduce economic growth, which leads to fewer job opportunities and increasing poverty levels. In response to growing poverty, donors give more aid, which continues the downward spiral of poverty."

"In most functioning and healthy economies, the middle class pays taxes in return for government accountability. Foreign aid short-circuits this link. Because the government’s financial dependence on its citizens has been reduced, it owes its people nothing."

Like charity, these handouts are for short term survival with little thought of the long-term. Aid is typically given with some conditions, but rarely ended or taken back if those conditions aren't met. The money continues to flow. Many want to alleviate poverty in the developing world by increasing the flow of aid. Maybe this is the wrong approach.

Winston Churchill is quoted in the book saying, "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." I don't want to discourage giving on an individual level. Americans give much more than the majority of Westerners, and much of that money does go to good causes. But is it the best way to help the developing world develop?

"Deep in every liberal sensibility is a profound sense that in a world of moral uncertainty one idea is sacred, one belief cannot be compromised: the rich should help the poor, and the form of this help should be aid."

But...

"There is no incentive for long-term financial planning, no reason to seek alternatives to fund development, when all you have to do is sit back and bank the cheques."

But how to change? For the government, it is almost easier to leave the status quo of a dysfunctional system of aid rather than shake things up. This is a controversial subject, and I don't have the answers. I do know, however, that I don't like being treated as a Bank Mzungu.