This from the website for the Brooking Institution. “A Reality Check on African Aid” by Homi Kraras. It’s does a good job putting Bush’s Africa policy in context.
President Bush’s trip to Africa has rightfully been welcomed in the region. Under his administration, U.S. economic assistance has more than doubled and has been targeted, with some success, towards HIV/AIDS and malaria—diseases that take a terrible toll on Africa. But before giving the President too much credit for these developments, it is worth a reality check to put these accomplishments into perspective
Take the increase in aid to Africa. Between 2000 and 2006, U.S. economic aid to sub-Saharan Africa increased from $2.1 billion to $5.4 billion (in constant terms). That is commendable. But it is also the case that Africa has become the focus of aid efforts by the global development community and aid from many other countries has also gone up, in some cases by even more. European Union countries, for example, gave $21.9 billion to Africa in 2006—four times as much as the United States. The United Kingdom on its own gave $5.2 billion to Africa, almost the same amount as the United States from a country whose economy is one-sixth the size.
Also we spend more on Afghanistan and Iraq then all of Africa put together. You might think when you start to look at the Bush Administration by the numbers it might look better. Turns out when you think about Bush’s Africa policy in the context of a what other countries are doing and a 3 trillion dollar war common opinion about Bush’s priorities being out of whack turns out to completely true.
Filed under: International | Leave a Comment
Tags: African Aid, AIDS in Africa, Brookings Institution, George Bush, Homi Kraras, Iraq War
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