Africa Needs a Plan Not More Donor Aid

Professor Nyasha Mboti

USAID was supposed to end with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. It didn't. In fact, its operations and funding expanded and intensified, particularly after 9/11.

Trump's recent move to shutter or majorly disrupt USAID might be a serendipitous time to revisit old debates about Africa, development and donor aid - or are we going to be bypassed by this seeming window of opportunity to reflect and act on what has been a wicked problem?

Some argue that the 21st century will turn out to be Africa's century. By 2050, 1 in 4 people and 1 in 3 young people will hail from the continent. Africa definitely has the human and natural resources.

So what are the strategies that will break us through? Ending donor dependency - whether from the US, EU or China - is definitely one known important step. Question is how and when. Time is of the essence.

Trump - and Elon Musk via so-called DOGE - might have inadvertently opened a fracture. Dare we widen it?

Or will it turn out to be another missed opportunity? Some are wringing their hands, mourning stopped donations, paychecks and contracts and the probable end of US soft power as we know it.

Others speculate that China will fill the void.

What of Africa? That is the question. What are we to do?

"They" have their plans. They've always had: both short and long term plans. But what is ours?

What is our plan? Where is Africa in this equation? What is the calculus?

Fact is: whatever good USAID - and most other donor aid - does in Africa is mostly bad. A paradox.

The author is the Founder of Apartheid Studies (AS) and Director for Centre for Apartheid Studies (CASt)

This article originally appeared on LinkedIn and is republished with the author’s permission Read the original

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