Stale Focus
The Economist: HelpingAfrica Help Itself, The$25 Billion Question, DoingBusiness in Africa
In light of the G8 summit, The Economist published several articlesrelated to foreign aid to
Despite the misleading byline on the cover page (HelpingAfrica Help Itself), this edition of The Economist does not include one articleon the potential of private, African firms to reduce poverty in
Economic indicators suggest that other approaches to development have more potential than foreign aid. As BillKramer quoted the EU Trade Minister in his last post, a 1% increase in trade wouldequal a seven-fold increase in foreign aid. Remittances, money transfers via wire that many immigrants use to send money to their relatives and friends in their home countries, reached $116.6billion in 2003, whereas foreign aid from OECD countries only equaled $69billion in that same year, according to the World Bank. Although the authors of HelpingAfrica Help Itself rightlypoint out that foreign aid projects should not be trivialized, the relative small size of foreign aid suggests that stronger and more effective tools exist to reduce poverty inpoor countries.
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