Africa After Aid? The Impact and Possibilities

This event will convene human rights activists and analysts, as well as those who have been directly impacted by the U.S. aid cuts.

The attack on foreign aid and development assistance from U.S. President Donald Trump has devastated the global system that encompasses work related to democracy, human rights, health, and development. In one fell swoop, for example, on March 10, it was announced that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had over 80% of its contracts cancelled, amounting to thousands of projects and countless jobs lost. The African continent, in particular, is expected to be the hardest hit.

While Trump has grabbed many of the headlines, European governments have also been queuing up to downsize their aid portfolios, including the United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. After elections this year, Germany and Canada are expected to follow suit. Not only does the “rest of the west” seem to lack the capacity to step up and replace America’s critical support, it also seems to lack the political will that the situation demands.

Some critics have celebrated this assault on the aid industry, arguing that it gives Africa the opportunity to stand on its own. The argument goes that slashing aid can be a springboard to an ‘African renaissance’ that might finally foster ‘African solutions to African problems’ while leading to a more independent and sustainable future. Yet while there is no doubt that progress on democracy and development is, and always has been, driven by African people themselves, any such renaissance will have to reckon with the hard reality of the significant funding cuts of today.

Development programs – including those designed to prevent gender-based violence and to combat HIV/AIDS, for example – have been fatally undermined. The simple truth is that innumerable people across the world, the most vulnerable on the planet, will die as a result of the aid cuts. Many democracy support projects have also been decimated, with thousands of groups that had been working to prevent human rights abuses or playing critical roles in election observation now dismantled. Elections will now be much easier to rig and manipulate, giving autocrats a considerably stronger hand going forward.

In light of this new reality, this show will convene human rights activists and analysts, as well as those who have been directly impacted by the U.S. aid cuts, to consider the impacts, as well as what comes next and how Africa might capitalize on this period of uncertainty to build a more resilient future.

Image: AFP Photo

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