International Aid, Cooperation And Diplomacy After COVID-19
By: M Sahr Nouwah- The Hunter S Grandson
Tags: Africa, Freedom, Diplomacy, United Nations, African Union

1. Extract

International Aid and Cooperation cannot remain the same after Covid-19 if truly there is change and that change means anything to global development. At the onset of declaring Covid-19 as a global pandemic, international solidarity was key. However, many decision-makers have forgotten that present Aid and international cooperation has controversially not being able to meet up with its intended impact. We failed in the Millennium Development Goals, we are about to fail in the Sustainable Development Goals. If we are to keep doing same things over and again, we cannot expect different results. We need to rethink Aid and International Solidarity and Cooperation. Even though this topic is being discussed, there is a limited focus whether we should shift or continue. Our world is teaching us but we are learning slowly. Partnership, as it is often preached, can only be realised with equal playing fields, where human dignity, respect for culture, religion, race and other social identities must be recognized and accepted. In so doing, post Covid-19 will require a new system of Development which I Called — Partnership for Sustainable Development.

In this partnership, we must advance trade, support global economy and support nations where raw resources are excavated to produce their own goods and services through bilateral trade. There is urgent need to avoid collecting the raw materials from country A, shipped to Country B, manufactured in Country B only to ship back to Country A for sales. Africa, South America and the Pacific do not need Aid. They need sustained partnership where they can trade with the West through finished goods and services. They need Money and this money is already available. First, Citizens of these regions must be encouraged to come home and invest. Two, Corrupt monies from these regions should be mobilized and used to support this investments; capital infrastructure and Education. If we recover from Covid-19 with the same theories, I am sure we will again find ourselves in another sustainable Development Goals after the ongoing ones.

2. Introduction

Covid- 19 did expose for sure our weaknesses. It exposed what centralized production and Market systems can be like in the face of epidemics, pandemics, disasters and uncertainties. Clouded within this phenomenon is the racial indifferences and the failed Aid and International Cooperation that keeps holding the world backward.

For instance, Africa is out of the Shackles, we are no longer slaves — we are no long a dark continent even though the feelings remain in us and those who made us look that way still teach their children that Africa is poor, weak, uncivilized and under developed. In fact, many Western children still belief that Africa is a village in the middle of nowhere.

One reason why this keep existing is the Centralized production Systems that control labour and service delivery — including Education and Science.

Many Africans and those from the Pacific as well as majority of the South American Citizens still received mockery and their services and hard earned knowledge is being cheaply traded. The key reasons stand in the perceived truth of poverty and development. These countries are still being portrayed as being uncivilized and under developed. Their colonizers still belief that they must remain first class humans while they remain subjects and second class.

However, we are learning slowly and unaware that citizens from these regions are tired, felt up with what is called Aid and want a new form of Partnership. Listening to many people within these regions, I have come to realize that the young African for instance wants a partnership of equals where dignity, respect and the choice to live according to ways and means that is of own chosen.

This means, the new Development Partnership and International Cooperation cannot be like what we have had since independence — A country like Liberia has enjoyed it for more than 170 years and still remain without a life for its citizens on the soil except when they travelled outside.

The question is what this new Partnership is. I called it Partnership for Sustainable Development. It must be a partnership where Western Countries can mobilize corrupt monies from these regions and repatriate these monies back home through a development channel focusing on key development needs such as Road Infrastructure, Education and energy. A portion could be used to advance Business Investment that transform their raw materials into finished Goods. Through sound education, the Youth can be transformed into productive Service Providers. This will automatically transform the trade system, create Africans/ South Americans and Pacifica who are proud of western civilization as it is often claimed and foster a new trade deal with equal participation at all levels.

Young Africans are tired of being treated as second class citizens in this world. And it is also the same for the Pacific and the South Americans. Imagine being in a class with whites who come to you for help, you over perform them making good grades but they enjoy their white privileges and excel to leadership positions — enjoying benefit and rights, while you struggle behind them. It hurts and it keeps happening.

The world after Covid-19 must never be the same. There must be a transformation and this must be with monies and resources from regions that have been deprived of their rightful resources directly and indirectly. Unequal partnerships through modern trade, Aid and International cooperation must stop if we are to win a better world after Covid-19.

3. History and Theories of Change on Development for Poor Nations

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), ‘’Foreign aid from official donors totaled USD $146.6 billion in 2017’’. The statement further suggest that there was a small decrease of 0.6% from 2016 in real terms as less money was spent on refugees inside donor countries but with more funds flowing to countries most in need of aid . According to the US Department of Treasury release on June 15, 2018, A Jewish Billionaire Dan Gertler is believed between 2010 and 2012 alone to have rubbed the DRC reportedly over $1.36 billion in revenues from the underpricing of mining assets that were sold to offshore companies linked to him (Gertler) . According to the US Department of Justice; Office of the United States Attorney’s Office — The Eastern District of New York in a release published on Thursday, March 7, 2019, ‘’Three Former Mozambican Government Officials and Five Business Executives were Indicted on Allegation of a $2 Billion Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme That Victimized U.S. Investors

Relying on some rough estimates, Transparency International quoting the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) suggests that Africa alone is losing more than US $50 Billion Annually to Illicit flow of her resources and often, these resources are sent to the United States of America, Great Britain, Australia, Italy, Spain or France — countries leading international Aid and Cooperation for poor nations .

This suggests that already, there are enough monies in the West owed to Africa and other poor countries for development if only we can unite against corruption. Accepting this narrative, Africa is rather feeding the world than what the media and developed countries have made us to belief all these years since independence that rich nations have been spending their tax payers’ money- reason why many citizens of the developed world see themselves as demi gods and portray themselves as colonizers. Many poor nations suggestively are actually the rich nations supporting poor countries (the West) to balance the equation. During this balancing, the Scale is bent downward to the West. Since the system is in a liquid form, it flows to them leaving Africa, South America and the Pacific dry, poor and wanting. With Covid-19, we need to rightly balance the scale — justice is what is needed to make the world a better place. In fact, UNECA on commenting about Africa has confirmed this statement by delving into economic development for Africa but fell short of calling for change away from the present model of developing perceived nations as poor. The old strategy — calling for more Aid not Partnership keeps being prioritized. Please do not confuse Partnership in advancing Aid and Partnership in Sustaining Post Covid-19 Development.

A quotation on the UNECA website suggests thus:

‘’Financing development in Africa has proved to be difficult in the past, compelling the continent to rely on external sources including overseas development assistance. This type of assistance is often unevenly distributed, unsustainable and, in some cases, damaging to national economies in the long run. Lessons learned from Africa’s development trajectory over the past three decades have prompted a fresh wave of thinking towards a post-2015 development agenda and Agenda 2063 transformative developmental framework designed to ensure self-reliance for Africa. In the light of the recent global economic and financial crises and the approaching deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, a structural transformation agenda will require an adequate, predictable, sustainable and integrated financing mechanism geared towards financing development goals (Abugre and Ndomo, 2014)’’.

However, we fell short of a shift and developed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the same mind set.

If we all accept the above statement, why then do we keep calling for the same action over and over without a rethink. We have to reimagine Development for developing countries with a new lens and approach. This is why it is important to support a new Partnership Framework called Partnership for Development focusing mainly on retrieving corrupt monies and rechanneling it into development through a well-defined pathways that I will later suggest in this article. I understand that there are challenges but not too big for a solution. I know we may need new laws, policies and diplomatic arrangements but I am sure we have the skills and the agency for that. I know there are huddles, but we have lubricants to help the processes. We only need commitment and political will at all fronts.

4. An Answer to the New Call to Action

The World is fast moving but we are lingering behind with our wisdom and hardheadedness trying to fix it all with one single theory from the man who wants it this way. But truly speaking, we all know that this is not the solution and there are options better, stronger and faster that can earn us the required results and impact afterwards. After Covid-19, the world will surely change as it has done already. International Aid, Cooperation and Diplomacy after Covid-19 requires smart planning, decentralized production systems and dignified partnerships. We must drive towards equality, freedom and prosperity without anyone standing at the door to ensure that one group is prioritized above others . The New Economic Development must have no donor and recipient but partners dedicated for a fairer world. There will be no tax payers’ monies but corrupt monies being mobilized for development.

Embassies must work with the sole need to advance trade between nations not aid, to support own strategic positioning not colonialized leadership. The world must be engaging towards prosperity on a bilateral basis. Western Countries must work towards recovery of corrupt monies to support rightful owners treating them as Economic Sources not dependent nations as it has been portrayed all these years.

My equation as a solution is simple:

Launch an investigation into all corrupt monies, retrieve all of it, and share benefits based on the following equation that benefit nations and create prosperity:

To support the regional blocks on their agendas, 10% of retrieved funds should be dedicated towards regional agendas, 10% towards Civil Society Organizations, 10% towards Fiscal Budget and 70% towards Development Agendas.

For instance, monies retrieved belonging to Liberia should be distributed as 10% to the African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); 10% to Liberian National CSOs through a special funding Mechanism managed by a National CSOs Platform; 10% towards National Budget. The rest of the monies is provided towards Development of Roads, Investments (Local Small Business Enterprises), Education (Free Quality Education for 15 years at all levels) and Electricity. I am sure defining a post Covid-19 development agenda on this thought will help us win the Sustainable Development Goals and beyond.

The development fund will define the bilateral relationship through which the country where the Money was retrieved hire her own companies on a participatory basis and each company biding must have a National company owning 30% share in the Investment Package from the country where the project will take place. The Construction of Roads, Improving Electricity and Education should be direct contracts. The Government of the day and the CSOs become the Monitoring Unit while foreign Governments use this infrastructure to advance trade between their countries and Developing Countries. In the Next 15 years, there will be an independent economic development that will support human capital development and other endeavors, allowing citizens to pay for themselves all essential services (Health, Education and Energy).

Why grant scholarships to countries if we can support their universities with equipment and needed staff and train more specialist at a lesser cost? Why Built roads with tax payers money when a single corrupt money from one of the citizens of that country can do it?

We have to rethink development and create equality in a way that it has never. We must build a Partnership for Sustainable development and fight to restore prosperity and dignity to the world. This is possible and we can.

5. References