Introduction
African countries receive foreign aid from developed countries in form of finances, commodities, or technical assistance. The aid is given to African countries to supplement the domestic sources of funds and help in alleviating deaths from disease and poverty. The effectiveness of foreign aid in African countries has sparked a lot of controversy.
Sachs (2009) advocates for continued supply of aid to Africa because it has successfully improved the lives of many Africans by eradicating diseases like smallpox, malaria, and tuberculosis and ensured that the HIV positive have access to antiretroviral drugs.
Therefore, there is reduced mortality rate. However, Moyo (2009) argues that aid promotes dependency, increases debt burdens, and promotes corruption and therefore should be discontinued. She challenges Africans to adopt a sustainable solution to their problems instead of relying on foreign aid for all their needs.
Looking at Sach’s views I will argue that African countries should continue receiving foreign aid because it helps in fighting diseases and therefore, reducing the mortality rate. Moyo’s suggestions cannot be applicable in African countries because they do not have the economic ability to combat diseases on their own.
They therefore need the intervention of foreign countries until they become economically independent. This topic is important because many Africans die from diseases because they do not have enough resources to fight them. Therefore, getting help from developed countries in form of foreign aid can go a long way in alleviating the suffering of these Africans and saving many lives.
Benefits of Foreign Aid in reducing mortality rate
Developed countries and international organizations have been helping impoverished African countries to fight diseases and therefore reduce the mortality rates by sending them aid. They send aid in form of drugs, vaccines and treated mosquito nets to save the lives of Africans who cannot afford such facilities.
Provision of vaccines by developed countries has saved the lives of many children from diseases like measles, polio and others. Foreign aid in terms of immunizations, vaccines, and affordable medicine has improved the lives of many poor Africans. Through foreign aid, there have been reduced cases of river blindness in West Africa. Leprosy was another menace in and Africa but through international aid the problem has been overcome (Chandler, 1985).
Child mortality in Africa has declined owing to foreign aid policies such as improved access to vaccines, healthcare for newborns, better nutrition, cleaner water and better treatment of childhood diseases. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations has helped save many lives through providing vaccines and immunization for diseases like measles, polio, small pox, Hepatitis B and yellow fever, among others. Vaccines are very important in saving lives because they prevent diseases for a lifetime.
They also protect children from deaths and reduce the possibility of future diseases and disabilities. This reduces the number of times that children and adults have to visit hospitals and therefore saves money and helps people to be productive in the society. Children are able to attend school and adults can perform their economic activities.
This organization has helped reduce child mortality in Africa through ensuring the increased use of existing vaccines which were previously underused, strengthening the existing immunization systems in Africa and introducing innovative immunization technology. Countries like Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and Angola, among others have benefitted from Polio vaccines. Others like Zimbabwe, Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia and Malawi have witnessed reduced child mortality rates owing to Measles immunization.
Over 130,000 lives were saved from deaths caused by measles in 2002 in Africa (World of Information 2007). These statistics show that foreign aid has been very successful in reducing child mortality in Africa. Many lives have been saved and children are assured of a healthy future because vaccines provide a lifetime protection. International organizations and developed countries should therefore continue giving foreign aid to African countries in order to save the lives of children and future generations.
African countries have been receiving aid from developed countries and international organizations like the Global Fund help them in the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and malaria. Many African countries have been able to fight malaria through the intervention of developed countries and international organizations.
Many Africans were dying from malaria due to the inability to access drugs. Through foreign aid, African countries have received malaria drugs and nets to fight the disease. After this intervention, malaria-related deaths have decreased. Reports from the Global Fund reveal that the efforts of the organization in Africa led to the saving of around 4.9 million lives in 2009 (Gupta, 1999).
The Global Fund has been providing antiretroviral therapy and male and female condoms to help fight against HIV/AIDS. This has resulted in a decline in AIDS-related mortality. The Global Fund also provides treatment to people with TB and TB prevalence and mortality rates have gone down.
The Global Fund has also been distributing treated nets and malaria drugs in African countries and this has reduced malaria-related deaths by around 50 percent. HIV/AIDS is one of the diseases that are contributing to the deaths of many Africans. In the developed countries, people infected with HIV can live for many years because they can manage the disease through use of antiretroviral drugs.
However, getting infected with the disease in many African countries is a death sentence since people have no access to antiretroviral drugs. Developed countries and international organizations have intervened by providing antiretroviral drugs to African countries in order to manage HIV/AIDS.
This has led to a reduction in deaths caused by HIV/AIDS. Botswana is one of the African countries that have benefitted from foreign aid to fight HIV/AIDS. Through initiatives such as the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership and BOTUSA, together with other partners like Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Global Fund and Harvard School of Public Health, Botswana has been able to acquire funds for the prevention, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS (Tulchinsky and Varavikova, 2009).
There is enough evidence that foreign aid has saved the lives of many Africans that would have been lost to diseases due to lack of access to proper health care. Therefore, African countries should continue receiving foreign aid in order to continue with the fight against these diseases and consequently, completely combat disease-related mortality.
According to Sachs (2009), the people who are opposing the continued supply of aid to Africa are not being considerate of the suffering of Africans, considering that they benefited from aid themselves. Everyone is in need of help at some time in life and therefore the suffering Africans should be supported.
Poor African countries cannot solve the problems of disease and poverty alone and therefore they need help in order to prevent the deaths that result from these problems. Some types of aid that would be most effective in solving Africa’s problems include those directed towards combating disease such as providing vaccines, antiretroviral drugs, de-worming, malaria control drugs and nets, and providing clean water.
Looking at the statistics of the number of lives saved through foreign aid, I will argue that African countries need help from developed countries in order to reduce the mortality rate. They cannot successfully achieve that on their own because of their poor economies.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is evident that the issue about whether African countries should continue receiving foreign aid or not is very controversial. Proponents of continued supply of aid argue that African countries need the developed countries in order to be able to reduce the number of deaths resulting from diseases and hunger.
On the other hand, the opponents feel that foreign aid is promoting Africa’s dependency on developing countries as well as promoting corruption. Foreign aid may not have been able to solve all Africa’s problems yet, but it has been effective in improving the lives of many individuals through providing food and combating disease. Millions of lives have been saved in Africa through the provision of vaccines, drugs and treated nets.
Less people die from diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other childhood diseases. Therefore, African countries should continue receiving aid from developed countries. With the right governance, the African countries can be able to reap the full benefits of foreign aid and even be on their way to independence. But before that happens, international organizations and developed countries should continue helping to alleviate the suffering of Africans and saving their lives.
Reference List
Chandler, W.U. (1985). Investing in Children. USA: World watch Institute.
Gupta, K.L. (1999). Foreign aid: new perspectives. USA: Springer.
Moyo, D. (2009). Aid Ironies: A Response to Jeffrey Sachs. Web.
Sachs, J. (2009). Aid Ironies. Web.
Tulchinsky, T.H. and Varavikova, E. (2009). The New Public Health. USA: Academic Press.
World of Information. (2007). Africa Review. USA: World of Information.