: Giving Cash to Africa is the Best Thing the U.S. Can Do For Both Africa and Itself #WorldNEWS This week, U. S. Secretary Janet Yellen is in Senegal, Zambia, and South Africa on a mission to bolster

Giving Cash to Africa is the Best Thing the U.S. Can Do For Both Africa and Itself #WorldNEWS
This week, U. S. Secretary Janet Yellen is in Senegal, Zambia, and South Africa on a mission to bolster America’s reputation on the continent. On the heels of December’s White House summit, this is part of an acknowledgement that America has lost ground to China and Russia in the contest to develop Africa. The administration pledged billion in support for health, climate adaption, and development. Not included: addressing poverty directly.
The United Nations committed to ending extreme poverty by the end of this decade, a target certain to be missed. While the percentage of the extreme poor in sub-Saharan Africa is lower than it was in 1990, the absolute number in extreme poverty is 100 million people higher. During a period in which the world has become three times wealthier, hundreds of millions of people remain unable to feed, clothe, or shelter themselves. By 2050, the continent will be home to a quarter of the world, and we’ve failed to ensure they won’t be born into extreme poverty.

Some of the blame for our failure, of course, lies with corrupt local governments, decades of exploitation and underinvestment stretching back to the colonial era, and the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 and the Ukraine-Russia conflict. But much of the blame must rest with the way that the U. S. and its allies have spent trillions of dollars in international aid over many decades. And I personally, as the U. K. Secretary of State, responsible for an overseas aid budget of almost billion a year, was complicit in much of this failure. Whatever we have been doing, it has not made enough difference to poverty in Africa.
China has deftly stepped into this void, propping up local elites and lending hundreds of billions of dollars in sub-Saharan Africa with almost no benefit to the extreme poor, plunging Africa into a debt crisis. In the process, China has built political influence and gained access to vital resources. Russia has gained a foothold in its own way, extending paramilitary support to the most violent leaders on the continent.
Perhaps because of their failures, the West seems to be giving up on poverty alleviation. Britain has cut a third from its international aid budget, and much more from its poverty programs in Africa. European governments are spending an increasing proportion of their aid on problems closer to home, such as Ukraine. Many U. S. private foundations increasingly focus on health initiatives such as vaccination, vitamins, and bed-nets, which have dramatically improved infant mortality and life expectancy but cannot end poverty. For her part, Secretary Yellen is spending her trip visiting electrification efforts and business incubators.