Africa trapped in poverty thanks to UK’s foreign aid
YOUR story (“PM refuses to commit to foreign aid”, April 20) should spur voters to use the coming election campaign to ask politicians tough questions about the effectiveness of foreign aid, especially in Africa.
The UK has led other donor countries in giving the continent some £ 600billion in development aid.
This begs the question why, if foreign aid is working, are 20 million facing starvation in East Africa and hundreds of thousands from all over the continent taking risky journeys in search of a better life in Europe every year?
The most compelling case against foreign aid is Africa has become a Western dependency by default. UK aid money should be used to tackle population explosion, the main root cause of the vicious cycle of conflicts over limited resources, famine and mass migration.
Priority should be given to funding facilities that would empower rural women to decide when and how many children they should have. Sam Akaki, Director, African Solutions To African Migration