Of sanctions, foreign aid and solutions to development
AFTER years of hyping over the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe since 2001, it is progressive that President Mnangagwa and the Second Republic realise that even in the presence of such a drawback, the country can still chart its developmental agenda and succeed.
Not that the illegal sanctions have been ease on the country — they have actually caused untold negative effects on the economic and the general development of the country.
Although the illegal sanctions have been eased by some countries, especially the European Union, mainly due to the Second Republic’s approach to international relations and foreign affairs, more still needs to be done so that the illegal embargo is totally removed.
In the meantime, Zimbabwe had to depart from over reliance on development aid and instead focus on areas that can bring win-win solutions to its developmental needs.
In fact, when President Mnangagwa came into office in 2017, he acknowledged the existence of the sanctions as a hamstring to the country’s development, but then said Zimbabwe should find its way out despite the presence of the illegal embargo.
This galvanised the nation to realise that development could still be done even in the presence of the illegal sanctions.
In the last few years under President Mnangagwa and true to his rallying point of using local resources for development, the country has witnessed unprecedented progress in various sectors of development.
To complement the use of local resources for development, the New Dispensation has embraced the concept of Private Pubic Partnerships (PPPs) that have seen several projects being undertaken by the private sector in alliance with the Government.
Apart from the PPPs, another bedrock for Zimbabwe’s development agenda has been its deliberate efforts to attract investors, both local and foreign, to support developmental projects.
The issue is that Zimbabwe is under the devastating illegal sanctions, which means it cannot access development aid, a status quo that some could have spent years mourning over.
Such people would be mourning over the loss of developmental aid, but what they do not do is to pose and reflect over what the country achieved when it had access to such development aid.
The truth of the matter is that Zimbabwe actually did more in terms of instituting developmental projects during the time it was under sanctions as compared when it had access to foreign aid.
In other words, foreign aid from Western countries failed to uplift Zimbabwe.
Under the New Dispensation, development has been given a new impetus, with various developmental projects being completed in
record times — all for the benefit of the people and for improving their livelihood, all this without foreign aid.
These projects cut across the whole spectrum of development and they include roads, dams, irrigation schemes, schools, clinics, hospitals and many other development projects being implemented in far flung areas.
It is now clear that Zimbabwe, under the New Dispensation, has since moved away from begging for development aid from Western countries and organisations, but has taken the route of promoting investments into the country.
When the investors come, it becomes an arrangement that brings mutual benefits — whereby the investors reap their profits, while the Government and its people also benefit from the rewards of the investment.
This is a far more plausible road to development than over reliance on foreign aid, which in most cases comes with strings attached that have nothing to do with development.
Some demands put forward by donors for developing countries to access aid are absurd and an affront to the recipient country’s cultural, moral, political and economic endeavours.
President Mnangagwa, through the “Nyika Inovakwa Nevene Vayo” mantra has been at the forefront of making sure that Zimbabweans are aware of the traps of relying on other countries for development.
While commissioning the Fontaine Ridge Housing Project in Harare in March he said: “They sanctioned us, but what we should always be mindful of is each and every country has its own people who develop it, the British built Britain, the Americans developed America, and the Japanese also built their own country. Every race should be master of its destiny, so let us build our own country.”
In fact, there is a popular argument now among scholars of development studies that is discrediting foreign aid as a tool for development in developing countries.
These scholars, including Dambisa Moyo and Jeffrey Sachs, actually argue that foreign aid is ineffective and has harmed developing
countries throughout the years.
Foreign aid prevents countries from taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the global economy and the aid levels have been too low to help reduce poverty.
Many other people agree with President Mnangagwa that depending on foreign aid has proved an anathema to development and instead developing countries should focus more internally and cut win-win deals with investors.
Ghanaian technology entrepreneur and founder of theSOFTtribe, the oldest and largest software company in Ghana, Herman Kojo Chinery-Hesse, had this to say on the subject:
“I have never heard of a country that developed on aid . . . I know about countries that developed on trade and innovation and business. I don’t know of any country that got so much aid that it suddenly became a first world country. I’ve never heard of such a country. So the, the track is wrong, that track ends to nowhere, it leads to nowhere. I don’t know of any country in the world where a bunch of foreigners came and developed the country. I don’t know one Japan? Korea? No! No country did that.”
Rwandan President Paul Kagame once said: “There is bad aid and there is good aid. The bad aid is that one which creates dependencies, as we’ve known for a long time now. But good aid is that which is targeted to create capacities in people so that they are able to live on their own activities. In the long-term they have to depend on themselves rather than depend on aid. Aid leads to more aid and more aid and more aid and less independence of the people that are receiving aid.”
Malik Fal, the Trustee and chief executive of South Africa’s successful investment fund, ESquared Investments, said: “Aid tends to delay the development of business in Africa, modern business.
It has kept Africa behind, or Africans behind in terms of getting the confidence they need, the experience they need to take a full part in the global economy, create businesses that compete globally and succeed globally. Aid has distorted markets in Africa. So the
sooner, Africa can graduate from its dependence on aid, the better.”
In light of how dependence on foreign aid is increasingly being discredited, the New Dispensation has sought to create a conducive environment so that it moves away from solely depending on such aid to opening up for investors to bring in capital.
This explains why there has been various steps taken towards creating the ease of doing business for investors who come to Zimbabwe.
Speaking in a recent interview with Zimpapers Television Network, President Mnangagwa said: “Attracting investment into a country is not an issue of guessing.
You must create an environment where the investor feels comfortable to go and invest.
“So, under the Second Republic, we looked at ourselves and said we need to be competitive worldwide in terms of attracting global capital to our country. In doing so, we looked at issues to attend to in order to have the ease of doing business, lower the cost of doing business.
“In that direction within a period of under a year, we were removed from a very low level and we went up 16 steps just within a year and it shows that we are very focused. We continue to improve areas where we think we remain less competitive compared to regional States as well as on the continent.”
Zimbabwe has become competitive when it comes to the attraction of investors, having created an environment that enables the investor to make money on a win-win basis.
Various steps are being taken to ensure that the country moves away from depending on foreign aid to embracing other means of doing business that come with no strings attached and are for mutual benefit.
It is equally important that African countries and others in the developing world realise that depending on foreign aid has failed to change their status quo and it is time to go for alternatives that bring benefits to the people.
Instead of begging for foreign aid from these foreign governments, the game should change to attracting investments from big companies in these foreign countries.