There is a huge food crisis in the Horn of Africa.Hillary Clinton muses thathumanitarian a*sistance is in the American DNA.It is one of our core values,
and the American people have shown time and again that we will give to help
people in dire circumstances.We are inspired to see the outpouring that has
already begun, and we hope it will continue and grow.
Squandering taxpayers' hard-earned money on Third World is ridiculous.It's not
yours to give!There are many reasons for the failure of foreign aid.Foreign
aid has a widespread record of waste, fraud, and abuse. Aid programs have built
tennis courts in Rwanda, sent sewing machines to areas without electricity, and
constructed hospitals in cities where a dozen similar facilities already sat
half empty.efforts in the Horn of Africa.And she is mobilizing churches, mosques, and
synagogues to support this effort.
Frequently, the aid is stolen by corrupt foreign leaders.The Agency for
International Development admitted that much of the investment financed by AID
has disappeared without a trace.Even when aid reaches its intended
beneficiaries, the results are often counterproductive.Just as domestic welfare
prevents citizens from becoming self-sufficient, foreign aid keeps entire
nations dependent. According to one internal AID audit long-term feeding
programs have great potential for creating disincentives for food production.
Clinton reminds us that time is not on our side.Every minute, more people,
mostly women and mostly children, are dying in the Horn of Africa.They're
becoming sick.They are fleeing their homes.We must respond.We need to rise toSpecific examples of counterproductive aid policies are easy to come by.For
example, following a devastating earthquake in Guatemala, farmers trying to sell
their surplus grain found the market flooded by the Food for Peace program.As a
result, food aid stood in the way of development.Aid to Somalia aggravated the
country's famine, disrupted local agriculture, and turned nomadic tribesmen into
relief junkies.Similar results have been documented in countries as diverse as
Colombia, Haiti, and India.
Think of what it would mean if Clinton succeeds in the Horn of Africa.Millions
of people would be saved from this current calamity.Millions more would no
longer live tenuous existences, always prepared to pick up and move to find food
if drought or conflict or other crises occur.Parents would no longer have to
endure the agony of losing their children when the food runs out.And food aid
from countries like the United States would be needed much less frequently
because we are now supporting agricultural self-sufficiency.
Moreover, foreign aid has often been used to prop up failing socialist
economies, preventing countries from moving to free-market economic policies.
Yet, an examination of world economies clearly shows that those countries with
free markets experience the greatest economic prosperity.Foreign aid is
structurally bad because it undermines the incentive to take responsibility.The
more aid a country receives, the less the government of that country has to
answer to the people.countries.It would be a new era of security, stability, health, and economic
opportunity, peace, and stability.And it would signal a new chapter in the
world's relationships with the people of these countries.As they become
themselves able to care for their families, they will become real models and
examples of prosperity and stability and they will become partners to do even
more to help people live up to their own God-given potential.
We saw how unwise policies had an impact.Some policies that countries enacted
with the hope of mitigating the crisis, such as export bans on rice, only made
matters worse.They spurred panic buying and hoarding, which made rice
unaffordable from East Asia to West Africa to the Caribbean. They also
undermined countries' broader food security by discouraging farmers from
increasing production.Rising food prices can have a positive effect if they
send a signal to farmers to grow and sell more.But that can only happen if
there is transparency in markets and stocks so signals about prices and supply
are accurately received.
If we achieve that future in the Horn of Africa, we will have done something
truly remarkable.Just as the Green Revolution made such a difference, what we
are trying to do now is to get back to what worked then, focus on the basics.
Clinton wants to make sure that in USA and beyond, people know we have a crisis
and we must respond.
In the early 1980s, at the height of the Green Revolution, which we know helped
lift hundreds of millions of people out of food insecurity and out of poverty,
a*sistance to agriculture was 17 percent of total global development funding.In
2002, it had dropped to just over 3 percent.Today, it is 5 percent.
Improvements in agricultural productivity lagged behind population growth.And
many of us were somewhat shocked to see the UN's projections of a population
growth to 10.5 billion in the near future.
We must try to save those lives that are being lost in those brutal marches to
try to get to safety.We must support the refugee camps and do everything we can
to provide the immediate help that is needed.But let's not just do that, as
important as that is.Let's use this opportunity to make very clear what more we
need to do together to try to avoid this happening again.
Now, there are few easy answers to the problems facing rural farmers, the
majority of whom are women around the world, or those problems facing hungry
people everywhere.And many of the new investments in agricultural development
will not be evident for years.But we cannot let the complexity inhibit us.We
cannot let the timeline of change deter us.We can't keep falling back on
providing emergency aid just to put the band-aid on to keep moving forward to
try to mitigate the damage insofar as possible.
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