Economist George Ayittey with Bono at TEDx in China, 2008Photo Courtesy of Tedtochina.com

For Roundtable Review: Africas Cheetahs vs. HipposGiven by: African Economist George AyitteyTed Talk, June 2007Click HERE for the Ted Talk

Synopsis:

This Ted Talk given in 2007 by African Economist George Ayittey still packs a punch today. For any Roundtable members who have gone to Africa, witnessed the complex problems there, and desired to make a difference, Ayittey offers insight into the problem of aid and the vast corruption that has wasted this continents rich resources and made many governments dependent, even addicted, to the aid that continues to flood into Africa to this day (the US and Canada sent over 14 billion in aid to Africa in 2012). Ayittey says, Africa is a tragedy in more ways than one. There are so many organizations [who] want to help the people in Africa but they dont understand. Help in Africa is noblebut there are certain things we need to recognize. Africas begging bowl leakshorribly. There are people that think we need to pour more money into this bowl that leaks. But corruption [leaks] alone cost Africa 148 billion dollars a year. We need to ask ourselves this fundamental question: who do we want to help in Africa? The people or the government?

According to Ayittey, future funds should be directed toward building and expanding upon traditions of free markets and free trade rather than continuing to use exploitative economic structures.

In his book, Africa Unchained, Ayittey suggests that while microfinance has been a step in the right direction, it is still not enough. Current donors need to shift their focus to SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) Finance supporting larger businesses run by cheetahs that employ greater numbers of people who work toward changing the economic landscape by sustaining long-term stability and growth.

For those of you interested in further reading, you can check out Ayitteys book Africa Unchained HERE.

George Ayittey is a Ghanaian economist, author and president of the Free Africa Society in Washington DC. He is a professor at American University and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He has championed the argument that "Africa is poor because she is not free", that the primary cause of African poverty is less a result of the oppression and mismanagement by colonial powers, but rather a result of modern oppressive native autocrats. He also goes beyond criticism to advocate for specific ways to address the abuses of the past and present; specifically he calls for democratic government, debt reexamination, modernized infrastructure, free market economics, and free trade to promote development. (Wikipedia)