Fighting Poverty is Big Business. But who profits the most? Aids & NGOs OR Business & Entrepreneurship.

Fighting Poverty is Big Business. But Who Profits the Most?

Aids & NGOs ……. Or Business & Entrepreneurship

Introduction

I want to start by thanking Mr. Malcolm Speller for the presentation of this video. I am very sure that there is a significant difference between now and before in my thinking about poverty reduction with respect to the role of NGOs and Businesses.

I have always admired great philanthropist like Bill Gate, Oprah, Angelina Julie, David Beckam and others. My thinking was that these are great people with beautiful mindsets and with the intention of making the world a better place. The truth is I was wrong. This God sent video is an eye opening and a stimulant to rethink development from a different perspective.

Who Profits the Most?

After watching the video, I realized that there are four persons who stands to profit or loose the most and this depends on which side they are coming from. International organisations from donor countries, their business, government and citizens OR Businesses, government, local organisations and citizens from receptor countries?

No.	Donors Camp	Receptors Camp
1	Governments	Governments
2	Organisations	Organisations
3	Businesses	Businesses
4	Citizens	Citizens

The truth is, all of these people benefits the most, and it depends on which camp they belong.  It also depend on what kind of aid is provided and how the aids are provided.

Donors Camp

The Donors camp includes the citizens, businesses, organisations and government of countries who provide aids for developing countries or to the poor who are their subject of assistance.

The Citizens pay taxes to the government who use some of these tax money for aids. Business in these camps are usually the ones to produces donated materials and items to these developing nations. The companies produces at high quantities so they pay huge taxes to their government for their activities. The government uses this money to develop their nation create jobs for the citizens. Organisations in this camp benefits for the cash to paint a terrible picture for developing countries. Their organisations and workers benefit tremendously from this opportunity. So in actual sense, it means big business for them. To the best of my knowledge, everybody profits the most in this camp.

Receptors Camp

The Receptor camp includes the citizens, businesses, organisations and government of countries who receive aids from donor agencies and are usually placed at the end of the continuum.

The citizens of these camp are usually considered to be the poorest, and needing ultimate assistance. They tend to lose the most. With very high unemployment rate and little opportunity to start up a business. Again little or no opportunity, a damage caused by international organisations in collaboration with some local organisations. The business environment is also infected by the aid syndrome. Local business cannot compete because products and services are heavily subsidized through aids. The Governments who fall in the temptation of getting free or cheap services don’t know how less they may benefit from their own economy. At the end almost everyone in this camp profits the less if at all there is a possibility of a long term profit.

Case Studies

No.	Examples	Who profits?	Who does not profit?
1	Free Mosquito Nets in Cameroon (Imported from abroad)	- Companies producing the mosquito nets from donor or other countries, - organisations from donor countries and - Sometimes local organisations who fits on the crumbs and do most of the work.	Mosquito net business in Cameroon is simply a dream. This companies cannot survive. They cannot sell products distributed for free. Because they cannot survive, some citizens who were to be employed remains unemployed thus doing no help to the poverty level. The government cannot get taxes from closed businesses either. The production of mosquito nets in Cameroon would have fetch the government a huge sum of money as well as employment for its citizens. In Cameroon over 12,000,000 mosquito nets have been distributed. If a mosquito net cost at least 5,000frs. It thus implies that the mosquito net business would have earned 60 Billion francs. Let us imagine how much the government will tax this company. We can also imagine how many workers will earn salaries from this business.
2	Free Medical Equipment	Companies of medical equipment from donor country. Organisations who carry them to the presumed land of the needy. And the local organisations who benefits from the crumps as well.	All in the receptor camp, except local NGOs who benefit a bit from the Aids.
3	Education	Donor’s Camp benefits. Local NGOs benefit to a lesser extent.	The education market apart from regular schooling market seems almost impossible to emerge. Some of the specialist in education here in Cameroon includes; Educational Psychologist, Special Educators, Curriculum Designers, and Educational Administrators. Setting up of Clinics and consultancy that works in these domains seems almost impossible. The free services provided by the aid community makes it almost impossible for this specialist to put a price on their services. Businesses don’t also profit in this domain, the government also does not profit from tax levy.
4	Agriculture		Subsidized food stuff like rice and other products also kills local businesses in the Agricultural sector. A good example is Ndop rice which is our own local rice produced in the North west Region Cameroon. Other imported rice have over shadowed the market. Local farmers work day and night but they cannot still compete because of cheap imported products. Agriculture business also suffers.

***Some Celebrities and big business donors use the aid medium to make their name, advertise themselves while painting a pathetic image about these receptors countries (low income country).

What happens to our mindset when we think that free or cheap services is the best way for us to develop and come out of poverty? Will shall wait to receive at all times and nothing will be created. From such a mentality we become beggars for life.

To Conclude, NGOs and Businesses gain in the donor camp and NGOs gain to a lesser extent in the Receptor Camps and Businesses are the biggest losers in the receptor Camp.

Suggestions

Aid should be provided only in emergency situations and this should be temporal.

Aids should be geared towards supporting businesses to grow in these developing countries.

STOP Aids that compete and damages our local markets.