Philanthropy and Competence

There are, and there always will be, people who are willing to help the less fortunate. However they will also need to know that the efforts toward that effect are being properly handled, and that the resources actually go where they are intended to go, instead of lining the pockets of some African official or some charity executive.

I've been in contact with a powerful philanthropic organization, and one of their members related two stories of philanthropic efforts going wrong. One was when an organization bought tractors and seed potatoes for some farmers in Ethiopia. The tractors sat rusting, unused, because the farmers could not find fuel for them; and the seed potatoes got eaten. In another situation, a vast load of grain that was bought to help the African hungry rotted away because the trucks could not navigate the roads.

These efforts need to be handled with competence. Good intentions are not enough; the efforts need to achieve the intended effect. Philanthropy does not belong to a nation, and it does not belong to a decade. People will want to do philanthropic work all over the world and in all ages. But this work needs to be handled competently, and the good intentions need to be converted into effective action.

Corruption and incompetence drive away those who are interested in philanthropy. Nobody wants to see their resources getting misused. People will give if they know that their resources are reaching the intended destination. People will not give if they know that their resources are going to get misappropriated.

Same is the case with any number of political activities stemming from good intentions but not being thought through. Julius Nyerere, a long time president of Tanzania, was a good man, and being acquainted with his daughter-in-law I know just how good a man he was. However he started a disastrous policy called ujamaa farming, in which he transplanted all the farmers into "ujamaa villages" - similar to Soviet collective farms - where 90% of Tanzania's population was populated, to produce 5% of its GDP. Tanzania went from being the biggest food exporter in Africa to being completely dependent on foreign aid. Since the death of Nyerere, Tanzania's economy has been improving, but it will take Tanzania a long time to overcome the effects of this disastrous policy.

There has been more interest in this past decade in philanthropy, and that is a virtue. However for the goodwill to continue the efforts done to that effect must be handled with competence. Food meant for the impoverished must reach the impoverished. Dams intended to be built must be built. And the corrupt bureaucrats and corrupt charity organization executives must be cut out of the process.

Goodwill is too precious a commodity to be misappropriated; and the way to make sure that this does not take place is through competent and effective efforts. When successful entrepreneurs come to Ugandan villages to help them improve their way of living, or when Africa itself trains its own people to become shrewd managers and businessmen, real things get done to improve African people's condition. These are the efforts that should be supported the most, as it is they that actually have the most chance to do the right thing by the people and truly actualize in improvement in people's lives.