What disease is the leading cause of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, with one child dying from it every thirty seconds? It is malaria, a disease which was prevalent in Europe, America and Russia until the middle of the last century. Today around 90% of all malaria infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Other countries have essentially succeeded in eradicating the disease, but Africa is still struggling, despite billions of dollars of aid allocated towards solving the problem.
Why is this so? According to Julian Harris of the International Policy Network and Jasson Urbach of Africa Fighting Malaria, history demonstrates that the incidence of malaria declines most rapidly in countries which are experiencing economic growth, when mosquito-breeding areas are converted to farmland and when people can afford better housing with windows, screens and shutters, and access to effective drugs.
According to Harris and Urbach, foreign aid has made Africa worse off. Foreign aid money is “notoriously fungible” and allows “recipient governments to spend their own resources on anything they want without accountability”. Aid effectively subsidises weaponry and luxury cars for those who are in power. The way to eradicate the disease is not to provide money aimed at treating the symptoms, but to fix the economic oppression which causes the disease to exist.