The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
People and organisations in developing countries know what is best for them, so why are they regularly pushed to the sidelines by Western development aid?
| SIBILLA BONDOLFI | When he was 13, Bwaita Aggrey met Jacob and Frida from Sweden while walking around Jinja, a town in southeast Uganda on the shores of Lake Victoria. “They were young and had no money for a tour guide,” says Aggrey. So he offered to show them around for free. All he asked for in return was “a guarantee they would become my friends”. On parting, they exchanged telephone numbers.
Several weeks later, Aggrey received a text message from Sweden. Jacob and Frida had told their friends and families about him and raised money for his education. “I was so excited,” Aggrey wrote in a message to SWI swissinfo.ch.
Jacob travelled from Sweden to Uganda again and helped the boy open a bank account. Before leaving, Jacob told him: “It is your future. You decide how you spend the money we send you. Whether you use it for school fees or spend it with your friends is up to you – but do not disappoint us.”
Helping people via social networks
Today Bwaita Aggrey is 21. Not only is he a rising fashion star in Uganda, with his own fashion label, but in 2020 he founded the youth platform “Youth Coffee Talk Africa”, which aims to empower Ugandan youth through technology, education, entrepreneurship and exchange. Aggrey motivates young people to volunteer in their communities.
During the Covid lockdown, his non-governmental organisation (NGO) provided 1,000 girls living in slum areas with sanitary towels. A clothing donation campaign was also organised. On YouTube and Instagram “Youth Coffee Talk Africa” raises young people’s awareness of the importance of wearing masks and gives advice on what to do if you fall ill. The NGO has also used social networks for a campaign against teenage pregnancies.
“Jacob and Frida inspired me and motivated me to do my work,” says Aggrey. “They gave me self-confidence. When I was 13, I learnt financial discipline, as I had to manage and prioritise the money they sent me.”
Development aid crushes local initiatives
Bwaita Aggrey’s story shows that local initiatives can be an alternative to Western development aid. In other words, instead of “white saviours” from overseas, people in developing countries can be the heroes of their own narratives.
This is not a new debate. For decades foreign aid experts from NGOs and the United Nations have been debating how to channel funds more efficiently and involve those concerned on the ground.
According to British-Nigerian political scientist Faye Ekong, who grew up in Ghana and now works as a management consultant in Kenya, small local initiatives such as “Youth Coffee Talk Africa” are a possible complement to traditional development aid. However, the problem, she says, is that “once the machinery of international development aid starts up, all local initiatives are wiped out. It’s like Walmart in the US. If the supermarket chain opens a branch somewhere, the small shops go out of business”.
