How do you measure a year?

In historical terms, a year may seem like just a small blip, but in individual terms, 365 days can really mean something. Think about where you were and what you were doing one year ago...now think about how much has happened and changed in your life in since then...kinda crazy, huh?

One year ago, I was at the United Nations attending daily briefings about various international issues and loving every single minute of it. This experience was one of the turning points for me in terms of discovering where my interests lie and what my life goals are, and I think I have made quite a bit of progress as far as paving the way to begin to fulfill these life goals. The time spent and effort put forth in this little 365-day historical blip can go a long way for one person.

One year ago marks not only a significant point in my life, but an important date for Africa as well. Last year on July 7, 2005, the G8 met in Gleneagles to discuss some of the issues facing global leaders. The most significant talking point that arose from these discussions was foreign aid. Each of the leaders agreed that poverty was a huge problem that must be stopped, and each leader seemed to attempt to one-up everyone else in their promises to eradicate it. All eight countries pledged to increase aid to the tune of some $50 billion to Africa and to cancel debt to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs).

The international community became caught up in the hype of these promises with the "Make Poverty History" campaign and the Live 8 concerts. Even ordinary citizens were aware of the negotiations taking place in Gleneagles, and with Bono and Madonna telling them that they need to be concerned about Africa, people responded. Everyone seemed to be on board and everyone seemed to believe that the G8 negotiations could be the catalyst for changing the fate of citizens of developing countries, particularly those of Africa. This would be, as Tony Blair declared, the "Year of Africa".

One whole year, dedicated to eradicating poverty in one continent, with the world's greatest powers calling the shots, and tons of money pouring into the countries. With all of this momentum behind them, the promises made at the G8 seemed to have the potential to make a difference.

Now, a year later, I am left wondering what on earth happened. What happened to increases of aid? What happened to debt cancellation? What happened to the overwhelming public support for Africa? What has happened in these 365 days to help African countries?

While the promises of the G8 have mostly slid under the radar, some might argue that there has been progress made. Raw data indicates that the G8 has increased official development aid by $21 billion, and on July 1, the World Bank will grant some $37 billion dollars in debt relief to 19 countries, 15 of which are in Africa. Increased aid and debt cancellation gives a country a great deal of resources that can now be used to build infrastructure and help improve the conditions of their citizens.

An old platitude comes to mind: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is..."

What typically is left out of these reports of the good news of increased aid and debt cancellation is that in order for countries to recieve it they have to jump over a series of economic hurdles called structural adjustment programs. These hurdles are typically designed by foreign economists who may have never even visited the country they are designing the policy for. I don't pretend to really understand economics, but from what I have learned about these SAPs, they are grandiose, idealistic plans that force countries to follow similar guidelines regardless of the countries' specific needs. They typically involve currency devaluation, a massive decrease in government spending (including spending for social welfare programs), and liberalizing the economy. A woman from Cameroon spoke to one of my classes about some of the negative effects that SAPs had on her country; currency devaluation pushed already poor citizens even farther into poverty, and lowering what little government subsidies existed had a detrimental effect on important industries. Her evaluation was that SAPs did more to hurt the citizens than to help the economy.

Further problems exist within these progress reports from the G8. The report of an increase in aid of $21 billion is what organizations like Oxfam call "double counting." This statistic is deceiving because it includes $14 billion and $5 billion in debt relief to Iraq and Nigeria, so actual amounts of aid did not increase by that much. Oxfam has also criticized the failure by the G8 to stay on target to increase aid as a percentage of GDP. The goals are to reach 0.56% of GDP by 2010 and 0.7% by 2015. Jo Leadbeater from the organization says "The G8's aid increase could save the lives of five million children by 2010, but 50 million children's lives will still be lost because the G8 didn't go as far as they should have done." What makes this comment even more depressing is that these five million children referred to will only be saved if the countries are on track with increasing aid, which unfortunately, is not happening.

The broken promises and political hype of the 2005 Summit have not even begun to scratch the surface of the problems. As much as I have played up what has failed to happen in just the past year, the root of the problem lies much deeper. The G8 is just one example of a global promise that has failed to make any significant difference. We are only one year out from the 2005 G8 Summit, but we are rapidly approaching the six year anniversary of the UN Millennium Summit and its Millennium Development Goals that hope to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015 - just 9 short years from now. I spent my summer at the UN researching these goals and was extremely disappointed by what little progress has been made six years out. If most African countries are not on target to reach the MDGs six full years after their inception, then how can they expect to implement programs to achieve the goals in nine years?

People tend to blame foreign aid for these failures. Over $500 billion has been poured into Africa in the past 40 years, and while the countries have struggled to pay back most of it, they are still deeply in debt. Aid that comes in is often used not to build up the economy, but to pay back existing debts. It seems counter-intuitive to me that the G8 and the UN continue to debate over how much more money to dump into African countries, and how much debt to cancel, with little attention given to how to keep countries out of debt. You can continue to pour water into a bucket, but if the bucket is full of holes (in the form of corruption, lack of infrastructure, stagnant economies, etc) the water will just go to waste.

Why don't we begin to use foreign aid to patch these holes?

The first hole that needs to be patched, I think, is debt. While it's true that developed countries have given huge amounts of money to Africa, this money has definitely not been used to promote African development. It is estimated that 40% of Africa's wealth lies overseas, much of it being used to line the Swiss bank accounts of former, and sometimes current, leaders. We cannot continue to punish African citizens by forcing countries to pay back debt that was incurred and squandered by corrupt leaders - this will only create a vicious cycle of more borrowing and repaying.

Once that hole is closed, foreign aid must be implemented systematically and differently in each country to patch the remaining holes. We can't just continue to throw money at the continent of Africa and then complain about how poor it still is. Rather than increasing foreign aid, why not focus on making foreign aid more effective? Jeffrey Sachs describes current foreign aid programs as "one-size-fits-all" and this is part of the reason why they are so ineffective. It does not seem to make sense to implement the same development programs in a country with severe drought problems as a country plagued by civil war. Foreign aid must be tailored to each country - the problems of Africa are multi-faceted and the solution must also be.

While it is true that real changes take time, I think that one full year out from a Summit as large as the G8, we should be able to see something concrete happening. If one little person like me can change so much in a year, what's to say that people in developing countries, if given the right resources, can also begin to see sustainable changes. The fact that there has been so little progress by now indicates that perhaps it's time to change our approach.

A year may not seem like a long time in history, but to the hundreds of thousands of people who have died in Africa in just one year, and the hundreds of thousands who will die in 2006, it is all the time in the world.

Don't say we need more time - a year of broken promises is a year too long.