Health in Africa and the Role of International Organizations

For Africa, international health financial organizations, such as the United Nations (UN) through the World Health Organization, and bi-lateral assistance programs represent a curse and a blessing simultaneously. While they provide needed assistance and help meet the health needs of Africans, they make the continent dependent on hand-outs, unwittingly encouraging unscrupulous leaders not to generate or make national resources available to the people. Worse even, foreign assistance leaves a vacuum when it is depleted or, for various reasons, withdrawn. Foreign funds are also easily prone to misuse by leaders and unscrupulous high and middle level civil servants. Furthermore, as is the case with the IMF, assistance has always come with strings attached, forcing Africa to rely on international generosity to meet the health needs the West deems a priority for the continent. These conditions often imply at times that the donors know best what is good for Africans. While not denying the usefulness and the need for international assistance, the author argues that the use of financial assistance must be completely transparent to prevent misuse and abuse, not condescending, and always respectful of Africa’s sovereignty. In this context, world leaders must also note that the globalizing trend is often one-sided, unidirectional—from North to South—always exploitative in nature and accompanied by a cultural baggage that corrupts the youth, unwittingly promotes violence, sex, decadent practices, and unhealthy behaviors, such as the consumption of fast foods and tobacco, bad diets and alcohol abuse, thus contributing to non-communicable diseases, such as liver and stomach cancers, now dubbed by the UN as Africa’s second disease burden.