by Mark G. Wentling
The desperate plight of millions of Africa’s poor people is an ugly reminder that the end of USAID foretells a worse future for many of the countries of this large and diverse continent. US assistance is needed now by the poorest of the poor. But aid should not be provided willy-nilly.
Renewed US assistance must be a well-focused strategy unencumbered by heavy bureaucracy and annual congressional appropriations. Staying on course over the long haul is crucial to the success of the new US assistance program that the next administration will need to implement. Any new aid program must aim at offering a better future for Africa’s youth.
Regional Focus on Africa
Long-term success depends on staying focused on the countries where need is greatest, and corruption is lowest. Low-income African countries should be the primary target of US assistance. Such countries were classified as least developed countries (LDCs) in 1971. This list has largely remained unchanged since then.
As of December 2024, 32 of the 44 designated LDCs (73%) were located in Africa. This means that of the 54 African countries, about 60% are on the LDC list. Thus, it should not be difficult to identify African countries eligible for US assistance. (UN list of least developed countries | UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)) The ultimate goal of this new US foreign assistance program should be to graduate countries from the LDC list.
Program Focus on Education and Health
The US sectoral programmatic focus in African LDCs should be on education and health. In the education sector, the emphasis should be on girls’ education from pre-school through secondary education. As for the health sector, the emphasis should be on safe and healthy pregnancies, starting with conception. Implementing such programs will require working on many details with the host country.
Throughout, priority should be given to the mother’s and her child’s nutrition. Ideally, this improved nutrition will be ensured through local food production. This attempt to improve nutrition should, over time, lower the stunting rate in the general population.
Every attempt to broaden US assistance beyond these two sectors should be resisted. The idea is to build a healthy and knowledgeable workforce for the future. Thus, US assistance must be future-oriented, remaining active and consistent over the required period to ensure that all beneficiaries have a healthy start in life and graduate from secondary or higher education institutions. Providing progressive assistance over a generation would be the norm.
The author at a secondary school in Burkina Faso. Author’s personal collection.
As job creation is the true litmus test of development, the emphasis on education would be guided by local and global job market demands. Little is worse than graduating from school and not finding a decent-paying job. Africa has a vast and growing pool of youthful workers, whereas the working-age population in the rest of the world is in decline.
Africa’s Youthful Population Bulge Demands Priority Attention
Africa’s youthful population structure sets it apart as a demographic exception among regions. The average age of Africans is 19 years, whereas it is over 30 years in the rest of the world. (Africa Population 2025, Average age by country.) The global job market will increasingly be obliged to draw on qualified African youth, notwithstanding the application of artificial intelligence (AI). This should be done in a controlled, organized manner.
The author at a pre-school in Burkina Faso. Author’s personal collection.
In some cases, the number of instructors may be insufficient to train all eligible African youth in the language and technical skills required for jobs of tomorrow; therefore, these teachers should be eligible for training in the US. In this vein, the future US foreign assistance program will need to collaborate with universities, colleges, and training institutions to enroll and support African instructors and equip classrooms with the latest technology. Planning all the details will require significant input from everyone involved.
Migrant laborers are already making significant changes across Africa. Remittances flowing into Africa from these migrants are substantial, indicating that the rest of the world relies heavily on African labor. Their impact on the African continent has been significant. One of the changes being prompted is the definition of poverty. A poor African household is now defined as one that does not receive remittances from a family member working abroad.
The Role and Qualifications of Technical Assistants
The success of this new US foreign assistance program will depend on recruiting a limited number of highly qualified expatriate staff who speak the local language and are familiar with their counterparts’ culture. In other words, they must be highly knowledgeable about their surroundings, deeply familiar with their work objectives, and able to effectively transfer their skills to local counterparts. It is understood that they must also be highly motivated to achieve their respective programs’ objectives and willing to live at a level comparable to that of their senior counterparts.
They must also be prepared to remain on the job for several years, or until they hand over their responsibilities to a qualified host-country counterpart. Their overall goal will be to help create the conditions for higher team performance. Of course, small successes are preferable to potentially large failures. But creative risk-taking will be encouraged if the expected payoff is excellent.
The job of the US technical assistant will include, most importantly, instilling the work ethic needed for the team’s success. Much hard work and discipline will be required. By doing so and helping to build local staff capacity to achieve its objectives, the program will be better positioned to ensure its long-term independent operation.
Recruiting personnel with the requisite skills and commitment will be a challenge that must receive priority attention. Former Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) and recently retired Foreign Service Officers might form a large pool from which recruits could be drawn.
My own experience with the Peace Corps and USAID greatly influenced this article. I was a PCV for 5 years and served as a Peace Corps staff member for 5 years in Togo, Gabon, and Niger. In 1977, I moved across town in Niamey to join USAID. I did not need the new house, US furniture, or the higher salary that USAID gave me.
Throughout my long career with USAID, I hired ex-PCVs and found that most contractors and NGO staff were former volunteers. Indeed, more than 60 percent of USAID direct-hire employees were former PCVs. I am certain that a few dozen technical assistants can be recruited from 200,000 former PCVs.
The Host Country Must Lead
The host country must lead and determine program outputs. Assistance agreements should be between the host country government and contract firms or international NGOs.
Foreign assistants should provide advice and technical assistance but not manage the program, and, to the extent possible, should be placed within the offices of host-country officials responsible for program implementation. But if host-country officials veer off course, it is part of the job of foreign technical assistants to bring this firmly to their attention.
The development work of any country is the responsibility of the host country; as appropriate, the US Millennium Challenge Corporation and multilateral agencies can be involved. What about food aid? This critical US contribution should be assigned entirely to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which will collaborate closely with UN organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF. (Already, the US contributes around sixty percent of the food WFP distributes.) Health concerns can be assigned to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which will collaborate closely with the WHO. A special unit within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can provide foreign disaster assistance. In conflict zones, UNHCR should have the lead.
Gaining the Trust of Host Countries
Host countries may lack confidence in the US as a reliable and durable partner. One of the tasks for US embassies will be rebuilding trust in a fully revitalized foreign assistance program. US embassies in these poor African countries should alert their hosts that this is a new US foreign assistance era. It will definitely not be business as usual, and using US foreign assistance as a diplomatic tool will be off-limits to protect the altruistic nature of US assistance. The future of US foreign assistance is at stake and must be remodeled to achieve lasting results.
Mark G Wentling was born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised in nearby small towns. He spent 50 years working in Africa for the Peace Corps, USAID, and international NGOs. He has visited all 54 African countries and is the author of twelve books and numerous professional articles. He was the principal USAID officer in six African countries and promoted into the US Senior Foreign Service in 1988.