Some thoughts ahead of tomorrow's Africa discussions at the G8 summit. Sierra Leone has over six major mineral resources, vast agricultural land and several rain forests, yet 40 per cent of its 4.9 million people live on less than a dollar a day. The trio of demands from Make Poverty History - more and better aid, trade justice and debt cancellation are well-known.
But a Sierra Leonean I met yesterday told me he thinks the solution to Sierra Leone's poverty is not debt relief or aid but proper planning. Francis Forbie, a Sierra Leonean Consultant at the Centre for African Policy and Peace studies, in London told me: "Aid creates a dependency culture" and that part of Sierra Leone's problem is firstly the fact our country has had no strategic policy on poverty since independence - and secondly that corruption is everywhere.
As a Sierra Leonean I've been reflecting for the past couple of days on just how much corruption is part of everyday life. See my new article Aminata at the C8 to read some of my experiences.
A second dissenting voice I met in Edinburgh was Alice Ukoko, the executive director of Women of Nigeria International. She's sceptical whether a G8 agenda about Africa which wasn't formulated by Africans can actually work. It's a criticism that has been made by many of the African civil society groups here in Edinburgh (see my Kenyan colleague John Kamau's article on a related topic here.) Up here at Gleneagles we will be getting African reaction to the Gleneagles announcements as they unfold, by working with Action Aid Southern Africa to contact people back home once there's some clear messages coming from the summit.
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