I was excited to go to the Rose Cafe series this week with Professor Nicolas van de Walle from the Department of Government. As a high school student I had started to develop an interest in government. I had some experience living in a corrupt country so I was very interested in the topic of how politics drives economic development. Professor van de Walle has a lot of experience, visiting and living in some countries in Africa so he understands the depth of corruption in some of the countries. We started the discussion with the history on how donors viewed foreign aide and then delved into how foreign aide can be used to improve economic development. It was interesting that I shared his views on how foreign aide could help developing countries.

At first thought, people would think that giving more money to the developing countries would help them. However experience has shown us that even with all of the money, there is something more about the human nature which hinders the development. After realizing that giving more money to the countries does not yield a proportional development, the donors decided to spend more money on education. It is a rational thought, after all the developed countries have a high percentage of the population getting a higher education. Although the new focus on education improved the countries, there was not as much development as the donors expected. One of the major reasons for this is the rampant corruption. As a person who has lived in a country with significant corruption, I understand the difficulties of improving people’s lives in such an environment. When you live in such a country, corruption becomes a very real part of everyday life. It is always there as a hindrance to anything you want to accomplish, which also takes away from the motivation of accomplishing your goals. Donors continue to face the issue of corruption in the highest level of governments. If there is a solution to eradicate corruption in the highest levels of government, we would see a ripple effect. If we are able to find a solution to the corruption, most of the problems the developing world face would significantly reduce.