We were fortunate to have professor Nicolas van de Walle come to the Rose Cafe. He enlightened us regarding the political and economic development of developing countries in Africa. He focused greatly on the impact of foreign aid on these countries. Generally, we often view this type of aid in a very positive light because seemingly, it would be utilized to address issues such as humanitarian crises, medical emergencies, etc., but in reality, there are enormous complexities that come along with such significant “donations”. As the professor stated in the session, often times this aid can be responsible for generating 15-20% of a nation’s budget. Thus, many of these donators expect to exert great influence in regards to the manner that their money is allocated. Unfortunately, the business and economic interests of these individuals or governments are often not in line with the best interests of the countries they send monetary aid to. As a result, the money is unable to be utilized in critical areas like developing core infrastructure or addressing humanitarian crises. Worse yet, many of these countries suffer from severe internal corruption. The professor recounted how in one of his visits to an African country, people often had to take everyday objects with them when they left their homes due to the amount of theft that existed in these countries.

The professor concluded the session with a large idea: most of the times, democracy is the best way to achieve significant political, economic, and societal growth in a developing nation. While, an in-depth argument of this idea is certainly beyond the scope of a one hour session, he suggested that the negative impact of issues such as corruption would certainly be greatly minimized and also provides a healthy environment and atmosphere for infrastructural development. This Rose Cafe was highly informative and enjoyable.