Wednesday 6 March 2013

DANISH AID

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt is on an African tour at the moment, and today it was Tanzania. The date is relevant, since it is exactly 50 years since Denmark started giving aid, with Tanzania as the first recipient. Over time, it has added up to lots and lots of money.

Having lived in Tanzania for eight years, I have seen many Danish aid projects. They tend to be well-designed, and efficiently run by well-educated expatriates. However, I would also say that most of them have turned out to be useless. Tanzania remains very poor.

The highlight of today's programme was an agreement that if Denmark caught pirates off the East African coast, then they would be brought to Tanzania and tried in local courts. The politicians said all the right things, but I have to say that I will believe that one when I see it.

Walter Blotscher
Posted by Walter Blotscher at 22:30

1 comment:

  1. Michael7 March 2013 at 01:16

    Tanzania has actually got very much richer over the last twenty years. The distribution may be lousy but the wealth has certainly increased. Tanzania is a lot less poor than it was.I wont say that it entirely a consequence of Danish aid.

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