Missions and Foreign Aid

In finishing up Philip Yancey's book Finding God in Unexpected Places there was an essay on fund raising for Christian causes, and in the current edition (Summer) of The City (this is a free quarterly from Houston Baptist University, and well worth reading) there was an article on foreign aid and why it has failed so miserably, especially in Africa. I was struck again by how foreign aid and church missions are two sides of the same coin: those who are 'haves' seeking to help the 'have nots', though the one is more secular and driven by governments and celebrities (or the crooks at the U.N.) and the other by churches. Neither one seems to be working very well from my point of view.

The article in The City reviews the book Dead Aid: Why Aid is not Working... by Dambisa Moyo who was born and grew up in Zambia and has worked for both the World Bank and Goldman Sachs. The author seems well qualified on the subject of grants and loans to Africa, whether from governments, the World Bank or folks like Bono and Live Aid. The book concludes succinctly that those who think well of handing cash to corrupt and incompetent regimes are not focused on the facts and are more interested in salving their own conscience than in making a difference. Her gripe is not with emergency disaster relief after an earthquake or that sort of thing: more with the ongoing handing over of billions to local programs that consistently fail to make a difference, and have been doing so for years.

These are in contrast to the 'micro loans' efforts, which are mostly private and to individuals to start a small business, not done through government. These do seem to make a difference, but do not address huge issues for the most part (like Aids, building schools, and so on).

I agree that most foreign aid programs are 'broken', and I wonder if many missions are, too. Again in Yancey's book he comments on his visits to Africa and how even the church pastors admit to multiple partners outside their marriage in many places (72% of pastors in South Africa, by a World Vision survey there, with an average of 3-4 partners). Yet 70% of South Africans attend church. Something is seriously wrong. As I look at the history of missions, especially the short term mission trips so popular at the moment, I wonder what they have accomplished for the 'have nots'. They seem to be more aimed at the 'haves', to stir up their interest and emotions. I wonder if we would not be better off to focus on buidling water purification plants and sewer systems, for instance. Certainly just sending money instead of going on short term trips is not the answer, as the Dead Aid book clearly shows. We would not be able to just send money to build these things: we would need to go do it. And yet there also needs to be some amount of personal touch, person to person. Infrastructure alone won't do it.

It seems to me that both official aid programs and missions may be out of balance: the governmental and quasi-governmental efforts all about money and the church programs all about people, when a balance of both people contact and infrastructure (instead of money) is needed.