Sobering situation of Africa and development
This article in the LA (Los Angeles) Times describes the grim situation in Africa regarding its developement or lack of. Fifty years after African colonies started gaining independence, Africa's "dependence on foreign "experts" is greater than ever, and the influence of proliferating Western aid agencies is more powerful than ever".
Among the sad facts the writer gives is that every year tens of thousands of African professionals emigrate to foreign nations while 100,000 foreign (Western) experts come to Africa, also that "Roughly 40% of African savings are held outside the continent, compared with 6% in East Asia and 3% in South Asia". Corruption is also a big issue as many African governments and bureaucrats take their nation's revenues for themselves and mire their people in deeper poverty.

The writer makes a striking point that development aid should be phased out and ended as he believes this has caused and furthered dependency and poverty in African countries. Though I understand his point, it seems rather drastic to me. In many cases African nations have little or no money to perform required services such as medical health services or food distribution and without aid agencies many people would undoubtedly suffer more. Still I'm not unaware that in some cases development aid does causes dependency as well as additional problems like inflation and corruption. Definitely aid agencies must focus more on helping local people become more self-sufficient and put in place permanent solutions instead of just relief and charity.
I'm also skeptical about the writer's emphasis on business measures such as allowing businesses to registered in shorter time than it is now. Anyways at your convenience, please read it and form your own opinions. I know it's kind of old but I only recently came upon it in a local newspaper.