What do we mean by ‘Don’t Donate, Invest’?

Donate: Give (money or goods) for a good cause

Donating to charity is a good thing to do, but in the case of Africa, has it really worked? It is estimated that between $1tn and $2.3tn (that’s trillion!) has been poured into African countries over the past 50 years. But sub-Saharan Africa is still the poorest region in the world and between 1981 and 2002 the number of people in Africa living in poverty nearly doubled.

The UN’s Human Development Report (2007) forecast that sub-Saharan Africa would account for one third of world poverty in 2015, up from one fifth in 1990.

Africa’s share of world trade is falling, and unemployment is rising.

Kurt Hoffman, former head of the Shell Foundation has said, “Most Africans are poorer now than they were two decades ago. This is hardly a record to be proud of. Yet, the aid community convinced rich world governments to double their budgets.

“Can you imagine a private sector company convincing investors to do the same based on a similar record?”

And Dambisa Moyo, in her recent book, Dead Aid, goes further arguing that we should stop giving aid altogether as it has been an unmitigated disaster for Africa and Africans.

Surely there has to be a better way to help Africans find their own route out of poverty?

Investment implies a ‘worthwhile result’, and it also carries the overtones of putting money in and then watching it work for you.

The aim of Advance Aid is to get emergency supplies for Africa, made and stockpiled in Africa, ready for immediate use for the people of Africa.

You won’t get back the money that you ‘invest’ in Advance Aid but you will see a fantastic return again and again for people affected by wars and disasters in Africa. And it will deliver a result for the people who get jobs in the factories that manufacture the Emergency Kits that save lives and livelihoods.

What’s crucial is that your money keeps on working. You ‘invest’ it in Advance Aid, who use it to buy Emergency Kits from local African manufacturers, so generating employment and wealth. Advance Aid then sells the kits on to the aid agencies who deploy them in the field and save lives. The money raised from these sales is re-invested in buying more Emergency Kits.

So it really does go on working, year after year.

You can find details of our Emergency Kits here. One Kit is enough (together with food and water) to keep a family of five alive once they have lost their home or had to flee from it. The cost is around £100 ($160).

So by giving £100/$160 you will be saving one family now, then another when the money is recycled into new investment in Kits, then another when it comes around for a third time etc etc. And at the same time you will be helping to generate new jobs in Africa.