With democracy, a just distribution of wealth is possible.

Check out Duncan Green’s book ‘From Poverty to Power’ for more on this http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/fp2p/

And for an example of this look no further than Singapore which, along with most countries in Africa, gained its independence in the 1960’s. The prime minister at that time was Lee Kwan Yew who quickly realised that if Singapore was going to be successful, it would be down to the efforts of its people. To this end his government followed sound economic policies in order to generate jobs, it built schools where future generations would gain a precious education and hospitals which would help put people back on their feet again. But that was not enough. Lee also insisted on a well paid civil service, an independent judiciary to uphold the rule of law and the highest standards of probity in public life. The rest, as they say, is history as Gross National Income (GNI) per capita moved from US$400 in 1965 to US$30,000 today. In the process Singapore has moved from third world to first in less than 50 years and as such there is no better template for tackling poverty anywhere.

Sadly governments in Africa, for the most part, have not shown this resolute determination to improve the lives of their peoples. There governments are more concerned about clinging on to power at all costs and feathering their own nests rather than troubling with such important matters as following sound economic policies, tackling corruption and expanding civil liberties.

Unfortunately, international aid agencies, poverty campaigners and even pop stars continually fail to ever mention this fundamental fact instead believing that only massive transfers of resources from rich countries will deliver a better life for the people of Africa.

Until the problem of poor governance in Africa is addressed by the international community Africans will continue to be poor. So I put the question to putpeoplefirst. Are you bold enough to put your head above the parapet on March 28 and start to take the debate on development right to the heart of the matter – the need for much better governance in Africa? Or, are you, like so often in the past, just going to take the easy way out and blame governments in rich countries along with the international financial institutions for the plight of the people of Africa?