I have seen my feelings towards Africa fluctuate between pity and fascination, between despair and glimpses of hope. Working for a non-profit that deals primarily with Africa has shown me firsthand some of the obstacles these nations have to overcome to be stable, productive, and peaceful entities.

When establishing aid or offers of help for Africa, it is important to remember the history of colonialism and the legitimate fear of some sort of neo-colonialism that might project a certain distrust of outside, international aid and assistance groups. Generally speaking, Africa needs to develop through the efforts of Africans and we, the international community, need to support any efforts towards that goal. That being said, there are a few groups that are attempting to provide this type of structure. They are stressing the need for flexibility in response to diverse circumstances, and scalability, i.e. can this solution/paradigm be applied to the greater entity.

This is one such group. If you can spare the time, have a look.