Development Ethics in Africa

The relationship between the government and peoples of the United States on the one hand, and the 47 governments and peoples of Africa on the other is complicated by a lack of clarity about what priorities ought to take precedence in the ordering of this reciprocal relationship. Within our foreign policy and foreign aid institutions, debates rage about economic and political factors, strategic self-interest, and even the relevance of Africa to the daily realities that Americans face. On the periphery of these debates are the moral questions, particularly whether America has any persuasive moral basis upon which to build our relationships with this continent, and they with us, and whether we have any compelling moral obligation to come to Africa's assistance at all.

This paper considers why such important moral concerns affecting the lives and welfare of millions of persons have been relegated to that periphery, and what the costs are to us of leaving morality out of the deliberative space. Similarly, if we maintain that the prospects and plight of the peoples of Africa are of a different moral significance to us as Americans than are our domestic obligations, where does this leave important universal moral principles that we as Americans purport to subscribe to, such as the dignity and worth of all human beings? Doesn't all mean all?

Finally, the paper asks whether the time will ever come when the powerful normative tools offered by development ethics will find their way into rigorous and routine application, alongside the intellectual sensibilities or economics and political science. Only with a higher degree of ethical competence will we be able to assert, effectively and unambiguously, the centrality of universal human dignity, and apply that strong moral principle in our foreign assistance policies and practice toward Africa.

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