Coca-Cola Hunger Relief in Kenya,

Coca-Cola Hunger Relief in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia

The Horn of Africa is a region that invariably gets into its trouble, such as wars, famines, epidemics, earthquakes, and so forth, and as soon as it climbs out of one disaster, it seems to predictably fall -- kerplunk -- into another.

Today, the Coca-Cola company pledged KSh 134 million (approximately $1.4 million USD) to help Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia grapple with their latest famine which, according to a July report authored by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) is one of the sharpest ones yet with 12 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti desperately needing life-saving equipment.

The Coca-Cola Foundation, consisting of Coca-Cola's Central East and West Africa Business Unit, has always been involved in the region and pledged to provide urgent humanitarian assistance through food, water, sanitation and health care to these stricken areas. In fact, Coca-Cola has largely responded affirmatively to a pledge made earlier this year where they accorded Kenya KSh 3 million (approximately $32, 000 USD) in response to a national drought and emergency appeal (Coca-Cola Company).

Kenya, as the Coca-Cola operative in that region, Nathan Kalambu observed, is a country where "Our values and culture have always stressed a responsibility to engage with communities" (Coca-Cola Company)

Kalmabnu perceived that tendency to be positive. Observers, however, concerned for the country's welfare perceive this to be more detrimental and, in fact, ruinous to the country's survival. Study after study demonstrates that aid has had no impact on Africa's development (e.g. Bates, 2008). More so, Maren (1997) states that after 40 years of being involved in African humanitarian projects:

"The Africa that I know today is in much worse shape than it was when I first arrived. The future of Africa's children is less hopeful than ever before. The countries that received the most aid -- Somalia, Liberia, and Zaire -- have slid into virtual anarchy" (p.11)

Aid seems so inefficient that even the IMF - a leading provider of aid -- cautions its supporters about relying on aid as provision of hope. Foreign aid -- warns Moyo (2009) is no longer part of the solution. In fact it is part of the problem, if not the problem itself due to the fact that one of the conditions for aid to work is conditionalities, meaning that countries that take aid have to spend it in certain ways, but it is evident, that the Horn of Africa does not only fail to employ the money productively but also misuse it by misappropriating it for aggression or distributing it to non-needy (sometime wealthy) individuals. In fact, as far back as 1947, Paul Rosenstein-Rodin, the Deputy Director of the World Bank Economics department remarked that 'when the World Bank thinks it is financing an electric power station, it is really financing a brothel.' (Moyo, P39).