How to Help without Hurting in the African Context

EMQ » April–June 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 2

Reviewed by Bob Bagley, currently the associate executive director of Global Partners with whom he has served in a variety of roles in Africa for over three decades. 

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Africa has a long history of receiving agencies coming from the western world with well-intentioned ministries of compassion aimed at alleviating poverty and its accompanying ills. Despite good motives, the track record of such efforts overall has been less than stellar.  In many cases, they have caused more harm than good.

In 2009, Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert’s book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself, sought to address such concerns, though not with a specific focus on Africa. Although the book provides universal foundational principles for ministry to the poor, it is clearly written for a North American audience.

In the meantime, there has been an upsurge of indigenous development and aid organizations within Africa itself as African Christians and churches seek to address the economic woes of the continent. How can such organizations be helped to avoid the pitfalls that have been so common in the past?

The development of a training course based on the principles of When Helping Hurts but contextualized for the African context is an effort to do just that. The authors have not simply sought to write an Africanized edition of the book but have instead developed a curriculum for a course recognizing African learning styles, emphasizing participatory group learning over individualized learning from a book.

This book is a facilitator’s manual for the leaders of such a course. A participant’s manual can be downloaded and printed locally. The course consists of 20 lessons that will require approximately 39 hours of class time, which can be offered in a variety of formats.

While preserving the core principles of When Helping Hurts, the authors have done a superb job of translating the material into the African context. It goes beyond simply replacing North American illustrations and idioms with African ones. It dives deeply into the materials in the second half of the course to encourage participants to wrestle with issues specific to the African context. Course participants will not only have gained a fresh understanding of the dynamics underlying poverty in Africa but will also be equipped with a range of practical resources to address poverty more effectively.

Having recommended When Helping Hurts often to westerners working in Africa, I am thrilled now to have a version that I can enthusiastically recommend to African Christian leaders, both in the church and in NGOs seeking to provide help to the poor. I highly recommend including this book in the curriculum of African Christian universities, Bible Colleges, and ministry training programs as well.

For Further Reading

Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, Dambisa Moyo (Penguin Books, 2009)

The Challenge for Africa, Wangari Maathai (Arrow Books, 2011)

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EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 2. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.