Featured Event: From Aid to Innovation

The United States spent $30.6 billion on foreign aid in 2010. Billions more were spent by other nations around the globe. Much of this aid is intended to focus on the two-thirds of the global population living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, where medical personnel are in short supply. Too often, however, one question is ignored: how is this money used to help people better their own situations – and not create a system where aid recipients grow dependent on aid to assist them?

Many parts of Africa face challenges around issues such as health and HIV/AIDS, agriculture, food security, water, sanitation, and hygiene. Read more about this topic in our blog post, here.

The World Affairs Council is pleased to host a conversation with Dr. Darius Mans, President of Africare. Dr. Mans will use South Africa as a case study to discuss the work being done to empower the local people to strengthen their own systems at the community and societal levels, allowing them to sustain these systems without outside assistance.

Dr. Darius Mans assumed the position of President of Africare on January 4, 2010. Prior to joining Africare, Dr. Mans served as Acting Chief Executive Officer, Vice President of Implementation, and Managing Director for Africa of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). He has over 30 years of development experience with a major focus on African countries. Before joining MCC, Dr. Mans held various positions at the World Bank, including Director of the World Bank Institute (WBI) in Washington, D.C. and Country Director in Mozambique. Earlier in his career, Dr. Mans was an economist with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he worked closely with the United States Treasury and the International Monetary Fund to establish a framework to avoid debt repudiation and restructure private commercial debt in Brazil and Chile. He also taught economics at the University of Maryland and was a consultant to KPMG on infrastructure projects in Latin America, and consulted on macroeconomic policy and strategic planning. Dr. Mans holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Mathematics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he was born. A long-time resident of Washington D.C., he is married and the father of three children.

Founded in 1970, Africare is the oldest and largest African-American led NGO working in Africa. Africare works in some 25 countries throughout Africa in four principal areas: agriculture and food security; health and HIV/AIDS; water, sanitation and hygiene; and emergency humanitarian assistance.

Read more about this topic in our blog post, here.

NOTE: Reception, included in the cost of the event, will take place 6:00-6:50 p.m. Lecture with Q&A will take place 7:00-8:30 p.m.