In my more cynical moments
I say we do our best* to stop people starving, and leave the governments to it.
The stable state of humanity is either democracy, in which case they'll get there eventually, or dictatorship, in which case they're a few steps ahead of us already.

* edit: i.e., more than we're doing at the moment
( Newington, Tue 5 Jul 2005, 11:56, archived)

That assumes there is a stable state
evidence (even outside africa) tends to suggest otherwise.

/pessimist
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Tue 5 Jul 2005, 12:02, archived)