Annotated Bibliography: Understanding Foreign Aid

The JSTOR Review by Kristian Hoelscher on the book Dead Aid elaborates how Moyo “half-right” in her critique of foreign aid nonetheless Hoelscher mentions how “her review is unfortunately shallow and lacking nuance” in the areas of acknowledging the successes of aid in Africa. Additionally, another review of JSTOR by S.U. Fwatshak reiterated how “aid could not have been the fundamental reason why Africa poor… African’s problem are rooted in a mosaic of a factors (157).” These two reviews provided to be good sources to shed light on the issues of foreign aid and to counter-balance the Moyo’s critique on aid. Lastly, the book is quite short with only one-hundred and eighty-three pages therefore it seemed so like some concepts needed to be elaborated more but were not. On the other hand, the reason I choose this as a source because it does a suitable job in showing the history of aid, speaking on aid effectiveness, and exemplifying the stagnant economic growth (e.g. ten percent Africans are living in poverty in the 1970s compared to seventy-percent now (Moyo 33)). While, I wished the book concentrated more in a section of Africa, such as Sub-Saharan, it was an insightful and factual

Canada’s aid policy has been the subject of significant criticism in recent history (Johnston, 2010). There have recently been exceptions to the criticism, the best known having been Canada’s impressive response to the Haiti earthquake (Johnston, 2010). The Canadian International Development Agency has been the focal point of the criticism, despite the fact that aid is a responsibility amongst numerous government offices (Johnston, 2010). When the Canadian International Development Agency was first developed, it was considered highly innovative and was attracting innovative and talented workers (Johnston, 2010). Now however, the Canadian International Development Agency is considered “bureaucratic, hidebound, out of touch, ineffectual, risk averse, contradictory, vacillating” (Johnston, 2010, 3). Most critics would argue that “nothing less than fundamental cross-government reform of

Originally, Canada’s aid policy (and aid policies in general) focused more on assisting the state in question with economic development, and giving them enough assistance to develop a stable and sustainable economy (Welsh and Woods, 2007). However, in the recent decades, Canadian aid policy has shifted focus towards supporting countries only if they either have, or

I will be primarily focusing on three types of aid. The first is bilateral aid, which is aid given from one government directly to another government. Then there is multilateral aid, which is when a group of Agents all donate to a fund that can be used to help others, like the World Bank or the IMF. And the last is voluntary aid, not to be confused with charity, but it is aid given by an independent organization or raised by a private donor

Charity, foreign aid, and mission trips are examples of overly publicized methods of helping the less fortunate. Money going into charities and foreign aid accounts do not reach their intended population. Government and community leaders have a history of stealing and misappropriating funds. Foreign aid can help to extinguish and eliminate diseases, burden weak bureaucracies, prop up dictators, and help prolong civil wars (Anonymous, 2016). Foreign aid is selective. The purpose of foreign money is to improve the lives of the poor people. However, some countries give large amount of resources to friendly countries. Nations would rather give aid to nations like themselves. The Misplaced Charity article states that donors often reward countries with well-run countries and aim to punish corrupt countries (Anonymous, 2016). The issue with this is that most of the well-run countries are not in

"A Better Approach to Foreign Aid." Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Gale, July 2008, ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/AcademicJournalsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Journals&currPage=&scanId=&query=&source=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&uAccessed 8 Mar. 2017.

The issue of transnational aid intervention has become a worldwide topic for debate regarding its role in ethics and legitimacy in international relations. Historically, international aid had been provided by developed worlds governments. However, aid provided by the developed world became problematic because of international treaties, violation of state sovereignty, and the spread of capitalist enterprises (Willetts). In addition to, many of the developing world leaders, consider the concept of aid intervention to be potentially threatening and an excuse for more powerful nations to undermine and threaten their state sovereignty through a change in the nations economic and social discourses (Willetts).

We are using outdated economic models that lead to the redundancy of people, and poverty thrives. Campaigns to alleviate poverty often call for international assistance. However, the track record of donor aid suggests that it may benefit governments more than it benefits the poor (Hoogeveen, J. and B. Ozler, 2006). Donors can use aid to reinforce their assumed supremacy and create positions and markets for their own citizens; recipient governments have been known to expand their consumer class and secure their own power base, under the banner of poverty obliteration.

There are millions of people suffering in the world, just under 1 billion people live on less than 2 Australian dollars a day, over 2 billion do not have access to clean drinking water and roughly 150 million child are unable to attend school. The Australian government spent over $5.4 billion on foreign aid links in 2012. Aid is the transfer of necessities to assist others on a local, national or international scale. International aid, which this report focuses on, is the assistance given to a developing country by a developed country, which boosts economic growth and living standards. There are three types of aid; bilateral aid, multilateral aid and non-government aid. Bilateral aid is aid provided by one government to another. AusAID is

Although third world and developing countries are financially supported by the United States and other prospering countries, there is not always accurate accounts of whether the money was used for its intended purposes or not, especially concerning healthcare. In an article, by Linda Ritcher and others, which analyzes the proposals to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and discusses the economic support that was given to help assist and alleviate those health issues in poorer countries she admits, “further information is needed on whether and to the extent to which the funds were used for the proposed interventions”(8). When the government begins sharing funds with other developing countries governments for specific purposes such as healthcare, the initial reason to why it was given is not always the final way it is spent. This is where charitable organizations come in.

In addition, statistics show that nations that have received foreign monetary aid develop slower than those that have not, specifically because of a type of foreign aid called tied aid. Tied aid refers to aid that must be expended on exorbitantly priced products and services from the donor country (“How Aid Works (Or Doesn’t)”). According to Reality of Aid, foreign aid has failed to deliver real progress for the bulk of the poor. World Bank data reveals that, “the proportion of donor aid considered to be tied to purchases in the donor's country is 58% while the proportion of aid tied to purchases is 32%.” African Business cites Frans Lammerson, an aid specialist with the OECD, who claims that "[t]he main

Scholars on the other side of the argument, who believe current methods of foreign aid are still

7 Foreign aid is beneficial because it can provide education. Without substantial knowledge, many countries are unable to support themselves. The organization “Global Partnership for Education” states, “it must also be

The article begins by claiming that whilst the donors receive good wages with the current aid system, and the recipients are wise in how to continue to receive sympathy and attention, some of those on the inside, and even those with little knowledge, are beginning to sense that aid has only produced paltry results in the last half-century. Gerhardt claims that the West has assumed too much

Today, there is a tremendous amount of literature on the relationship between aid and growth (Hudson, 2004). McGilivray provides a recent comprehensive survey of the theoretical and empirical literature on foreign aid and growth. (McGillivray, 2006)