Globalization And Foreign Aid Syndrome

The majority of the people on the planet are poor. Most live in the third-world countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where the typical standards of living are so far below that of the industrialized countries. Many lack adequate nutrition, shelter, and clothing. They are susceptible to disease and early mortality.

Canada has played a prominent role in providing foreign aid since the 1950’s. After the success of the Marshall Plan, which consisted of “channeling resources from the United States to war torn countries”, Europe convinced Western leaders that newly independent countries in Asia and Africa would develop rapidly if the same methods were in place (Brothwell, 1989:172). This lead to Canada joining the “Colombo Plan” to support these recently independent countries of Asia (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2015). During the next few decades, Canada’s programs grew steadily and expanded to the following: “Commonwealth Caribbean, Commonwealth, and francophone Africa, as well as extended to Latin America” (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2015).

525.6 million live in poverty in Asia, 214 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 37 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In an article published by The Spectator entitled “Why foreign aid fails – and how to really help Africa,” Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson condemn the current system of foreign aid granting and suggest an alternate, more efficient solution. They support their points by deducing that “extractive institutions,” in which incentives for economic prosperity are few, are the culprit of enduring poverty; by providing examples where foreign aid failed to reduce poverty (Congo, Angola, Syria, and South Africa); by giving testimonies from former British Prime Minister David Cameron and multilateral institutions concerning the effectiveness of foreign aid; and by advising an alternative solution to combating poverty, involving diplomatic relations

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).

In our modern age, the introduction of a global economy has led to a varying degree of achievements ranging from technological advances, higher life expectancies, and even the introduction of new world powers. Positive advances, they continue to reconstruct our world into an increasingly more connected and developed system of nations. However, this economic advancement is not equally distributed as continents’ economies, such as Africa’s, “have grown at an average of 0.7 percent per year” forcing civilians to continue to struggle with poverty, corruption, and disease (Sachs 30). Consequently, scholars such as Michael Walzer, Thomas Pogge, and Jeffery Sachs, each seek to explain and solution these great disparities. In the context of their works, they attempt to reconnect the civilian’s desire for an improved global economy with a responsibility toward the well being of the world society as a whole (social justice). In an effort to illustrate my point, this paper will place into conversation the scholars arguments by addressing their perspectives on obligation, strategy for achieving justice, and expand on why I agree most with Jeffery Sachs.

Nowadays, developing countries all around the world face a great amount of disillusionment. Development as proposed by the IMF and the WTO has not had the positive effect it was supposed to have. In fact, the policies preached by these international actors have in times exacerbated economic problems leading to recessions. Countries, that have achieved higher economic growth throughout the years, have achieved this, not by following the dictates of the Washington Consensus exactly, but rather by applying them in an unorthodox fashion. Nevertheless in recent years globalization has become a replacement for a sound development strategy. In his article Trading in Illusions, Dani Rodrik (2001) argues against the line of thinking promoted by

Paul Collier is the author of The Bottom Billion a 2007 book about Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) and why they struggle to progress despite vast amounts of foreign aid. Collier makes the argument that while much of LDCs are becoming wealthier, this isn’t the case in Africa and Central Asia who is stuck due to four development traps. Seventy percent of the bottom billion is in Africa.

Politics have been important throughout history, but in the last century, government has changed a large amount. With the rise of the standard of living in first world nations, there has been a push to help bring everyone in the world up to a minimum standard. There have been many perspectives taken on the issue, and there are many articles for helping and against helping developing nations shown through political and historical lenses. A key question is how much aid wealthy nations should provide for developing nations, and how to provide it. Two articles considered this question. The first article deals with “The amount of government, while the second

Poverty is the main obstacles and problem of the people are facing particularly in the world. As of 2013, there were about 2.47 billion people in the world living in poverty with an income of USD 2 or less a day most of them from developing or under developing countries located in African and Asian continent. The population living under poverty only declined from 2.59 billion to 2.47 billion between 1981 and 2013 respectively. Hence the declines principally are seated mostly in developed countries (1).

African nations regularly fall to the bottom of any list measuring economic activity, such as per capita income or per capita GDP, despite a wealth of natural resources. The bottom 25 spots of the United Nations (UN) quality of life index are regularly filled by African nations. In 2006, 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries are in Africa. In many nations, the per capita income is often less than $200 U.S. per year, with the vast majority of the population living on much less. In addition, Africa's share of income has been consistently dropping over the past century by any measure. In 1820, the average European worker earned about three times what the average African did. Now, the average European earns twenty

836 million people is believed to live in EXTREME poverty, about 1 in 5 persons in

Africa with its 54 countries accounts for 15.6% (1.13 billion) of the world population (7.24 billion) and expected to reach 2 billion by 2050 (African Development Bank (ADB) projections) representing 25% of the world population, and eventually reaching 4.2 billion by 2100

According to the FAO estimation, there are 840 million undernourished people in the world, and 95% of them are from developing countries.

Poverty in the world overall is decreasing, but there are still plenty that live in it. As we have learned in our Pearson Revel textbook, about 1 billion people in the world live in abject poverty, without access to healthcare or basic nutrition. Most people who live in extreme poverty are concentrated in Africa, where again according to our textbook, income levels have lagged for decades. 3 million children per year die of malnutrition, and the average annual income for an African is only $3,200. According to the official World Bank website, “Half of the extreme poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa. The number of poor in the region fell only by 4 million with 389 million people living on less than US $1.90 a day in 2013, more than all the other regions combined.” In addition to that, the website also says that “A vast majority of the global poor live in rural areas and are poorly educated, mostly employed in the agricultural sector, and over half are under 18 years of age.”. Indeed, the extent to which there is a problem of world poverty is great.