How Much Aid Should Wealthy Nations Provide For Developing Countries?

Many countries around the world receive foreign aid from the United States and other developed countries every year in large sums. This money is dispersed throughout the receiving country, it is the hope of the United States that this will help to create development economically and politically as well as promote the belief of democracy in these countries. The aid is intended to enhance infrastructure within the country so local institutions will be able to create policies to enhance their country. However, this does not always occur in the countries that receive this aid. This is specifically not the case in countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have won their freedom from colonial powers in the last 50 years. The issue of foreign aid in Africa is a major debate that is taking place in the world today most likely because of the lack of developed democratic regimes that exist on the continent today, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

There are billions of dollars that developed countries give to the developing countries to say that they are helping the poor and that they are bring the poor countries up out of the dirt. But studies have shown that giving money alone does not help, it could actually make the country worse off. Foreign countries should not give money to developing nations because the developing countries become too reliant on the developed countries, it does not help the developing countries, and with money, comes corruption. The better way for foreign aid to work which is to give technological aid. A quote from Maimonides, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This quote tells a tale of how society works and the importance of learning. This can be applied to a multiple of things like how a developed country needs to teach another country how to survive. The developed countries are just giving money and food instead of teaching the public about how to grow food and how to have a stable economy. Countries around the world that depend on foreign aid are now

First, I will explain the role of empowered institutions and countries in limiting the economic activities of developing countries, impeding on their ability to survive. Afterwards I will explain the obligation people in privileged positions have to improve the lives of those in compromised positions, at a certain degree of self-sacrifices. Finally, I will critically analyze and disprove the counter argument, which attempts to relieve us of the aforementioned duties, by discrediting the roles of institutions and developed countries in the prolongation of impoverishment.

In the land of the free and home of the brave, this great nation continues to see a change. The change spoken of is not one that bears fruit or gives to our own people. Instead the United States appears focused on helping other countries with aid financially as well as sustenance. Many authors have written about this recently and this paper will shed some light on why the United States should focus on its own people first and only then assist the rest of the world (Critical206). “If we can conquer space, we can conquer childhood hunger in our own nation” -- Buzz Aldrin.

The main point of Banerjee and Duflo’s Poor Economics (2012) is that aid is neither good nor bad: there are instances where it can help greatly and instances where it can fail those it seeks to help(4). Aid is a powerful tool, therefore it’s imperative that we carefully select the right types of projects (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 4-5). Banerjee and Duflo (2012) present a few key points of action as a framework for approaching aid, with the broadest issue being the idea that too much responsibility is placed on the poor in making the most basic decisions (268-69). One example that Banerjee and Duflo (2012) offer is the fact that many of the poorest people don’t have sanitary water

The question at hand is not whether aid from the developed north should be given at all, but whether or not it should be increased to help ease the suffering of the developing countries in the south. Every country, whether rich or poor, should have compassion for the suffering. However, it is not the duty of the developed north to completely take care of every developing country. In the present, there are serious problems that need to be addressed dealing with how aid is given out: misuse of funds by governments, the corruption it creates, economies it destroys, lack of votes it buys at the United Nations, and finally the question of who has priority.

In past examples, “the accountability of the government to its people . . . gradually [was] replaced by accountability to its major aid donors"(David Sogge 15). The government is being forced to put the aid money towards things that are vastly different than what they truly need. “these countries become poorer because instead of using their funds to invest in profitable projects and channel their income to other investments, they use what they have to pay their debt”(Green Garage 11). So even when a country’s leader truly wants what’s best, they may not be able to accomplish what they wanted to due to the nature of some types of foreign aid. Though not all problems can/should be solved with outside help, these factors just push people away from what they can do to help remedy the real

Due to these severe issues, wealthier more developed nations have made it their responsibility to eliminate some of these issues by donating and providing aid to them. But, many attempts have had a negative outcome due to the interest of their government. Although it is the responsibility of the developed countries to aid and help the global poor, due to the severe long term effect that poverty has had, the donators, would eventually impoverish themselves to sacrifice their luxury to meet such a moral

corruption” (Welsh and Woods, 2007, xi-xii). While the requirements do not explicitly state that these countries which have stable and effective government institutions need to be democratic, the features of governments who meet the requirements of governments giving aid (these requirements are often

The U.S. is currently the world's leader in foreign aid to developing countries. It gives foreign aid to such countries in order to promote political stability and economic prosperity, a natural interest for any global hegemon. This aid comes in the form of money, food, humanitarian work, and military assistance. The countries who receive the foreign aid certainly need assistance, but do not always use the aid wisely.

However, we have already helped the poor nation’s enough and now they are relying on our efforts to help them live a healthy life (citation). Hardin argues that although earth might be seen as a spaceship analogy by the poor; that’s wrong because Earth doesn’t have a captain. Thus, the rich nations are represented as lifeboats and the poor nations are the swimmers at sea (citation). Hardin argues that although countries such as America have excess food supplies, it should not be given to the poor for the following reasons: the poor nations will not be motivated to stimulate their own economies, their population is growing faster than of a developed country (America’s population is doubling every 87 years while the poor countries are doubling

The United States spends on average, 2.86 billion dollars of its budget on foreign aid. Although this appears to be a large amount, this money accounts for only about 1% of the U.S budget. In this 1%, foreign aid money helped other countries governments, militaries, economic development, education, environment, health, and humanitarian needs. Although this helps tremendously in the development of many third world countries, the war on poverty still continues. However although poverty and poor countries need the help it is still up for debate whether or not the U.S should continue giving aid or to lower the amount they spend. The U.S should not reduce its spending on foreign aid to concentrate on its on infrastructure

The saying is well known, “it takes a dollar to save a dollar.” But sometimes, it takes a dollar to save a dollar and a life and create a job. (1) Humanitarian aid consists of, helping countries facing natural disasters, assistance to displaced people to lower the chances of them ending up as refugees. (2) The U.S. spends less than 1% of its federal budget on foreign aid. (2) 17% of the foreign aid budget goes to humanitarian aid, 27% goes into dealing with health epidemics, 25% of goes into Security assistance, 11% goes into economic development. For many people it seems counter productive to spend on countries that most U.S. citizens will never go to. But, A robust international affairs and foreign aid budget reflects our humanitarian and

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 history of international development aid can be tracked down to antiquity, however, the modern era saw international development aid begin to evolve in the 19th and early 20th century (Kapur, 2003) but the true expansion of international development aid was in the aftermath of the Second World War. The most significant events in accordance with the establishment of international development aid were the creation of The United Nations, The Marshall Plan, and The Bretton Woods conference that established the World Bank and the IMF. The modern manifestation of international development aid is extremely widespread. There are countless international organizations and governments present which all contribute to international development aid as it is a moral responsibility, however, what is the effectiveness of the aid they provide? This paper argues