Trouble With Aid: Restrictions By The Government

Ever had that one friend? The one who tries to help, but no matter how hard he tries, he just aggravates the situation. This friend, Steve, insists he is helping, and those around, too, would support that he is indeed helping. But Steve is actually worsening the circumstances. He is like countries who provide foreign aid to less developed countries. Foreign aid, defined as “the international transfer of capital, goods, or services from a country or international organization for the benefit of the recipient country or its population,” can be military, economic, or humanitarian (“Foreign”). It is often granted to less developed countries in order to evoke government reforms or to stimulate economic growth. However, foreign aid neither elicits government reform, nor does it consistently and reliably stimulate economic growth; therefore, the United States should discontinue providing foreign economic aid.

The modern colonial scholar Mahmood Mamdani has observed that "British colonial governance was about identity formation … (because) the colonial political objective involved more than just redefining the relationship between colonial power and subject; it involved reshaping the very self-consciousness of the colonized, how they thought of themselves, their self-identity" (Mamdani, 2009), and this concept of ensuring obedience through the removal and reshaping of identity lies at the

On one hand, aid can improve the overall environment of countries as seen with countries that have survived natural disasters (hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, etc.). However, on the other hand, aid can be misused as seen with Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline where the oil money is being used to purchase weapons and rig election instead of serving the people (NBC News). Another problem with providing aid is the bias that is introduced upon distribution, this is seen in times of conflict where one side is chosen over another to receive aid. Ways to improve aid are to: 1) ensure that the rules attached to given aid are clear, agreed on, and enforced; 2) ensure that aid is available to

Africa has become aid dependent in the sense that “few of its states can carry and routine functions or deliver basic public services without external funding and expertise”(Goldsmith, Foreign Aid and Statehood in Africa). Foreign aid is meant to be used as a means of creating the infrastructure and institutions to carry out the functions of a nation. African nations have become so used to foreigners providing many basic functions and necessities of their people they do not feel the need to provide it themselves. This thinking has allowed for unneeded increases of foreign aid because of the lack of progress made by Africa with the current spending. Western nations have done little to nothing to give African nations incentives to use the foreign aid in an effective manner so that less and less foreign aid has to be provided to

However, he outlines four possible negative outcomes of state-led humanitarian action in linear thinking or not adapting to feedback or changes over time. The first negative outcome is the possible increase of corruption in the recipient relying on aid, so no real changes are being made to improve the condition of much needed infrastructure. A few examples are through “bribery, nepotism, embezzlement, extortion, or graft and so aid then is redirected away from those it intended on helping.” (Pg. 167) Haiti is guilty of this because their government lacked the resources to allocate the aid coming in, so they began to use aid money for corrupt practices. The second outcome is the recipient becoming dependent on foreign aid and thus, masking the problem. Because people are accustomed to receiving assistance, they no longer will seek to seek investments in business or even maintaining or building infrastructure which are necessary for long term development. The third outcome is that sometimes aid may end up in the wrong hands, and actually benefit the ones who are at the main culprits of the conflict. This occurs when humanitarians respond too quickly to provide assistance, not realizing that those who are receiving the aid are also a part of the cause of conflict. Armed groups also sometimes steal from those who receive the aid, so the citizens are left worse off. Lastly, there have been cases when those who are sent to provide aid actually take advantage of the vulnerability of the citizens and commit sex crimes as well as other things like “assault, fraud, smuggling, theft and torture.” (Pg 172-173) The UN is aware of this but sadly, those guilty are usually immune from punishment due to international law. In order to combat these negative outcomes, adaptability

Foreign aid is given to selected developing countries, and is necessary in order to protect the people and build a stable society. Australia is part of the worldwide foreign aid commitment and plans to give $3.9 billion over 2017 and 2018. Australians believe everyone should live with basic human rights which is why we give aid, and help countries by contributing money, food and resources. The main types of aid are humanitarian aid, which is disaster/emergency relief and development aid, which is a long-term commitment between nations. Australian aid is mainly focused on development aid, and helps nations worldwide. Interestingly, 90% of Australia’s foreign aid goes to Asia-Pacific countries such as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. This gives Australia a stronger relationship with regional nations, providing the country with a strong relation, trading partner and partner in defence. Aid is a polarizing issue that divides the nation due to the two differing views on Australia giving aid, should the country give foreign aid or not? A strong foreign aid program is vital for Australia to build successful relations and regional security.

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

As the world enters a globalized age, the interactions between nations become increasingly important. What was once a ‘all for one, one for all’ mentality, with nations acting mostly in their own best interests -barring, of course, the alliances made between nations, often military in nature acting against a common foe- has become a question of the common good. What obligation to help, if any, do countries with well developed economies and militaries have towards those nations in need? Nations that form economic alliances with other nations develop more quickly than they could have on their own, and aid from a greater international power can make a large difference in the economy and livelihood of developing countries. The United States, annually, donates somewhere between $30-50 billion to foreign aid, in an effort to help those nations that find themselves torn by war, disease, poverty, a lack of education, and a myriad of other problems. The question becomes one of what role does the United States play in foreign affairs, particularly that concerning foreign aid, and whether the United States is obligated to play that role, and ‘do its part,’ so to speak, on the global stage. Several factors will be examined to determine the answer, namely; the United States foreign aid budget and what the funds actually do, the comparison between the private and public sectors of foreign aid, the benefits of trade versus aid, and the roles of other developed nations in foreign aid.

aid and loans are used for private gain by officials instead of aiding the country. Countries that

4.3. Figure D: It is stated in the article that aid has demonstrated to be have a positive impact on development and economical growth specifically when it is targeted towards a specific objective of the country. For example aid being used towards eradicating certain illnesses. Though, when aid is presented objectively and in large substantial amounts, the overall growth of the country appears to decline. Basically, they explain that aid only works to a certain extent, and there are other solutions that also need to be implemented. The scenario presented for this was Sub-Sahara Africa’s declining

To begin with, a huge problem with foreign aid is that it does not reach the right people. When most people donate to an aid organization, they have no clue where their money is going. They are told it makes underprivileged lives better, but does it always? Most of the aid is given to the recipient’s government to distribute as they see fit. If there are guidelines, they are just that. They are ill-defined and inexact in their terms of agreement. Two reasons why the aid may not reach the right people are that the government does not always know where in the country needs money and help the most and the governments are

While development aid created opportunities for the improvement and economic growth, but some scholars argued that ‘’dependent development’’ was considered by the fast financial growth and severe income equality (Bradshaw and Huang, 1991). According to Marshall et al. (2007) economic reliance can distress strength in other ways. However, many scholars argued that aid is effective in an environment that is high quality public institutions and capable to manage for development purposes. In one hand, funding has definitely

On the basis of the viewpoints ascertained above, I firmly agree with author Jeffrey Sachs on the premise of utilizing foreign aid as a tool for economic development and helping improve the lives of others however, regarding policy I contend that state governments should not become the direct beneficiaries of aid. This is to say that instead of providing capital resources to governments which according to Swanson’s article can “make governments more despotic, and can also increase the risk of civil war since there is less power-sharing”1 [3] we should instead focus on a project based-approach forms of foreign aid as seen evident in the combat of malaria in Africa. Such approaches have (according to Sachs) have been successful. For example,

There so much said and written about foreign aid that it has become difficult to justify its effectiveness. But if we look at the overall picture in the eye of citizens of a developing country, an honest assessment might conclude that progress has been made. Though, profound social disparities and extreme poverty are still lurking in some parts of this fragile planet.

Foreign aid has a long track record. The biggest upside appears to be the injection of large sums of money into developing countries otherwise gripped by poverty, war and conflict. In theory, the funds should improve lives and raise people out of poverty, leading to sustainable growth and development. The unfortunate truth, however, is that foreign aid has often presented more challenges than opportunities to aid recipients. Aid has been mandated by government versus relying solely on private donations. We’ve seen small improvements across the globe, from reducing poverty to slowing population growth to curing and preventing diseases. Progress that otherwise would have been absent without an outpouring of foreign support (Tan Keo, 2013).