Foreign aid

Question 1

Foreign aid does not solve poor governance, corrupt leaders eye leadership to get access to foreign aid

Answer 1

notoriously corrupt countries such as Iraq, Somalia and Pakistan are a few of the largest recipients of World Bank aid, and Afghan officials have been known to leave the country with US aid in suitcases.

Question 2

foreign aid is unable to stimulate economies to achieve long-term growth; instead, it prevents countries from becoming competitive and taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the global economy.

Answer 2

For instance, the US Food for Peace program, with the well-meaning intention of alleviating food shortages in Africa, flooded the region with American-grown food, which had the adverse effect of putting local farmers out of business. This prevents these countries from seizing on their comparative advantage in agriculture and achieving long term growth.

Question 3

does not solve underlying financial problems which leads to long term accumulation of debt as a result of financial aid without a restructuring of the economy.

Answer 3

A high proportion of foreign aid is in the form of loans, which cripple developing countries through the accumulation of debt. Many rich nations receive more in interest payments from recipient countries than they give in “aid”. Especially since the 2008 financial crash, western governments have exploited their ability to borrow money at low rates by setting up aid programmes lending to poor countries at much higher rates, minting money on the backs of the poor.

Question 4

Programmes for medical foreign aid

Answer 4

There is widespread agreement that aid programs focused on health have saved millions of lives. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which among other things provides antiretroviral treatment for 11.5 million people, has been a key reason why global deaths from the disease have fallen by almost half since 2005. At the same time, malaria mortality has declined by nearly 50 percent since 2000—saving almost 7 million lives—in part through the efforts of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s President’s Malaria Initiative.

Question 5

NGOs for medical foreign aid

Answer 5

Well-established Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Doctors without borders provide provision of effective and highly skilful medical aid to work wonders in eradicating diseases. These NGOs possess people with talent and medical expertises that these poorer countries do not have.

Question 6

USAID

Answer 6

In Afghanistan, less than 1 million children attended schools in 2002, and almost none were girls. But since then,as of 2017, the Afghan government, USAID, and other donors have built more than 16,000 schools, recruited and trained more than 154,000 teachers, and increased net enrollment rates to nearly 60 percent.

In 2017 and 2018, in partnership with 13 U.S. universities, USAID assisted 11 public Afghan universities to improve existing and establish new degrees in the schools of business, medicine, psychology, communications, engineering, information technology, education, and agriculture.

Question 7

SAPs

Answer 7

Also, cash-strapped developing countries are often forced to approach the IMF and World Bank for loans. To ensure the viability of these loans, they come
attached with conditions such as Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) which often divert public funding away from essential welfare services.

Question 8

Stats on debt by developing ctys

Answer 8

Emerging markets and developing countries have about $11 trillion in external debt and about $3.9 trillion in debt service due in 2020.

Question 9

Quote on foreign aid

Answer 9

‘Foreign aid goes from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries’- this quote by US Senator Paul Rand captures the essence of the ugly truth behind foreign aid; that foreign aid goes into the corrupt pockets of the concentrated wealthy few