Lack of development in countries in the so-called `Third World' has many political and economical reasons. Historians explain the inadequacy of developing countries with the early imperialism and the resulting colonization of the South. Exploitation of mineral resources, deforestation, slavery, and the adaptation of foreign policies shaped the picture of today's suffering and struggling civilizations and natural rich continents. The omission of concessions and equal negotiations between dependency and supremacy give rise to the contrast of enormous resources and immense poverty in developing countries is. In the last years the outcry of justice and the emancipation of the Third World became louder throughout developing and industrialized countries and its population. This shout for justice refers mainly to Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and loans imposed by donor countries and institutions on recipient countries, bound on conditions and regulations. Designed to improve a country's investment climate, SAPs are gaining stronger influence over indebted governments' economy and become a burden to the recipient population. The organization AFRODAD, the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development, states that ."..donors use Aid to create and foster the impression among recipient countries that Aid is beneficial to them, Aid has failed to improve the situation of the poor as it has promoted the real interests of donors." Many groups like non-governmental (NGOs) and grassroots organizations, economists and United Nations agencies claim that the economic course installed by SAPs, deepen poverty, weaken self-reliance and lead to an on-going dependency. Most important they argue that aid promotes the profound interests and ben...
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...Company, USA.
Tisch, Sarah J. & Wallace Michael B. (1994) Dilemmas of Development Assistance. pp.51. Westview Press, Oxford.
Todaro, Michael P. (1977) Economic Development. Longman Group, Essex.
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The impact of the Structural Adjustment Programs imposed by International Financial Intuitions (IFIs) such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on the developing countries of Africa has led to the destruction of Africa’s social sectors and has handicapped Africa in its fight with poverty, the AIDS pandemic, and keeping children in school.
... aid across the world. As we have established that we do have an obligation to redistribute globally in a cosmopolitan perspective, distributing wealth however we may need to rethink what the best assistance is. Amaryta Sen conveys that before sending aid to the third world state, we would need to fully understand the limitation of freedom in the country. Redistributing wealth to global countries requires it to be evaluated by the economic shortage that they are suffering and to see whether it will be efficient in the long run. The more effective ways to contribute would be to international relief agencies or NGO’s that would pursue international development projects to help those in poverty or the alternative option by Tom Campbell’s idea of a ‘Global humanitarian levy’ which suggests a more appropriate taxation on all citizens to collectively aid those in need.
Jamieson, D. (2005). Duties to the Distant: Aid, Assistance, and Intervention in the Developing World. Journal Of Ethics, 9(1/2), 151-170. doi:10.1007/s10892-004-3324-9
International Aid operates in almost every corner of the globe, is part of the transfer of billions of dollars of assistance through countless organizations, charities, and funds; and involves the efforts of hundreds of thousands of dedicated workers and affects billions of people. . This paper will provide a historical summary of how aid has grown and developed in stages, from a humanitarian concept first applied in the 19th century to established international policy and law following the Second World War and later the Cold War. We will review the impact of the wave of newly independent nations in the 1940’s and 1950’s and the rise of multinational aid organizations in the 1970’s and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) in the 1980’s. We will conclude by detailing recent emerging trends in aid through the 1990’s into the present day.
Every year, donors from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) give billions of dollars in foreign aid, with the United States contributing a large percentage of this sum (Eischen 2012) (Figure A). However, the amount and way in which this money is handled has given rise to heavy criticism. Books such as Dambisa Moya’s Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa and the innumerable news articles lamenting the state of the corrupt bureaucracies of receiving countries not only discuss the inefficiencies of foreign aid but also accuse these programs of being harmful (Ayodele et al. 2005). One such article claimed that, due to inefficiencies and corruption, at least twenty percent of aid is completely lost (Chakraborty 2013).
Third world countries have the name underdeveloped countries, but it is better to call them over-exploited countries. Developed countries are implementing several foreign policies and trading blocks that have nothing to develop the less developed countries; on the contrary, they exploit the development and block growth in many ways such as imperialism, globalization, and capitalism. These practices of developed nations prevent third world countries from development. The countries that have advanced technologies and standard economical status are considered as the developed countries. Besides their growth, these countries have started taking advantage of third world countries that are also less fortunate in terms of economy and technology.
He met some economists and government officials to find remedies to fight against global poverty. He successfully argues that extreme poverty can be prevented. Some of his strategies are by reaching through rich countries and other organizations through donations, debt cancellations, making investments to help them with pandemic diseases such as Malaria, small pox and AIDS. In fact, Sachs was victorious in extending Africa’s health problem to World Health Organization (WHO) other organizations and successfully treated various diseases and even some donors increases their donations to show their solidarity for the people in Africa. Minghui says, “Over US$ 12.9 billion was pledged for the next three years, nearly US$ 1 billion more than at the previous replenishment conference in 2013” (Minghui, 2016). However, not all these strategies he mentioned are applicable in every poor country because of graft and corruption, no transparency and the aid becomes a waste money. Africa, for instance is rich in natural resources and they can use all of these for economic growth but because the government has no control over graft and corruption, they do not succeed. In other words, debt cancellation will not help to improve their standard of living, education or infrastructure since the public officials are bribed for their own profit and the money will only go to their pockets. The report, Sub-Saharan, Africa is one of the ten most corrupt country because of poverty (Mis, 2015). Despite of Sachs’s awareness that poor countries need good governance, he remained persistent to end poverty by
Foreign aid can destroy natural mechanisms of economic growth if not properly apportioned to the individuals with motivation and passion for expansion. When blindly given to governments and the public, aid destroys native markets and halts natural growth. NGOs, charities and governments need to take the time to meet the needs of the poor individuals ensuring that local governments have a symbiotic relationship with those they govern over and that governments do not become corrupt or prone to cause civil unrest. Aid focused on meeting the needs of those ensnared by poverty traps can exponentially initiate growth but only if done with appropriate care and caution.
Cooper, Mary H. “Reassessing Foreign Aid.” CQ Researcher 27 Sept. 1996: 841-64. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
To begin with, it is necessary to discuss some basic information about the current system in place. Neoliberal capitalism is an economic system that promotes free market policies of liberalization, deregulation, privatization, and the cutting of social support systems. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are two key organizations that help spread free market policies through globalization by implementing structural adjustment programs as conditions for any aid or support to any third world developing countries. Once structural adjustment programs are put into place they tend to disrupt developing countries’ economies and end up making them even worse off than before. Before the 1980s, developing countries had a per capita growth rate of more than 3%, once structural adjustment programs were put into place growth rates dropped to 1.7% (Hickel 2012: 7).
Poverty has conquered nations around the world, striking the populations down through disease and starvation. Small children with sunken eyes are displayed on national television to remind those sitting in warm, luxiourious houses that living conditions are less than tolerable around the world. Though it is easy to empathize for the poor, it is sometimes harder to reach into our pocketbooks and support them. No one desires people to suffer, but do wealthy nations have a moral obligation to aid poor nations who are unable to help themselves? Garrett Hardin in, "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping The Poor," uses a lifeboat analogy to expose the global negative consequences that could accompany the support of poor nations. Hardin stresses problems including population increase and environmental overuse as downfalls that are necessary to consider for the survival of wealthy nations. In contrast, Peter Singer's piece, "Rich and Poor," remarks on the large differences between living conditions of those in absolute poverty with the wealthy, concluding that the rich nations possess a moral obligation to the poor that surpasses the risks involved. Theodore Sumberg's book, "Foreign Aid As Moral Obligation," documents religious and political views that encourage foreign aid. Kevin M. Morrison and David Weiner, a research analyst and senior fellow respectively at the Overseas Development Council, note the positive impact of foreign aid to America, a wealthy nation. Following the examination of these texts, it seems that not only do we have a moral obligation to the poor, but aiding poor nations is in the best interest of wealthy nations.
McMichael, Philip, ed 2012. Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective, 5th ed. London: Sage Publications, Inc.
...tries. These ideas were discussed in lecture on February 16th, 2011, as well as explored in Manfred B. Steger's, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, and I.B. Logan and Kidane Mengisteab's article, "IMF – World Bank Adjustment and Structural Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa." Instead of globalization as a positive system for SSA, it did the opposite, and made the region stagnant in economic terms. It was about expanding relationships among countries, but adjustments were creating barriers that prevented SSA from economic communications with other countries. Therefore, it contributed to colonialism after World War II; colonial powers were able to indirectly control what SSA could do, and whom they were able to contact. The World Bank as a financial institution affected SSA's economic industry, and was partly responsible for the control colonial powers had.
Randall Vicky and Burnell, Peter. Politics in the developing world. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.
Poor countries have been receiving aid from the international community for over a century now. While such aid is supposed to be considered an act of kindness from the donor nations or international bodies, it has led to over dependence among the developing countries. They have adopted the habit of estimating and including international aid in their national budgets to reduce their balance of trade deficits. It is believed that foreign aid is necessary for poor nations in order to break the cycle of poverty that ties their citizens in low productivity zones and so their economy will not be weak. However, some critics view the extension of aid to poor countries as means of keeping the nations in economic slumber so that they can wake up from only by devising ways of furthering self-sustainability. Because of these two schools of thought concerning the topic, debate has arisen on which side is more rational and factual than the other. The non-sustainable nature of international aid, however, leaves the question of what may happen in the event that foreign aid is unavailable for the poor nations. After thorough consideration on the effects of the assistance to poor countries, it is sufficient to state that giving international aid to the poor nations is more disadvantageous than beneficial to the nations. This point is argued through an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of giving international aid to the poor countries with appropriate examples drawn from various regions of the world to prove the stance.