Do the Benefits of Providing Aid to Poorer Countries Outweigh its Harms?

Financial aid in today’s world has great importance regarding domestic amelioration and international relations between countries however there are issues that emerge the receiving and donating countries that must be identified, assessed and suitably acted upon so they can be dealt successfully. Foreign aid is actually the voluntarily one-sided transfer of resources from countries that are economically and politically stable to assist countries which are not very well-off (Economics). Originally aid was provided to help stabilize the recipient country; this concept picking pace after the WWII, to help reestablish the devastated war-torn countries and to create allies but in the current age of international politics, most of the aid is conditional for example it is tied aid and has a number of other conditions (Reliefweb) (IPS news).The highest donor of foreign assistance last year was the USA with a $32 billion of foreign aid given whereas the country that received the most aid was Afghanistan with an inflow of approximately $5 billion only from aid (World Bank) (Guardian).

I believe that foreign aid is really important to help developing and under-developed countries in the highly competitive world of today where many of these countries are on the verge of collapse, in particular those challenged by problems such as civil wars, terrorism and trade embargos; and brings advantages such as it can be used to make humanity survive, support a country at the time of a unmanageable crisis and improve international relations thus aid needs to be organized and properly regulated to maximize its advantages or else a number of serious issues such as exploitation, dependency and corruption in aid can emerge.

The Issues: Global and National Perspectives

In many underdeveloped countries, satisfaction of even basic human needs is not guaranteed because of poverty which means that many people die every year just because of hunger. Where today, one part of humanity is busy in discovering life beyond the Earth, people are dying of hunger. Around 21000 people die every day because of hunger or hunger related causes, according to the United Nations (Poverty). Under these global circumstances, aid to countries with highest deaths due to hunger (e.g. Congo, Sierra Leone, and Central African States) on simply humanitarian grounds must be given to fight this threat. According to the Human Development Index, 60.3% of my country, Pakistan’s population earns under $2 per day which means ensuring even the basic necessities of life is a challenge (Dawn). Giving aid will ensure that people in Pakistan would live a respectable life and the human rights are fully guaranteed. It will mean that crime rate will also decrease in Pakistan as now basic necessities will be fulfilled.

Emergency aid is the short term and immediate aid that is given to a country after a catastrophe to reduce the intensity of the damage and is mostly unconditional given by developed countries or organizations such as The Red Cross to help countries combat natural or man-made disasters. This includes earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, civil wars, rebellions, genocides, and terrorist attacks. Not only monetary and military aid will provide resource to combat the disaster and save the infrastructure, food grains and medical aid will ensure that the affected human beings’ survive and the impact on them is minimized. This aid is very essential for a country in the short-run as many of the underdeveloped and developing countries do not has sufficient resources to handle the impact of the problem itself and if they are not helped, may totally collapse and fall in a state of poverty, anarchy and confusion from where recovery would be extremely difficult. (World Bank) Pakistan received $5.8 billion from around the world after the huge earthquake in 2005 helping to reduce the burden on Pakistani government and there could be successful rescue operations carried out. Due to it, many of the towns that were totally devastated such as Muzaffarabad are rebuilt and life is once again normal. (Standaard)

However there are issues related to aid. The donor countries are able to exploit the recipient countries prior to and after they give aid. When aid is given, countries are forced to accept what the donor countries instruct because the receiver country, either highly needs foreign assistance at that point of time or has become dependent on it as the case of my own country Pakistan. Tied aid is a related example of how recipient countries have to import goods in their country using the given funds from the donor country or specified nations even if the prices are highly uncompetitive which cuts the value of aid by 25-40% especially in African states which is damaging to the already unstable economies (United Nations). Not only imports but also there may be a number of other conditions. It can be a political stance on a global issue making the recipient countries’ official statement not their genuine stance or to allow the country to use military bases in their country which the USA had done with Pakistan for example the Shamsi Airfield near Quetta was previously being used by the US military (Global Security). Whether Pakistan wanted or not, it had to give this airbase as they could not have afforded discontinuing of aid by US. As it was being used against the USSR, it also meant that relations between Pakistan and the Soviet deteriorated. This will mean that the recipient country will lose its independence in political and economic matters and it may not be truly sovereign. Not only international matters but also internal affairs of a country may be influenced which includes laws, politics, and the economy without the government having the ability to do much about it.  

Moving on, most of the aid lacks the trickle-down effect which means that although aid is being provided it does not reach where it is supposed to. This is because government officials and NGO’s themselves are barriers to this process when they use this money for political or induvial gains instead of delivering it to where it was met for, in other words engage in corruption. This makes the aid no more effective regardless of how much is being given. This problem has not only being worrying the receiver nations but also the donor countries as corruption is reported from both sides. UK has given $123.7 million to help the people of Somalia in 2013 (The Daily Mail). Now in countries like Somalia and Afghanistan where the corruption rate is highest in the world, the usefulness of aid can be questioned because the entities in the channel themselves do not deliver it to the proper place and thus the situation of that country does not improve (The Guardian). When the corrupt NGOs and officials receive the funds, instead of delivering them to the right places the money is actually used for purposes such as bribery and abuse of power making the situation further worse (The Telegraph).

Personal Perspective

My city is close to the plate boundary and thus it is vulnerable to earthquakes. My local government may not be able to handle the pressure if a huge earthquake or any other disaster takes place and that is when I may benefit from aid. Aid can provide me and my family with food and shelter and so I will be able to survive which may be very difficult without external support. Aid can also affect me as the more there will be foreign aid, the less the government will itself spend on these people and it will be possible that more money will be available for us meaning better roads, houses and public places and my standard of life will become better.

I also am now aware that aid through NGOs can be spent on making schools, medical centers, and campaigns can be started to eradicate social injustice with different ethnic groups and religious minorities and make people aware of their basic rights. This can uplift the social lives of my surrounding areas and I can live in a better society with less social injustice. Aid, like everybody else can also increase the living standards of my family. My city has high population growth and this needs to be stopped by population control awareness campaigns that can be funded by foreign aid. Using aid properly will help not only me but us all to live in a better world. I can make an influence by starting a campaign by my own initiative against the corruption of NGO’s in particular.

Futuristic Scenarios

In the future, it may be a possibility that giving excessive aid may exhaust the donor country’s own economic resources and its economy may collapse as there is less money for the country itself. It means aid should not be given overlooking a country’s own needs and will totally fall.    

If aid will be completely stopped then it will mean an increase in the migration rate around the world because as their countries do not have money to provide them with basic necessities, they would want to go to countries that are better off. The migration crisis will be deepened further.   

Aid, if not given, may divide the world into numerous blocs making the world a continuous combat zone with nuclear weapons to multifold the destruction as peace will bring no economic or political benefit to them and will be interested in attaining that through territorial expansion as has been done through the past centuries. In the future, aid may not be needed as countries are already on the lines of industrialization, in the future it is likely that they would be self-sufficient. This will mean that countries will now not be exploited and can maintain their sovereignty. However it may take time such as 50 years for something like this to happen.  

Possible Solutions

The problems that are caused when foreign assistance to a country is provided, need to be dealt so the benefits of aid can be fully experienced. Most of the issues caused when aid is provided are not naturally associated with aid and we can easily put an end to them. To ensure that aid is sufficiently provided and that donor countries do not exploit, there must be a proper international organization. It will be most favorable if the United Nations takes the initiative to make an organization as then it will be an unbiased and reliable; specified to overlook all matters including proposing required laws to be made, ensuring its correct usage, campaigning the importance of aid and prevent exploitation of international aid. Particularly, there is absence of international laws regarding the conduct of countries when they give aid and these can be proposed by the organization. The organization must also ensure a steady and controlled inflow of aid to the recipient country so that it is correctly used, reduce the amount of inflation and prevent a sudden withdrawal of aid by arranging proper and detailed aid agreements.  

The donor countries/organizations should also keep a check that whether the resources that are donated reach where they were intended for or not. This will help minimize the corruption. They can ensure this by sending individual agents to check if the money is invested where it was meant for. Also they must be very careful when recruiting people for this job as they must be very honest. Receiver countries must be made realized before they are given the aid by the donor countries that aid is only a temporary support and it must be used to increase economic development to be self-sufficient in the long run instead of depending on it for current expenditures. There must not be sudden increased spending on specific areas at that may lead to inflation as demand suddenly rises thus the government must spend steadily keeping a balance.   

Personal Reflection

After all the research, I have come to a conclusion that although aid is being given worldwide and has benefits, the problems are becoming worse day by day. As the value of aid is cut down to 25-40% when it is conditional, I think that countries should avoid putting unnecessary restrictions so that the benefit can be maximized and in lesser aid, we get more advantage. We ourselves need to take responsibility and spread awareness about that aid must be free from corruption because it means that money given to countries having corruption as large as $123 million by UK has no use and is wasted.

 I emphasize that there is a need of an organization because all of the problems will be dealt by the organization such as laws, policies and avoidance of corruption. I also think that countries like China who has a big economy should be motivated by nations such as the US who gives aid annually around $32 billion so that aid around the world can be increased and this will eventually mean that less people die of hunger and humanity will be able to survive. Not only this but also I think that we have to make international laws as receiver countries at the moment are being widely exploited such as Pakistan had to give its Shamsi airbase to USA and it became unavailable for Pakistani use but Pakistan could not refuse but this is unfair.

Lastly, before this report I thought that aid had no problems related to it and it was just smooth transfer of funds to help other countries. I have now understood that basically, it is not unconditional and countries are being exploited. Also I thought that only USA gives aid around the world as it is a main contributor to Pakistan’s aid, but know I got to know that countries such as Australia, UK and Germany also give aid.

I also did not know that my country had received so vast amounts of aid in the history as I was born later than that date but now I know my country’s history and that how it was exploited by the US. I also did not know that there was an absence of an international organization which monitors the conduct during transfer of aid but know I am aware that there is no such organization however there is a need for it.