The Pros And Cons Of Aid

Submitted By kmvette
Words: 1380
Pages: 6

Katie Vette w1474607 Prosperity Aid is a multibillion-dollar a year industry created to help countries in need yet, it is the leading cause of debates across the world. At the focus of this debate lies the question everyone wants the answer to, is aid working? Scholars from both sides of this debate think they have all the answers and proof to why or why not aid is working so, who is right? I believe that certain types of aid are helping countries under certain circumstances however, it is not working under others and my factors contribute to why this is. I will discuss the main factors that come into play for why aid is not working including; what type of aid is being used and how unsuccessful the dispensation and implementation of the aid by institutions is. I will also go on to explain how humanitarian aid can be helpful to countries. Leading into how in some countries aid is not the solution to the problem discussing the hopelessness of aid that is not domestically driven. William Easterly, author of The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, sums up why aid isn’t working in one short yet affective sentence, "Poor people die not only because of the world's indifference to their poverty, but also because of ineffective efforts by those who do care." (Easterly, 2006, p7). Firstly, there are many different types of aid and depending upon what type of aid a country is receiving can be a leading cause to why aid isn’t working. Developmental aid takes place within the worlds poorest countries by promoting development and aiming to reduce poverty. Bilateral and multilateral aid donors are dominating the development aid services today. These donors are leading within aid services because these donors are made up of multiple companies thus, having the access to more money. However, with more money comes more power and that is how some of these donors become corrupt. In the article Governance, Representation and International Aid, published in the Third World Quarterly, professor Shelia Nair argues, “Development and poverty reduction approaches crafted principally by bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, and by policy and academic elites, are accompanied by hegemonic representations about aid.” (Nair, 2013, p648). Nair suggests that leading bilateral and multilateral donors intentions are not a clean and sweet as they might like people to think. Instead, within these donors policies are prescriptions for how to govern the poor which enhances the asymmetry of power between the donor and recipient relationship. The asymmetry of power factors into why aid doesn’t work, if there is an imbalance of power between donor and recipient corruption becomes a threat within the flow of aid. Another, type of aid is humanitarian the only aid of which I believe has the ability to be completely good for a country. This corruption can be avoided by implanting the values of good governance within these donor corporations. Good governance Humanitarian aid is used to respond to emergencies such as natural disasters. This type of aid is vital to countries when tragedies strike and organizations such as the Red Cross have dedicated volunteers ready to give their personal assistance. Also, within humanitarian aid come the branches of organizations that have people who dedicate themselves to teaching people in developing countries the skills they need so that their environment becomes livable. In a perfect world this would be the only aid given to developing countries but these organizations are very expensive to start and maintain. Individual donors celebs
The prestigious idea of how the implementation and distribution of aid occurs is another contributing factor to people’s impression of aid efficiency. William Easterly, an economist who specializes in economic growth and foreign aid, points out in his book The White Man’s Burden “The West spent $2.3 trillion on