‘Countries at Very Low Levels of Economic Development Face Such Huge Challenges That They Cannot Hope to Address Them Without Assistance from the Rest of the World.’ to What Extent Do You Agree with This View? Essay

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There are some countries in this world with a GDP less than $750, with populations earning less than $1 a day, life expectancies barely reaching past 40 years old and devastatingly poor levels of health care, school enrolment and adult literacy rates. These are the defining indicators of people living in low developing countries (LDC’s). Populations living in poverty and the majority with an income too small to accommodate their basic needs and the resources in the national economy, even when equally distributed are not enough to provide a sustainable living for the population. Of the 50 countries recognised as LDC’s, 33 are found in Africa, south of the Sahara with 374 million living on an income of less than $2 a day. It seems that …show more content…
If aid is to be of any kind of useful assistance for developing countries to face their huge problems, there needs to be bigger improvements on the kind of aid given. Development projects and bottom up schemes seem to be the most effective such as in Bangladesh which has seen huge agricultural development where the use of fertilisers and irrigation that has been introduced have increased the farmers growing potentials and the development of “dry season rice” as floods destroy crops during rainy seasons this fall-back crop has been vital in increasing food security for the poor. This is examples of how aid can be effective in developing countries and aid economic growth, but only these sorts of projects seem to be effective, donor countries should take more responsibly into where its aid is going and how it’s being used otherwise foreign aid becomes useless, or even detrimental to the development of these countries.
If foreign aid is simply not the only solution to helping these countries face their problems then what is? Trade. It seems a larger focus on using trade to promote economic growth, which will essentially encourage the economic development of a country, could be the answer. After the Second World War Africa and Asia were in similar positions, made up of mostly developing countries, struck down by poverty with poor economies facing a bleak future. But while Africa became the main focus of foreign aid and followed the conventional wisdom in