Brighton Peace and Environment Centre
The giving of aid is rarely as simple as the transference of money, goods or equipment from one country or group to another. Corruption and war can be major stumbling blocks. In addition, to understand why people need aid in the first place, we must look at issues such as trade rules and debt.
Few people would prefer to receive handouts from others, rather than be able to support themselves. Paul Mumo Kisau, a Kenyan student at Aberdeen University, writes, "Like baby birds, if we continue to remain in the nest then we shall be opening our mouths to the West for anything they want to put in them... Time has now come for Africa to look to the rest of the world as partners, not as donors."
So why are poor countries still reliant on aid?
The director of Oxfam Hong Kong, Chong Chan-yau, says that
"for every dollar given in aid, two are stolen through unfair trade, costing the poor world $100bn a year."
At present, 97% of income generated by international trade benefits rich and middle income countries - leaving just 3% for poor nations.
Oxfam calculated that 130 million people could be lifted out of poverty if Africa, Latin America and poor parts of Asia were allowed to increase their share of global commerce by just 1%.
In Africa alone, that would generate $70bn a year - five times the amount that the continent gets in aid.
Many poor countries have economies that rely on agriculture, and it is here that they are hardest hit.
The World Bank and the IMF, two of the biggest donors of financial aid, put pressure on poor countries to slash the financial support for their farmers.
Rich nations like the UK and the USA pay out $1bn a day on agricultural subsidies to their own farmers, leading to overproduction in the developed world, and driving down prices down to levels at which poorer farmers cannot compete.
This can be a major barrier to getting aid where it is needed. Charities and donors often prefer to work around the problem of corruption, rather than face it head on, because tackling corruption may upset a relatively stable situation. In Cambodia, the barriers to aid are often so severe that many organizations are discouraged and divert their aid to other needy areas: corruption in Cambodian seaports impedes the import of goods and equipment, and large payoffs are required to officials.
Trying to help people in war zones is problematic. War makes it difficult to deliver aid where it is needed, and to make sure that aid is not diverted away from the most needy.
The prevalence of diseases, especially sexually-trasmitted diseases, in some countries hampers the effectiveness of aid. Many families' breadwinners suffer from diseases like HIV/AIDS, making them unable to work and throwing their families into greater poverty. This in turn affects the economy of such countries, causing them to turn to organizations like the World Bank for loans which plunges them deeper into the cycle of debt and poverty.
Without tackling problems such as famine, disease and lack of clean water, aid is often rendered irrelevant. It doesn't matter how much food aid you give to a population - if they have no access to clean water or proper medical facilities, then treatable diseases like malaria or symptoms such as diarrhoea will kill them. The giving of aid is often a sticking plaster over larger problems.
Brighton Peace & Environment Centre,
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