Does Aid actually aid the situation?

geog blog #5 

Foreign aid is defined as: 'money, food or other resources given or lent by one country to another'

A fairly broad definition for what can be a complicated topic, does a South South development partnership qualify as aid? Is tied aid beneficial to the countries? Are the countries expected to pay back the aid in which case is it affordable? Does the aid reach the local population or are the countries affected corrupt? What are the intentions of the aid giving countries, are there ulterior motives?These are all factors to be considered and each in turn has its difficulties. 

Tied aid may be a good place to start as this is often the form that a majority of aid is given in. Rather than More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs) just throwing money at the Governments of LEDCs the aid is offered with some conditions. Often however these conditions are unfair and while the aid may initially may be seen as a good gesture it may have underlying motives. This was the case with The Pergau Dam in Malaysia where work began on the Dam in 1991 and this was funded by the UKs foreign aid budget- £243 million in total. In 1994 during an enquiry the Malaysian Government were found to have purchased £1 billion worth of arms and weapons from the UK. This was an example of how aid was given to be spent on a particular project that had very few benefits for the Malaysian people but did benefit the UK economy. In 2002 tied aid was made illegal in the UK on the grounds of aid should not be given to win export orders or achieve foreign policy goals. So tied aid is not beneficial to the countries who reach it because often the conditions that come attached with it are unsustainable and selfish. 

Does the aid reach the local populations? Sometimes, yes and it's not fair to make the sweeping generalisation that all aid doesn't work. However there are instances when the corruption of a Government means that aid will not reach the population. Ghana. 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. There have been accusations of Government money being withdrawn and placed into teachers bank accounts however these teachers do not exist, Ghost bank accounts have been created by those within the Government. As a result of this money is passed from foreign Governments to the Ghanaian Government in an effort to improve education standards by improving the pay of teachers, however the money donated never reaches teachers. In fact it never leaves the hands of Government officials. Corruption. Here aid is useless. A recent article can be found here http://www.dailyguideghana.com/?p=89140.

Aid can work and in many scenarios worldwide it becomes a lifeline for those who receive it. However there are situations in which aid does not work and all efforts are futile. 

Follow up reading: Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo


geog on.