Aid

Aid (or "international aid," "overseas aid," or "foreign aid," especially in the United States, European Union, and Australia) is - from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. This help, primarily economic, may be provided to communities or countries in the event of a humanitarian crisis or to achieve a socioeconomic objective. Humanitarian aid is primarily used for emergency or disaster relief, while development aid aims to create long-term sustainable economic growth. Wealthier countries typically provide aid to economically developing countries.

Definitions

Development aid is distinguished from humanitarian aid:

• Humanitarian aid, or Emergency aid, strives to alleviating suffering in the short term.
• Development aid is aimed at alleviating poverty through economic development over the long term. It may come from developed or developing country governments as well as from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the World Bank.

Aid between two countries is by definition foreign aid and, hence, bilateral or multilateral aid. These are defined as follows:

• Bilateral Aid is given by the government of one country directly to another. Many dedicated governmental aid agencies dispense bilateral aid, for example USAID, and DFID.
• Multilateral Aid is given from the government of a country to an international agency, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, or the European Development Fund. These organizations are usually governed by the contributing countries. These organizations are then responsible for the distribution of aid.

There also two very important terms in any type of aid, donors and recipients, defined as follows:

• Donors denote any developed or developing country that will provide, to the greatest extent possible, an increased flow of, either, aid on a long-term and continuing basis which we termed “development aid” or any short term “humanitarian aid” aimed at immediate alleviation of natural or political catastrophes and consisting mainly of money, consumer goods, and skilled people who will organize the actual the remedial actions in the stricken country. A good example of a short-term “humanitarian aid” evolved from the natural disaster is “Tsunami relief” given to countries devastated by Tsunami and post-Tsunami destruction.
• Recipients define any (developed or developing) country that becomes the final destination of any short-term (humanitarian) or long-term (development) aid.

Finally, the definitions of society and/or country are important: Generally speaking, with regard to the political and socio-economic differences among nation-states society and country are similar. However, this only holds true when the country refers to the territory of a nation that represents a sovereign nation-state. Most technical literature on the subject uses the term "country" in this context. In other words: country is used to denote a politically and territorially sovereign entity, and society refers to the people and their political organization within a country or nation-state.

Sources of aid

Aid organizations may provide both humanitarian and development aid, or specialize in one or the other.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a major role in distributing aid - examples include ActionAid, Oxfam, and the Mercy Corps. Many NGOs conduct their own international operations - distributing food and water, building pipelines and homes, teaching, providing health care, lending money, and so forth. A number of aid NGOs have an affiliation with a religious denomination.

Government aid agencies may also conduct direct operations, in addition to contracts with or grants to NGOs who actually provide the desired aid.

Many non-profit charitable organizations solicit donations from the public to support their work; philanthropic foundations often oversee an endowment which they invest and use the proceeds to support aid organizations and other causes.

Donations from private individuals and for-profit companies are another significant type of aid. Scholarships to foreign students, whether from a government or a private school or university, might also be considered a type of development aid.

Types of aid

Humanitarian aid

Humanitarian aid is rapid assistance given to people in immediate distress by individuals, organizations, or governments to relieve suffering during and after natural disasters and man-made emergencies (like wars). The term often carries an international connotation, but this is not always the case. Such aid is often distinguished from development aid by being focused on relieving suffering caused by natural disaster or conflict, rather than removing the root causes of poverty or vulnerability.

The provision of humanitarian aid or disaster relief consists of the provision of vital services (such as food aid to prevent starvation) by aid agencies, and the provision of funding or in-kind services (like logistics or transport), usually through aid agencies or the government of the affected country. Humanitarian aid is distinguished from humanitarian intervention, which involves armed forces protecting civilians from violent oppression or genocide by state-supported actors.

The Geneva Conventions give a mandate to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other impartial humanitarian organizations to provide assistance and protection of civilians during times of war. The ICRC, has been given a special role by the Geneva Conventions with respect to the visiting and monitoring of prisoners of war.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is mandated to coordinate the international humanitarian response to a natural disaster or complex emergency acting on the basis of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/182.

The Sphere Project handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, which was produced by a coalition of leading non-governmental humanitarian agencies, lists the following principles of humanitarian action:

• The right to life with dignity.
• The distinction between combatant and non-combatants.
• The principle of non-refoulement.

Food aid

Food deprivation leads to malnutrition and ultimately starvation. This is often connected with famine, which involves the absence of food in entire communities, which can have a devastating and widespread effect on human health and mortality. Rationing is sometimes used to distribute food in times of shortage, most notably during times of war.

Food aid can benefit people suffering from a shortage of food. It can be used to improve peoples' lives in the short term, so that a society can increase its standard of living to the point that food aid is no longer required. Conversely, badly managed food aid can create problems by disrupting local markets, depressing crop prices, and discouraging food production. Sometimes a cycle of food aid dependence can develop.

Its provision, or threatened withdrawal, is sometimes used as a political tool to influence the policies of the destination country, a strategy known as food politics. Sometimes, food aid provisions will require certain types of food be purchased from certain sellers, and food aid can be misused to enhance the markets of donor countries. International efforts to distribute food to the neediest countries are often coordinated by the World Food Programme.

Development aid

Development aid is aid given by developed countries and/or some developing countries to support development in general which can be economic development or social development in otherdeveloping countries. It is distinguished from humanitarian aid as being aimed at alleviating poverty in the long term, rather than alleviating suffering in the short term.

The term "development aid" is often used to refer specifically to Official Development Assistance (ODA), which is aid given by governments on certain concessional terms, usually as simple donations. It is given by governments through individual countries' international aid agencies and through multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, and by individuals through development charities such as ActionAid, Caritas, Care International, or Oxfam.

Recently, there was an EU pledge to spend 0.56% of GNI ( Gross National Income ) on poverty reduction, through development aid, by 2010, and 0.7% by 2015. This target has been watered-down from original goal of 0.7% in the mid-1970s.

Some 38 years before this article was written:

• The donor governments promised to spend 0.7% of GNI on ODA (Official Development Assistance) at the UN General Assembly in 1970.

• The deadline for reaching that target was the mid-1970s.

• By 2015 (the year by when the Millennium Development Goals are hoped to be achieved) the target will be 45 years old.

This target was codifed in a United Nations General Assembly Resolution, and a key paragraph says:

“…..In recognition of the special importance of the role which can be fulfilled only by official development assistance, a major part of financial resource transfers to the developing countries should be provided in the form of official development assistance. Each economically advanced country will progressively increase its official development assistance to the developing countries and will exert its best efforts to reach a minimum net amount of 0.7 per cent of its gross national product at market prices by the middle of the Decade…..”

In fact, the only development aid of any significance, that was extremely successful, was the earliest and biggest of them all: The Marshall Plan.

Marshall Plan

On June 5, 1947, speaking to the graduating class at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall laid the foundation, in the aftermath of World War II, for a U.S. program of assistance to the countries of Europe. At a time when great cities lay in ruins and national economies were devastated, Marshall called on America to "do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace."

The U.S. Congress approved Marshall's long-sighted proposal in 1948, and by 1952 the United States had channeled some $13 billion in economic aid and technical assistance to 16 European countries. During the program's four years, participating countries saw their aggregate gross national product rise more than 30 percent and industrial production increase by 40 percent over prewar levels. But the Marshall Plan, as it came to be known, was not just an American program. It was a joint European-American venture, one in which American resources were complemented with local resources, one in which the participants worked cooperatively toward the common goals of freedom and prosperity.

Many have been generous in their praise of the Marshall Plan, but perhaps none more than Sir Winston Churchill, to whom it represented "the most unsordid act in history."

Other forms of aid

(The use of the term "given" in this section is potentially misleading. Almost all aid from multilateral donors (e.g. World Bank) is in the form of loans; sometimes, however, written off completely.)

• Project aid: Aid is given for a specific purpose e.g. building materials for a new school.

• Programme aid: Aid is given for a specific sector e.g. funding of the education sector of a country.

• Budget support: A form of Programme Aid that is directly channelled into the financial system of the recipient country.

• Sectorwide Approaches (SWAPs): A combination of Project aid and Programme aid/Budget Support e.g. support for the education sector in a country will include both funding of education projects (like school buildings) and provide funds to maintain them (like school books).

• Untied Aid: The country receiving the aid, can spend the money as they chose.

• Tied Aid: The aid is used by the country donating it to build infrastructure, purchase goods etc.

• Technical assistance: Educated personnel, such as doctors are moved into developing countries to assist with a program of development. Can be both program and project aid.

• Emergency aid: This is given to countries in the event of a natural disaster or human event, like war, and includes basic food supplies, clothing and shelter.

• Official Development Assistance (ODA): Aid provided to Part I DAC list of aid recipients developing countries with the clear aim of development.

• Official Aid (OD): Aid provided to Part II DAC aid recipients. It includes both countries not considered a developing country and contributions to international organizations. (See ODA)

• Other Official Flows (OFF): All other official transactions to DAC list of aid recipient countries not covered by the previous two. (See ODA)

Problems with Aid

Food aid is intended to improve peoples' lives in the short term, so that a society can increase its standard of living to the point that food aid is no longer required. However, badly managed food aid can create problems by disrupting local markets, depressing crop prices, and discouraging food production. Sometimes a cycle of food aid dependence can develop.

Its provision, or threatened withdrawal, is sometimes used as a political tool to influence the policies of the destination country, a strategy known as food politics. Sometimes, food aid provisions will require certain types of food be purchased from certain sellers, and food aid can be misused to enhance the markets of donor countries. International efforts to distribute food to the neediest countries are often coordinated by the World Food Programme.

Criticism from the recipient countries’ academics

Aid is seldom given from motives of pure altruism, for instance it is often given as a means of supporting an ally in international politics; it may also be given with the intention of influencing the political process in the receiving nation. Whether one considers such aid bad may depend on whether one agrees with the agenda being pursued by the donor nation in a particular case. During the conflict between communism and capitalism in the twentieth century, the champions of those ideologies, the Soviet Union and the United States, each used aid to influence the internal politics of other nations, and to support their weaker allies.

Perhaps the most notable example was the Marshall Plan by which the United States, largely successfully, sought to pull European nations toward capitalism and away from communism. Aid to underdeveloped countries has sometimes been criticized as being more in the interest of the donor than the recipient, or even a form of neocolonialism.

Asante lists some specific motives a donor may have for giving aid: defense support, market expansion, foreign investment, missionary enterprise, cultural extension.

“….Aid appears to have established as a priority the importance of influencing domestic policy in the recipient countries….”

Evan Osborne has also questioned the effectiveness of foreign aid and noted the interests of a number of other donor countries, as well as the U.S., in their aid strategies in past years. For example:

• The US has directed aid to regions where it has concerns related to its national security, e.g. Middle East, and in Cold War times in particular, Central America and the Caribbean.

• Sweden has targeted aid to “progressive societies.”

• France has sought to promote maintenance or preserve and spread of French culture, language, and influence, especially in West Africa, while disproportionately giving aid to those that have extensive commercial ties with France.

• Japan has also heavily skewed aid towards those in East Asia with extensive commercial ties together with conditions of Japanese purchases.

Osbourne also added that domestic pressure groups (corporate lobby groups, etc):

“…..have also proven quite adept at steering aid to their favored recipients…...” And so, “…..If aid is not particularly given with the intention to foster economic growth, it is perhaps not surprising that it does not achieve it…...”

In recent decades, aid by organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has been criticized by some as being primarily a tool used to open new areas up to global capitalists, and being only secondarily, if at all, concerned with the well-being of the people in the recipient countries. This is a controversial subject.

Many criticize U.S. Aid in particular for the policy "conditions" that often accompany it. Emergency funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, for instance, are linked to a wide range of free-market policy prescriptions that some argue interfere in a country's sovereignty. Policy prescriptions from outsiders can do more harm as they might not fit the local environment.

The IMF can be good at helping countries over a short problematic financial period, but for poor countries with long lasting issues it can cause harm. William Easterly, in his book "The White Man's Burden" has argued that if the IMF only gave adjustment loans to countries that can repay it, instead of lending repetitively even if conditions are not met or forgiving debts it would keep its credibility.

In an episode of 20/20, Stossel showed flaws in the distribution of the foreign aid, and the governments of countries receiving aid:

• Food given as aid often ended up on markets being sold privately.

• The government receiving aid often had secret bank accounts in which it hid foreign aid money for private purposes.

James Shikwati, a Kenyan economist, has argued that foreign aid causes harm to the recipient nations, specifically because aid is distributed by local politicians, finances the creation of corrupt government bureaucracies, and hollows out the local economy.

In an interview in Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Shikwati uses the example of food aid delivered to Kenya in the form of a shipment of corn from America. Portions of the corn may be diverted by corrupt politicians to their own tribes, or sold on the black market at prices that undercut local food producers. Similarly, Kenyan recipients of donated Western clothing will not buy clothing from local tailors, putting the tailors out of business.

Donor countries’ collective experience

As the "donor-recipient" relationship forms the base of the aid ( of whatever form ), we should analyze some of the glaring socio-structural, political, ethical, cultural, and cognitive differences of the “generic” recipient society from the same socio-political environment in a “standard” donor society. A "standard" donor society would, as a rule, belong to the, so called, developed countries ( there are, however, developing countries that are "donors" too ) with long history of democratic tradition, rule of law for every citizen, and historically ethical, cultural and cognitive traits that make those societies stable for centuries.

From the previous paragraph—where the recipient society academics summarize their analysis of what’s wrong with the aid to their countries—one major difference, between the donors and recipients, and perhaps the all-important one, emerges: an absolute power, of oligarchy in a “generic” recipient society.

Oligarchy is the relatively small ruling strata ( or even only a clique ) of the society. It consists of historically evolved class of feudal landlords, newly arrived owners of industrial mega-enterprises and mega-banks , together with top political figures – either former feudal rulers or former generals turned dictators and their juntas – whose only interest is to exercise absolute power over the given society.

It originally evolved from the Plato’s doctrine who claimed that:

“…the people are to be led by a minority that alone comprehends the ideal in its entirety…”

Thus, members of the oligarchy have become, by this very definition, corrupted, despotic and above the laws of the country . They invariably consider the country as their private fiefdom . Some of the typical examples of oligarchies come from South-East Asia , South American and Arab Peninsula cultures and societies . The following explanation has , of course , general validity.

In so far the saying “absolute power corrupts” goes , there is no difference whatsoever between the economic power-junkies and religious or ideological zealots who , in the name of whatever religion , acquired the same absolute power .

Therefore, the religious and/or ideological rulers – be it in former USSR, Iran , Libya, Cuba, Uzbekistan, China or elsewhere – form the same oligarchic clique as in the societies mentioned above. All these ruling ideologues feature three internal factors that reinforce their backwardness : underdeveloped economies , hatred of foreign ( economic) domination and the lack of experience of democratic pluralism.

And, as we dwell on the major problem of recipient societies, i.e. oligarchy, we read the classic summary of the subject :

hierarchy, an ideal feature of Confucianism for establishing societal order, assumes that super ordinates possess more rights but also greater responsibilities than subordinates ……Superiors become authoritarian only… when they pay more attention to their rights and privileges …….when they send subordinates’ children to battle but their own overseas for graduate study ……when they penalize subordinates but not their relatives for criminal behavior.

Hence, most of the recipient societies ( or the countries ) the donors have investigated, seemed historically different, with different customs, habits, traditions, culture and evolutionary socio-political trends that together form quite specific ‘socio-economic and political make-up’ and a specific political, economic and social mosaic of the society. Based on these heterogeneous specifics , the following general paradigm has been proposed.

Paradigm of a “donor-recipient” aid disutility

This paradigm, albeit proven on the real-life data from many countries within several years span, claims that the more the socio-economic, political-system, culture, ethics, and democratic traditions heterogeneity between the donor and recipient society there is, the less the aid ( of whatever form between the two countries ) will be helping the donor society’s population.

And if the donors would try to make the recipient society being more homogeneous—which might be “defined” as “spreading the western civilization”—the other problems pop up. Indeed, Samuel P. Huntington in his book “The Clash of Civilization” warned:

The attempt to spread western [i.e. donor] civilization across the world would trigger responses from civilization with different religious and cultural foundations.

But this is the only way to make any aid feasible, and successful. For proof we need not go far. The extreme success of The Marshall Plan was achieved among the virtually homogeneous countries, in so far the cultural, legal, and political democracy history goes.

Indicators of good/bad aid

As mentioned in the previous sections aid can sometimes do more harm than good. It is therefore important to understand the indicators for good aid:

• Aid cannot be a top down effort done by outsiders without feedback and interaction of locals. In most cases the understanding of local conditions and the willingness to understand them is not given. Without that aid can throw the local system out of balance and thus do more harm.

• Aid agencies operating through bad governments might not reach the needy people. (e.g. sales of materials on black markets, aid filling pockets of government workers.)

• Aid agencies often are accountable to donors (or not even) and not aid receivers. Therefore the aid agency might focus its efforts on items that guarantee a good press visibility instead of focus on the best solution. (e.g. treatment for AIDS victims is very expensive in comparison to prevention of the disease, where effort would be better spent). Also it might focus on quantity and leave quality aside (e.g. school enrollment counts, the number of pupils per class might not). Big plans (e.g. world peace) sound wonderful, but might not be realistic, it would be better to focus on fewer goals that are measurable (and reachable.) Aid agencies need to be accountable. Collective accountability means no real accountability.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Carter, Gwendolyn, and Patrick O'Meara (eds.). African Independence: The First Twenty-Five Years. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1985. ISBN 978-0253302557
• Crane, David. "U.S. tragedy shows peril of bad globalization”, The Toronto Star, September 12, 2001. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
• DeRose, Laurie Fields, Ellen Messer, and Sara Millman. Who's Hungry? and How Do We Know?: Food Shortage, Poverty, and Deprivation. United Nations University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-9280809855
• Dopfer, Kurt. Economics in the Future. The MacMillan Press Ltd., 1976. ISBN 978-0333195031
• Easterly, William. The White Man’s Burden; Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest have Done So Much Ill and so Little Good. Penguin Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0143038825
• Hirvonen, Pekka. "Stingy Samaritans; Why Recent Increases in Development Aid Fail to Help the Poor", Global Policy Forum, 2005. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
• Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Simon & Schuster, 2011. ISBN 978-1451628975
• Jenkins, R. Churchill. New York, Penguin Group, 2002. ASIN B00ESDDYCG
• Karasek, Mirek. “Institutional and Political Challenges and Opportunities for Integration in Central Asia.” 2005.
• Nelson, Benjamin F. International Affairs Budget: Framework for Assessing Relevance, Priority and Efficiency. Washington, DC: General Accounting Office, 1997. ISBN 978-0788175503
• Nguyen, Tri Q. Third-World Development. Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0838633274
• Osborne, Evan. “Rethinking Foreign Aid” Cato Journal, 22(2) (2002): 297-316. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
• Revel, Jean-Francois. The Totalitarian Temptation. Penguin Books, 1978. ISBN 978-0140048414
• Selick, Karen. Foreign Aid—“Please Just Stop!” Retrieved November 1, 2013.
• The Sphere Project, The Humanitarian Charter Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response. Retrieved November 1, 2013.

External links

All links retrieved October 30, 2013.

• OECD Development Co-operation Directorate (DAC)
• The Reality of Aid
• Foreign Aid for Development Assistance by Anup Shah, Global Issues.
• Devex International Development News

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