8.8B - Does aid work?
The impact of development aid is contested, successes include progress in dealing with life-threatening conditions (malaria) and improvements in some aspects of human rights (gender equality) but critics suggest that it encourages dependency, and promotes corruption and the role of the elite at the expense of human rights and minority groups.
Problems with aid
A key problem with development aid is corruption, where aid money never reaches the people it is intended to help because:
It is impossible to know how much development aid is lost to corruption. It may be a larger problem with large-scale, high-cost bilateral aid and multilateral projects. NGOs are probably more able to control corruption because their sums are small, and tend to be spent more locally.
There is an argument that development aid actually promotes corruption. Some people may view it as essentially 'free money' which increases the temptation to get it through corrupt means. Others argue development aid has wider negative impacts because:
Many African countries do indeed depend heavily on aid, which makes up a significant share of their overall annual national income. In the Central African Republic and Liberia, it is more than 25% of GDP. However, the counter argument is that without it, human rights would have been much worse.
- it is stolen by corrupt government officials
- bribery siphons off some of the money, which is wasted on corrupt contracts costing far more than the real cost of the goods
- aid money often goes to companies owned and run by government officials and local elites, making it easier to steal
It is impossible to know how much development aid is lost to corruption. It may be a larger problem with large-scale, high-cost bilateral aid and multilateral projects. NGOs are probably more able to control corruption because their sums are small, and tend to be spent more locally.
There is an argument that development aid actually promotes corruption. Some people may view it as essentially 'free money' which increases the temptation to get it through corrupt means. Others argue development aid has wider negative impacts because:
- it reduces innovation, free enterprise and entrepreneurship because it provides a basic level of economic support
- it creates dependency, so countries begin to rely on aid 'handouts' rather than fostering economic development
Many African countries do indeed depend heavily on aid, which makes up a significant share of their overall annual national income. In the Central African Republic and Liberia, it is more than 25% of GDP. However, the counter argument is that without it, human rights would have been much worse.
Success of Aid
Global Vaccination Programmes
- Led by the UN World Health Organization since the 1960s, immunisation has dramatically reduced the disease burden in developing countries.
- Smallpox was eradicated in 1977, measles deaths fell by 85% in Africa from 2000 to 2014 and worldwide polio cases have fallen by 99% since 1988.
- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an NGO, has spent $2 billion fighting malaria
- Since 2005 new cases are down 25%, and deaths down 42%
- Anti-mosquito bednets, better diagnosis and treatment, and improved insecticides have all contributed to controlling malaria and the mosquitoes that carry it.
- Under the umbrella of the Millennium Development Goals, progress has been made in gender equality
- The global gender gap between male and female primary and secondary enrolment was eliminated between 2000 and 2015 (really?)
- Globally, more women are in work, and more involved in politics than in 2000
