International AID

• Purpose of Foreign AID

  • Dates back to the 1940s, to stop the spread of communism.
  • The 1950s, West v East battle in the developing world led to AID.
  • AID is accepted due to; technical gap (skills shortage), savings gap (not enough capital), foreign exchange gap.
• What is AID ?

  Assistance given from one country to another
• Relief AID


  Help given to people in distress or immediate threat of death with the aim to relieve suffering and not to address the causes of the problem.

  -Sometimes called relief/humanitarian AID
• Development AID


  Given by HICs to support economic development or social development in LICs. Aims to alleviate poverty in the long term, rather than immediate problems.
• Tied AID


  Aid given to a foreign country with conditions attached
• Bilateral AID


  Aid that is given directly from one country to another (between two countries).
• Multilateral AID


  Aid that involves two or more countries.
• UK AID in Vietnam

  Currently 28 active projects, e.g.1) Illegal Wildlife Trade-threatening ecosystems, species and is due to corruption. UK has given grants worth £23 million, as well as committing to 75 projects since 2013.2)Plastic Waste-help to understand where plastic waste is from/going. Helped 3260km of coastal areas (health, fisheries, tourism, shipping).
• UK AID in Namibia

  Currently 7 active projects, e.g.1)Illegal Wildlife Trade-same as Vietnam2)Higher Education Programmes3)Frontiers for Engineering-collaboration with international bodies to help pioneering technical work.
• UK Cutting Foreign AID

  Cutting £1.5bn of the world bank's programme towards LICs, so now no longer the leading IDA grant donor, and a fall of GNI from 0.7% to 0.5%.

  -Pandemic has resulted in AID cuts

  -Most of the spending goes to Africa bilateral AID

  -UK is losing slogan of "global Britain"

  -UNAIDS set to lose 80% of funding from UK

  -UN's children's funding reduced by 60%
• Impact of UK Cutting Foreign AID

  Syria-75% of funding reduced.Pakistan-cuts will impact education, with nearly 11,000 girls not able to attend school if funding stops.Nigeria-UK terminated a 3 year grant that was "halfway through implementation".Bangladesh-health project terminated that would have helped 2.6m people, training of health service providers will no longer happen, currently outbreak of diarrhoea which would of been responded to if project in place, government can't fill gap created by sudden withdrawal of project/funds.
• Impact of AID on Receiver

  -can target specific areas of need

  -can free up sums of cash for other areas such as healthcare

  -new relationships between countries formed

  -solves problems (water, sanitation etc)

  -can create long term problems (reliance etc)

  -enables economic growth/development

  -builds relationships

  -countries can be vulnerable to exploitation

  -possible corruption
• Impact of AID on Donor

  -right thing to do (morals)

  -power to control (China)

  -new markets if the country is helped to set up business (one belt, one road)

  -imposes their own views

  -secures borders

  -shows concern

  -political and economic tool

  -allows dumping (not good).
• Corruption Example-Mobuto Sese Soko


  -President of DRC

  -During rule exploited and amassed a large personal fortune

  -Ruled for 32 years

  -Stole 60% of the governments budget

  -Money from copper mines was payed directly into his bank account.
• Development Investment Project (FDI)-M-Pesa, Kenya


  M-Pesa;-Started in 2002 as phone companies noticed that they had unintentionally invented something that almost resembled a currency, users in Kenya were purchasing and reselling "airtime" (data/minutes).-M-Pesa was developed as a texting based system for storing and selling money.-To make a deposit, it uses human agents, people who hang out in key locations around the country.Impacts of M-Pesa;-By 2012 has 15 million subscribers and 30,000 agents-Now 72% of Kenya have a mobile money account-Provides stability and allows for growth
• Micro Finance Example (AID)-Kenya

  -Initially M-Pesa meant to be used to repay micro loans.

  -However, creators of M-Pesa started seeing other uses, e.g businesses using it as an overnight safe (substitute for financial institutions they didn't have access to).

  -Form of mobile money has directly boosted economic well-being in Kenya, and lifted 194,000 households out of poverty.

  -Micro credit allowed businesses to grow and develop.
• Which is Most Effective:Bottom Up or Top-Down Schemes ?

  -Bottom up likely to be more effective as NGOs will actually go into the community and solve the issue,however the funds are very small and it might not actually help a country as a whole.-Top down will likely help a country as a whole as e.g IDA, have large pots of money,however is a risk of LICs being exploited and AID not actually helping.-Urban/rural will be affected differently-Needs a stable government
• Should AID be Looked at Alongside Longer Term Measures (Debt Relief)

  -Debt relief should 100% be implemented alongside AID, as brings out huge benefits and reduces the economic stress in a nation=economic development.

  -Changing terms of trade is more of a long term solution and won't happen instantly, however depends if HICs will change their trade patterns to accommodate for LICs
• AID in Haiti-Benefits


  -Increased GDP per capita.

  -Solar power in north, cleaner energy.

  -USA helped the police force increase from 10,000 to 14,000.

  -IMR has improved (88-81), as trained new health leaders.

  -USA given 50,000 small, middl enterprises which has resulted in $10 million in sales.

  -Post 2010, clean water, food, healthcare.
• AID in Haiti-Issues

  -Not addressed issues of public safety

  -No natural disaster mitigation

  -A lot of the AID is what they actually need, e.g French NGO built cultural projects when needed a road, $124 million spent on industrial park but instead of creating jobs it took away productive farmland.
• AID in Ethiopia-Benefits

  -Received $3.5 billion is assistance (UK, Germany etc)

  US launched 5 year, $40 million programme;

  -invest in ability to provide quality and affordable health care.

  -improve support for AIDs prevention, maleria etc.

  -HDI increased from 0.29 to 0.5
• AID in Ethiopia-UK Influence

  -Since April 2021 provided £90 million

  -Trucks reached Tigray, to help with conflict and drought

  -Over 200,000 malnourished women and children provided with nutritious food

  -40,000 children received clean water and child protection services

  -100,000 tonnes of food
• AID in Ethiopia-Humanitarian

  -5 million receive food AID per year

  -2004 to 2017, AIDS related deaths dropped by 70,000

  -Fertility rate fell from 7 to 4.6.
• Goat AID, Tigray State (Ethiopia)

  UK based NGO provides 3 goats on credit to poor households headed by women.Positives-families have greater access to milk, meat and manure, women given talks about goats which can be passed on, potential health benefits and income which can be used for schooling etc.Negatives-only project in vast area, takes 2-5 years for families to see benefits.
• Ashegoda Windfarm (AID), Tigray State (Ethiopia)


  £179 million wind farm with 84 turbines. Located 475 miles north of the capital, supplying 3 million with electricity.Positives-400 million Kwh energy produced, room for expansion/growth, jobs created from construction phase.Negatives-700 families lost their land as a result, electricity sold to neighbouring countries so not all benefitting.