Foreign Aid

Discuss the dangers that exist in the developing world if wealthy nations do not provide more resources for development aid.

Foreign aid is simply financial assistance with an aim of fostering economic development. It is provided by the developed nations to developing ones due to different reasons. Lack of this aid will lead to detrimental repercussions to developing countries.

An economic downfall will occur in most of these countries. This is because such nations suffer from low savings and investments levels. This makes them dependent on financial assistance to promote economic growth.

The absence of foreign aid will lead to drawbacks in the development of basic infrastructure in the recipient nations.  The private and public sectors of such countries lack the strength required in undertaking capital-intensive projects that require huge investment. This therefore means that basic infrastructure such as transport and communication, heavy industries, education, and health will be to a large extent negatively impacted.

In what ways do wealthy nations currently provide support for developing nations?

Foreign aid comes in many ways, the major ones include: bilateral development assistance, humanitarian assistance and multilateral assistance. Bilateral developmental assistance involves finances given to provide assistance in long-term projects that promote democracy, stability, economic growth and development. Humanitarian assistance on the other hand is aid given as a response to an urgent short term need like food crises and natural disasters. Lastly, multilateral assistance is aid given by various developed nations to pool funds into various international organizations like the UNICEF (Brech, Viktor, and Potrafke 61-75).

What provisions should be put in place with regard to humanitarian aid to maximize effectiveness?

In order to maximize effectiveness, humanitarian aid should be perceived as a shared responsibility having different roles. The programmes should be respectful of fundamental principles and forward-looking. Additionally, there should be effective programme design whereby the programmes should be aimed at maximizing reach, be demand driven, adapt to the context and focus on results. Lastly, humanitarian aid requires the right partnerships and tools. This means that the programmes should be flexible, predictable, timely, and well-coordinated (Arndt, Channing, Jones, and Tarp 6-18).

Works Cited

Arndt, Channing, Sam Jones, and Finn Tarp. “Assessing Foreign Aid’S Long-Run Contribution   To Growth And Development.” World Development 69.Aid Policy and the       Macroeconomic Management of Aid (2015): 6-18. ScienceDirect. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.

Brech, Viktor, and Niklas Potrafke. “Donor Ideology And Types Of Foreign Aid.” Journal Of     Comparative Economics 42.(2014): 61-75. ScienceDirect. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.