The Effects of War and Peace on Foreign Aid
LaRonda McKay
Strayed University
Sociology of Developing Countries
Professor Donna Robinson
November 1, 2015

The Effect of War and Peace on Foreign Aid
Egypt is a developing country that has poor living conditions and very few job opportunities. Since 2011 the Egyptian government has been questionable about what it stands for. This has caused almost no economic growth and in return lead to borrowing lots of money and relying on their allies to foot the bill. Egypt chosen a new path to reform which will lead to economic growth and stability by building new infrastructure and creating jobs for the people. Foreign aid is providing Egypt with the funding to help reach economic stability. To bad the countries internal conflicts are likely to erupt into a civil war that will easily be a negative effect on their growth. On Tuesday, January 25, 2011, in Egypt protesters took to the streets. They were protesting against poverty, unemployment, and government corruption. The protest was taking place in Cairo and two other major cities. The police arrested and injured many protesters. The military moved in to take over security, and the protesters did not even care because they have more respect for the military than the police department. The government shut down internet access in the country to keep the protesters from sending out information. After eighteen days of protest, President Hosni Mubarak resigned and left Cairo. Due to the protest the United States will be investigating how financial aid is used that they provide to Egypt, which is the second largest contribution of U.S. aid.
Even though this was to be a peaceful protest people were killed and injured, buildings were damaged, and some of the city was destroyed. The protesters got Mubarak to resign, but they also took their country further back in developing because now they have to rebuild infrastructure damaged during the uprising and continue with projects that were planned before the event.
Egypt has received assistance for their military and economics from the U.S. since the 1970’s. This is because of the 1979 Peace treaty between Egypt and Israeli. Egypt controls the Suez Canal, the passage way of many U.S. naval vessel to the Mediterranean to perform classified missions. To this day the peace treaty is a valuable diplomatic achievement.
After the Egyptian military dismissed former President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, the Administration started an investigation of U.S. foreign assistance policy toward Egypt. The U.S. was not sure if they wanted to continue assisting Egypt. The United State law do not allow assistance to a country whose leader been dismissed by military coup. Egypt began making defense deals with other countries. Egypt signed an arms agreement with Russia and France. In 2014 President Sisi expressed his feelings about the weapons suspension, letting the public know that the United States is not standing by the Egyptians.
The 120 mile Suez Canal that connects the Mediterranean and the Red Sea owned by Egypt that the British, Israeli and France want to take over. Egypt was attacked in what you know as the Suez Crisis with these three countries who wanted to take control of the Suez Canal. The Israelis struck first, then the British and French military forces joined them. They were originally going to strike at the same time but were delayed. The Soviets sent weapons to the Egyptian government to help defend the Suez Canal, and eventually helped Egypt construct the Aswan Dam since the United States backed out of supporting the project
Will Educate Girls for Food: A Plan to Fight Poverty and Illiteracy Is Helping Egypt, funds provided by the Europeans. The date bar, provides the students with twenty-five percent of their daily nutrition. Sarah McColl provides the details (McColl 2015) on the 65-million-dollar project allows students who attend school at least eighty percent of the time can take food rations home to their families. The focus is on the poorest areas of the country. In Egypt the girls are less likely to go to school. By promoting more food that they can take home to their families more girls will be able to attend school because then they will not have to stay home and work to help provide for their families. The girls can come to school to get educated and feed their families. This way in the long run she will be able to get better job opportunities when she enters the work force. The programs goal is to have a more educated population in Egypt and hopes that higher education will help lead the country out of poverty.
Egypt’s economy is recovering from the second half of 2014. It is even healthier2015. The economy struggled through the ramifications of the January 2011 revolution. The recent growth in economic activity has restored Egypt confidence. Manufacturing and tourism have begun to turn around and showed real growth in double digits. Oil and gas remains to hinder the economy as outstanding arrears owed by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) continue to deplete liquidity in the sector. Egypt’s number one risk and priority is to encourage and increase the economic recovery, which needs to improve security conditions and steadfast reform implementation. The debt and budget deficit will remain high.
USAID has teamed up with Egypt to create a place where women and minorities can lead a healthy, and productive life. USAID’s program contributed nearly $30 billion to Egypt since 1975. These contributions have reduced infant and maternal mortality rates, eliminated polio, been directly responsible for improvement in reading ability in the early grades, and assist in learning trades which lead to job skills and sustainable prosperity in the country. USAID’S programs have also lead to better the quality of life for Egyptians through nationwide programs in health, education, governance, and economic development. All 39,000 public schools in Egypt now have libraries due to USAID support, the goal is to ensure that all children learn to read in the first grade.
Telecommunications networks which was critical to Egypt’s ability to increase trade and investment, have seen vast improvements thanks in great part to funds from the USAID program. In urban Cairo, lead levels in the air have been decreased by more than 65 percent. With the help of USAID Egypt has been able to decentralize the water and sanitation sector and has improved drinking water and wastewater facilities in Greater Cairo, the North Coast, and Upper Egypt that benefit 27 million Egyptians. In conclusion Egypt has seen prolonged periods of instability and short unstained periods stability of their country. With the help of the Soviet Union Egypt was able to take back control of the Suez Canal from the British, French and Israelis. Foreign aid has assisted Egypt with rebuilding its government and military, the country still faces many threats from surrounding countries and within its own country. Since the military dismissed Morsi from his leadership the U.S. stopped providing Egypt with military aid. This caused Egypt to sign an arms agreement with other countries. The Europeans provided food for the school children to help stop hunger and provide education will help Egypt in future economic growth. When looking at current events, foreign aid has assisted Egypt but not to the extent that should be expected nor accepted by countries lending or donating moneys.

References
Finighan, Adrian (2015) Egypt in ‘a state of war’? Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2015/07/egypt-sinai-muslim-brotherhood-150702181810424.html
History.com Staff (2009) Suez Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/suez-crisis
Kouchok, Ahmed Ashraf Aly, Al Nashar, Sara Bahaa Hamed (2015) Egypt economic monitor: Paving the way to a sustained recovery. Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/06/24581301/egypt-economic-monitor-paving-way-sustained-recovery-spring-2015
McColl, Sarah (2015) Will Educate Girls for Food: A Plan to Fight Poverty and Illiteracy Is Helping Egypt. Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/educate-girls-food-plan-fight-poverty-illiteracy-helping-230833259.html;_ylt=AwrC0CNyTbRVMV8A60_QtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg-- Parks, Cara. (2011). What’s Going On in Egypt? Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/28/whats-going-on-in-egypt_n_815734.html Sharp, Jeremy (2015) Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33003.pdf
USAID from the American people (2015). Retrieved from
https://www.usaid.gov/where-we-work/middle-east