International Aid
International aid also known as overseas aid & foreign aid. The definition of it makes it seem simple but it is far from it.
“It is the voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another with the intention of benefiting the receiving country.”
I had heard the term “Aid” in the past but never really had fully understood its true meaning. So during this project I wanted to find out its true meaning and how it affects the receiving country.
This can be sent as a signal of diplomatic approach, or strengthen a military ally, to reward a government for behavior observed by the deemed to be deserved by the donor, it’s also to extend an already existent cultural influence & to provide much needed infrastructure.
Obviously people have lots of individual reasons for sending aid to others less fortunate than themselves but two stick out these are “Humanitarianism” & also “Altruism”. Aid is so widespread that that it can be given by individuals, private organizations & governments. Depending on personal definitions of the term loans may be or not be counted as Aid.
The History of Aid:
Nobody can argue that aid has been present since time began. This was mainly from western countries to the rest of the world In the nineteenth & early twentieth century’s the amount of aid was minute in comparison to what it has become in today’s times, these consisted mostly of occasional humanitarian crisis relief. Aid became a major activity at the end of the Second World War, in the contexts of European reconstruction & decolonisation.
Humanitarian Aid:
This is rapid assistance given to people or another organisation in immediate distress to relieve suffering. This may be due to man-made or natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, the Sri Lankan tsunami & certain hurricanes in the United States. The provision of it consists of vital services (such as food to prevent starvation or corrugated metal to provide shelter for homes). Also the provision of funding as in-kind services this could be such things as logistics. Sometimes Humanitarian aid is mixed up with humanitarian intervention but it is different because the latter involves the armed forces protecting civilians from a war-torn civilization from violent oppression (also known as genocide) by state supported actors.
The Geneva Conventions give a mandate to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and other impartial humanitarian organizations to provide assistance and protection of civilians during times of war.
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:
1. The right to live with dignity.
2. The distinction between combatant and non-combatants.
3. The principle of non-refoulement.
Development Aid:
This type of aid is given by an MEDC to an LEDC to support the latter’s government and people in general. This can be given with the intention of supporting the receiving country’s economic, social or financial development. This differs from humanitarian aid as it is being aimed at alleviating poverty in the long term, rather than to alleviate suffering in the short term. It is normally given by governments of one country to another receiving country, (this doesn’t have to be from one individual country to another), international aid agencies specialized in helping less advanced countries, also multi-lateral institutions such as the World Bank and also by individuals through charities such as Action Aid, Caritas, Care International and Oxfam. So in short this means that countries can give aid via the United Nations, who then distribute aid via charities other Non-governmental organizations.
Another organization formed to benefit aid, is that of NATO, the foundation was announced by Harry Trueman during the Cold War. The speech is below:
“Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas. More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery. Their food is inadequate. They are victims of disease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas. For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve the suffering of these people.”
Essentially Trueman felt that countries were now able to, and should help poor countries develop. Therefore alleviating poverty.

Specific Types of Aid
• Project aid –> This is aid given for a specific purpose which has to be used in the agreed way. For example building materials are sent with the intention of building new schools or hospitals.
• Programme aid –> This is aid given for a specific reason, to benefit a certain sector of a country. This may be funding for the educational sector of a country or the leisure sector or another specific sector.
• Budget Support –> This is a mild form of programme support that is channeled directly in to the financial system of an economically lacking country.
• Sector – Wide Approaches -> This is a combination of project aid and programme aid so this could be providing building materials for a country but building new schools from the materials. Also providing teachers and books.
• Food aid -> Food is given to less well-off countries that are in urgent need, especially those who have suffered a natural disaster.
• Untied Aid -> This is where the aid is given to a country but the receiving nation can use the money or resources how they wish.
• Tied Aid -> This is the opposite of untied aid because instead of the receiving country deciding what to do with the money, the donating country gets to decide what the money or material is used for.
• Technical Assistance -> Educated personnel, such as teachers, doctors or engineers are sent over to LEDS’s to support the development programme.
• Bilateral Aid -> This is just a fancy name for saying from one country to another.
• Multilateral Aid -> This is when it is given through international organizations, such as the World Bank, which takes money from several countries’ governments.
The OECD or the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development’s Development Assistance Committee puts foreign aid into three categories, these are as follows:
1. ODA (Official Development Assistance): This is development aid given to developing countries with the clear intention of economic development.
2. OA (Official Aid): This is development aid provided already more developed countries & international organizations with the intention of improving them.
3. OOF (Other Official Flows): Aid which does not fall into the other two categories above, or it consists of more than 75% loan (rather than a grant).

Where Aid Actually Goes
Only about one fifth of U.S aid goes to countries classified as a less economically advanced country. According to a man called Collier, “the middle income countries get aid because they are of much more commercial and political interest than the tiny markets and powerlessness of the bottom billion.” What he is saying here is that, at a basic level, aid is not targeting the most extreme poverty.
Depending on the individual definition of aid, some people may say that the World Bank has never really sent out aid, because until recently it has only give out loans which would then consequently have to be paid back. However in contrast, the European Commission issues grants which countries don’t need to pay back. This means “loans” have been given to the poorest countries & the grants to the middle class countries.
In 2002, the total gross foreign aid sent to all developing countries was $76 billion. Then $6 billion needs to be subtracted for debt relief grants, a further $11 billion for which is the amount of money given for loans from developing countries to developed ones. Next subtract the $16 billion to which went to middle income countries, the remainder ($43 billion) went to developing countries in 2002. But only $12 billion went to the poorest countries in a form which could benefit the economic situation the countries were in.
Implications & Possible Improvements
Over the last three decades aid has added around one percent to the annual growth of the bottom billion (the billion poorest people). That one percentage point was very significant because it has made the difference between stagnation and severe cumulative decline.
At the moment a country is given a certain amount of money and then determines what it should do with the money available. This is a negative point because this is vaguely saying that “the West knows best” but personally I believe that instead, the country should state what they need and therefore instead of improving things which don’t need to be improved, they will be developing parts of their country that is in extreme turmoil.
My idea is also followed by many others, most famous is Sachs who argues that we should learn what the receiving country hopes to accomplish from the money given, these goals should be achievable and benefit a large chunk of the population. It’s emerging that some developing countries’ economies are increasing rapidly & are able to provide their own expertise gained from their recent transitions. This can be proven by the country of Brazil, whose $1 billion contribution to aid outweighs that of traditional donors, Brazil provides most of its aid in the form of technical expertise and knowledge transfers. This has been described by some observers as a 'global model in waiting'.
There is the terrifying debate on whether to give developing countries military aid, what is going to stop them using these weapons against the donating country? Obviously military aid has the intention of having only defensive purposes but it only takes a misunderstanding for things to get out of hand, this is very risky & needs very special instances to become necessary for military aid to be sent out.

IATI
The International Aid Transparency Initiative is a campaign across the entire globe to create transparency in the records of how aid money is spent. This will help officials make sure that the money get to where it is intended and reduce poverty globally. This initiative was set up on the 4th September 2010 at a convention in Accra, Ghana. The members of this initiative came up with the following on what an aid donor should do.
1. "Publicly disclose regular, detailed and timely information on volume, allocation and when, available, results of development expenditure to enable more accurate budget, accounting and audit by developing countries."
2. "Support information systems for managing aid."
3. "Provide full and timely information on annual commitments and actual disbursements."
The statement was agreed to by a variety of international donors, including the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Irish Aid, the World Bank, the UK's Department for International Development, the United Nations Development Program, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The IATI Standard was agreed on 9th February 2011 in Paris.
Instances Where Aid Is Required
Aid is required for numerous reasons, these are mainly Bad Government, Famine, War & Natural Disasters. Maybe the most documented of these is that of war, whenever you turn on the television these days there is some kind of war going on. For example the civil war in Libya between Gadaffi’s supporters & the rebels. Aid has been sent to the rebels by the British in the form of military intelligence & military equipment (which some people may argue is immoral). But not only is it during wars but the aftermath to the violence is the most important time for a country to receive aid, this is due to the country needing to rebuild its government and the entire infrastructure may need restructuring. Another example is of our experience in Iraq, the war is actually over but at still to this day our soldiers are acting as police officers by bringing their country back to order.
Natural disasters are also instances which are well reported, this depends on the magnitude of the devastation. If only several people are killed and the environment is hardly damaged, it may make local news but not national news or international. It takes lots more foreigners to die to receive the same treatment as a British or American person. A good example of this is the 4 minors in Wales which received full news coverage and where on the front page of every newspaper yet if this would have happened in a distant country such as Slovakia or Romania we would know very little about it. This suggests that Aid is dependant on the level of publicity an incident is able to gain.
Two of the other instances where aid is desperately needed but is sometimes ignored is famine & bad government. The interlock with each other because famine is normally a result of bad government. For instance, the newest country in the world (South Sudan) is suffering from famine at the moment due to its lack of a real government. The county is surrounded by deserts so it is especially important to have a good government, however it has not had long enough to establish one so people are suffering due to draught and famine that started before its creation. Also bad government can lead to rebellions and civil war which as above causes devastation such as famine, the Ethiopian Civil War in the 1980’s caused the famine that led to Band Aid.
Are we doing enough?
In short no! people are still dying from illnesses that could easily be treated and other things which could be easily avoided with not much money. This may be due to a lot of instances being ignored. I admit I didn’t know that there was famine going on in Africa at the moment before my research & I’m actually shocked by this because I do watch news every night and read the newspaper everyday. I think it’s because of the lack of coverage it gets. In Britain we have events such as Comic Relief, Sports Relief & Children in Need where people realize how people live in other countries. Some people take up the opinion that, if I got into trouble financially would anyone help me? I think this is selfish and as a country we need to change & we need to invest into helping other countries.