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About Aid
What is aid?
Conceived in the 1930s and 40s as an offshoot of the American welfare state, aid (also known as international aid) is given to developing countries from developed countries to assist in areas such as economic and social development (international development). Since the 1940s over $1 trillion of aid assistance has been transferred from the North to South.
Official development assistance (ODA) is aid from the official sector e.g. government and is a term used by the OECD. Aid can also be given privately such as through charities and individual donations. There is also "tied aid", which is aid given with certain conditions and rules enforced on the recipient country. The focus of the 2010 Conference will primarily be on development aid. You can read more about the history and theory of aid in Edil's report here. Health and human rights
Today it is commonly understood that health is not only the absence of sickness but the fulfilment of physical, mental, and social well-being (taken from WHO definition of health). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of him/herself and his/her family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services (article 25). The intention of foreign aid should be to assist in the growth and development of a nation's capacities so that it can provide its people with the benefits of good health and security. This is where the aid debate begins.
Present day debate
There has been much heated debate over whether aid has done more harm than good, and what the focus of aid assistance should be on.
When economist Dambisa Moyo published her book Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa in March of 2009, the media's attention turned to foreign aid and development controversies, mostly within Africa. But the aid discourse has been ongoing for longer than that. An example of a well-known intellectual feud is between Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and Prof. William Easterly, both renowned economists. They represent the two sides arguing for either more aid or less aid. These extend into debates of trade versus aid and private versus public. On one hand there are arguments that trade should be substituted for aid in order to allow countries to lift themselves out of poverty. This can be achieved through leveraging the private sector and helping local businesses. But then some countries do not have the resources or capacity to do this and must rely on foreign aid to sustain their national budgets. There are examples of when aid has been part of the creation of prosperous and healthy nations (e.g. South Korea). Regardless, the debate is complicated and linked with a myriad of issues relating to politics, corruption, economics, ethics, justice, and so on. How the conference will explore these issues
The 2010 Conference does not take a particularly strong stance on either side of the debate but will instead seek to provide a holistic and well-rounded understanding of the many dimensions of aid. We will explore the ethical arguments for and against aid, the role of the media in influencing our perceptions of aid, case studies of successes and failure in international development, and some proposed solutions for addressing the root problems of development and aid. We will also look at student experiences volunteering in developing countries and what they feel should be done. Our presenters come from a diverse range of backgrounds and will each offer a different and insightful investigation of the aid debate.
External Links
Aid Watch - Prof. Easterly's blog on foreign aid http://aidwatchers.com/ Wolfensohn Center for Development - part of the international think-tank Brookings Institution. Contains case studies of aid effectiveness in different countries http://www.brookings.edu/wolfensohn.aspx Munk Debates - Foreign aid does more harm than good http://www.munkdebates.com/debates/foreign_aid Economist Debates - Entrepreneurs and charities can do more for the poor than official aid http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/146 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness http://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,2340,en_2649_3236398_35401554_1_1_1_1,00.html Commitment to Development Index - ranking of how much rich countries help poor countries http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/cdi/ USAID - United States Agency for International Development http://www.usaid.gov/ CIDA - Canadian International Development Agency http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/eng/FRA-825105226-KFT DFID - UK Department for International Development (also known for UKAID) http://www.dfid.gov.uk/ |
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