Foreign aid is not always a one-sided miracle cure and may exacerbate existing detriments.

The vested interests and motives of such foreign powers can sometimes give local leaders a disincentive to change for the better, building up a too reliant codependent relationship instead. Other times, cynical acts of real politick and a calculated cost benefit analysis of best outcomes may cause foreign powers to prop up local despots or turn a blind eye to certain unsavoury aspects of local governments. This only creates a vicious cycle of mistrust and suspicion, hampering future efforts of other powers to fix the problem. Pakistan receives a significant amount of foreign aid but it is still one of the most corrupt nations in the world with a substantial amount of developmental aid lost to local governance. India, Vietnam and Honduras are just some of the countries with poor people entering state education programmes or NGO educational outreach programmes in an effort to alleviate their state of poverty. Globalization sustains Philippines development. Her overseas diasporasnannies in new York, architects in London and domestic helpers in Singaporeremits millions of dollars back every month, building sanitation, laying down roads and constructing houses for their families back home. It was discriminatory international economic policies and successive corrupt military dictatorshsips propped up by the west that caused o much of Nigerias wealth to be siphoned off to swiss bank accounts, leaving the resource-rich country mired in debt for generations. Benefits
Aid has been instrumental in countries like Kenya and Nigeria where funds have been allocated to fueling the growth of small-scale cottage industries such as by providing better heating and cooking stores or installing better systems to harness the energy from rivers, going some way to driving the growth of their domestic economies. Furthermore it is precisely because the developed nations possess the technical expertise and capital for these start up technologies that the provision of such aid becomes all the more imperative. In addition, just because foreign aid has not always helped poor nations in the short run does not immediately imply that short-term aid is useless. Certainly the delivery of food relief to poor populations, especially in times of war or natural disasters, has been crucial in saving human lives, for basic sustenance definitely has to be met even before we talk about long-term solutions. Similarly, the provision of medicine in curing gonorrhea, syphilis or even potentially fatal cases of flu has a definite and quantifiable effect in protecting human lives, even if longer-term measures such as education and ensuring sanitation are also necessary in reducing the spread of disease. Every belly filled, every illness cured is a life saved, regardless of the room for improvement in domestic conditions that foreign aid must yet meet. Moreover, it is notable that the provision of medical vaccines goes a very long way in saving lives in the Third World and the developed nations with the resources to provide them this, play a crucial role. e.g. Ethiopia

Attempts are being made to develop an early warning system for famines Save The Children Fund and The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are building up a database of information about local human and physical conditions They will use this to draw up maps and charts of likely hunger levels in different regions of the country

In the wake of humanitarian crises, furthermore, foreign aid becomes the only solution to helping the populations caught in such disasters, whether natural or man-made. A nation devastated by war likely lacks the resources and the political will necessary to relieve the dire state of its people, especially in the case of civil war when the regime itself is consumed by strife, exacting huge human costs that only the intervention of the global community may ameliorate. In the post world war ll years, foreign aid proved key in the reconstruction of the economies of Germany and Japan, the latter having risen to achieve First World status within a decade with extensive aid from the US. Thus, in times when countries are at a loss for reviving their devastated economies and meeting the basic needs of their people, foreign aid may be the only solution.

Problems-- Based on the current global outlook, the efficacy of foreign aid is undermined by several factors, largely stemming from the type of aid rendered and how the aid is used (or some say abused) by the governments of receiving countries. Both the aid-giving and aid-receiving parties have a part in rendering the aid ineffective. Self-interest of donor countries Foreign aid can be said to be limited in its efficacy because external bodies providing aid, particularly developed countries, jeopardize the interests of the receiving nations that further exacerbate poverty and intensify their domestic problems, whether indirectly or directly. A considerable amount of foreign aid is tied aid. Tied aid by project means that the donor country requires the recipient country to spend it on a specific project such a dam or a road. Tied aid by source means that the recipient country receiving the aid must spend it on the exports of the donor country. Often this might be to the commercial or economic benefit of the firms in the donor country. This notion is best exemplified in the heavy protectionist policies adopted by many Western nations, which are imposed hand in hand with the aid that they give the developing countries. (Tied aids are given in return for trade agreements that LDCs cannot afford.) e.g. the US government and the European Union employ protectionist policies in the form of import tariffs and subsidies for their local farmers, which severely threaten the livelihoods of millions in the developing nations. This is because the protectionist policies undercut the prices of agricultural goods and textiles in developing countries, making it difficult for local producers to compete fairly. As a result, many locals in developing countries have lost their jobs and continue to be trapped in poverty. With such unfair terms of trade which belie the developing nations poverty-reduction efforts, foreign aid can be said to be largely ineffective unless the developed nations and other external bodies provide the developing nations equitable opportunities to compete fairly in the global market, which can then work hand in hand with the foreign aid provided to give these poorer nations a leg-up in their efforts to make poverty history. Otherwise, it will only ensure the continuation of the LEDCs on the periphery
and the dominance of the MEDCs in the core.

Corrupt governance Foreign aid is often given in the form of monetary aid and this makes it extremely susceptible to be misused by venal government officials instead of being channeled towards improving the socioeconomic situation in the country. One of the chief factors explain why many Sub-Saharan African nations are still languishing in poverty is the inept and highly corrupt governments of these countries. A former Nigerian President once estimated that of every dollar in foreign aid given by external bodies of African governments, a whopping eighty cents is siphoned off by corrupt government officials and used to line their pockets, instead of serving its true purpose of helping local communities. Resources donated are squandered away by corrupt and ruthless dictators and nothing, it seems, can be done to prevent the rapacious folly of such regimes due to the politically tricky issue of national sovereignty. Such rife corruption existing in governments receiving aid, as

well as the lack of a system of supervision by the foreign bodies in providing aid to ensure that the aid is put to justified use, render foreign aid largely ineffective. Aid may be deliberately withheld from the population as defiant leaders see it as a form of political leverage, as has been the case in North Korea where the military regime has, on repeated occasions, threatened to stop the delivery of aid to its citizens in response to the international diplomatic pressure exerted on it regarding its nuclear programme. The efforts of foreign nations in remedying the state of deprivation of the populations in these totalitarian regimes therefore appear to be futile, when they are met with resistance from such crackpot leaders who spare no concern for the welfare of their own people. Volatility of aid The ineffectiveness of foreign aid is also intensified by the type of aid given, which is largely food aid and monetary aid. Through the signing of the Monterrey Treaty, for example, most of the major developed nations in the world have pledged to give 0.7% of their countrys GNP to the developing world. While I do not deny the immense impact that such monetary aid can have on the poorer nations, it is definitely not a long-term solution; it is merely a short-term measure that ultimately falls flat and will be largely ineffective in improving the socio-economic situation of poorer nations if used on its own. Most African economies remain unsustainable and are likely to collapse should foreign money suddenly be withdrawn from them. The lack of infrastructure in supporting the development of a national healthcare and education system has resulted in Mozambiques enduring state of impoverishment up till the present. As the ageold maxim goes, give a man a fish, and he is full for a day; teach a man how to fish, and he is full for life. limited funds can be used more effectively in trying to prevent the problem for recurring or
with the emphasis on sustainable development for the local community In a typical drought year in Ethiopia, one million tonnes of food aid are given out. People become dependent on food aid and may lose the will to produce their own food It is estimated that this could pay for the labour for: 167 000km of access road, or 2700 earth dams, or over 400 000km or irrigation channels Each of these would bring long-term benefits and make local communities less vulnerable in future emergencies

Foreign aid is largely ineffective today because it is not accompanied by social reform initiatives and economic restructuring guidance, which are in fact more applicable to developing countries in the long-run to provide a sustainable solution to their problems. One must realize once the factors undermining the effectiveness of foreign aid are solved, foreign aid, in terms of monetary aid, economic advice, social restructuring initiatives and political reforms, actually has immense potential to positively impact the developing world and even lift entire nations out of poverty. When international bodies and developed nations intervene in the plight of developing nations by providing monetary support that is used for furthering the development of these nations, as well as giving sound policy-making advice, its positive effects can be far-reaching. Take Uganda, for example, one of the rising bright spots on an otherwise dark African continent.

Using the aid that the country received from foreign bodies, government officials developed the nations resources and improved the socio-economic situation of their people rather than misused it to line their own pockets. Consequently, poverty in Uganda was reduced by 40% and school enrolments doubled. Under the support of the World Trade Organisation that dispensed sound economic advice, it was also the first African nation to undertake the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and benefited greatly from it. While the reduction of poverty in Uganda is definitely not solely the result of foreign aid, it is indubitable that foreign aid has provided the basis for this nation to flourish and reap the benefits from the opportunities that foreign aid enables it to undertake. Therefore, given the immense potential of foreign aid to benefit the developing world as long as the right conditions are in place, such as a government committed to serving the interests of its people, foreign aid should not be dismissed as a wasteful pursuit. Ladder theory of economic development Undoubtedly, some aid is given with humanitarian motives in mind; however, most foreign aid is given for variety of political, strategic and economic reasons that benefit the donor countries in the longer term. To conclude, one must definitely understand that foreign aid cannot be seen as a plague or a panacea. Without a just government, and if aid is not rendered in a suitable manner, the efficacy of foreign aid efforts are often largely ineffective, which is what we see happening in the world today, where foreign aid efforts has been largely ineffective. However, with these conditions met, the effectiveness of foreign aid measures will be boosted and they can then have far-reaching positive effects on the aid-receiving countries. In this vein, foreign aid will then not be wasteful.