Dead Aid

In an article relating to the U.S. plan to assist the people of Afghanistan, it says

“Afghanistan's president Tuesday praised U.S. plans to provide more civilian
help to his country, and expressed hope that the country becomes less dependent
on international partners in coming years.”

I would like to highlight the president’s use of the words ‘less dependent’, because as I have mentioned before, the result of dependency is a key argument against international aid programs. However, if distributed in the right way, aid can be used effectively, encouraging the development of a self-sufficient country instead of a country dependent upon aid and unable to dig themselves out of a hole that they did not create.

For example, there are hundreds of microfinance institutions, which help people all over the world help themselves. Instead of just handing the poor world objects needed to survive, microfinance institutions or ‘the poor man’s bank’ hand them the tools to build their own future. They do this by giving out loans and grants of small sums of money to impoverished people to enable them to start a business and create lives for themselves. Microfinance helps to create a sustainable future, instead of one shredded by dependency.

In fact most aid organizations are mending their methods of aid, aiming on giving self-sufficiency, instead of hand outs. For example, USAID, an independent federal government aid distribution agency, provide women in Afghanistan with the tools to earn a living through 86 bakeries, employing a growing total of 896 poor women. Additionally USAID has worked on sustainability projects in Afghanistan such as constructing 2,700 kilometers of roads so that 60% of Afghanis now live approximately 50 kilometers of the newly constructed ring road. USAID are also working on increasing the amount of Afghanis that have electricity, as currently it stands at a mere 15%.

In this very recent CNN video, Dambisa Moyo, the author of ‘Dead Aid’, a book that calls for a change in aid strategy, says we are living in an “aid dependent world.” She argues that there is absolutely no evidence to suggest the aid creates jobs for Africans.

However, we can see from the work done by USAID and microfinance institutions, that if aid is used in the right way, it can definitely create jobs. Dambisa Moyo says that the right way to go about getting rid of aid is introducing an increasingly free market. She says she would like aid to decrease in hopes of creating more sustainable countries that don’t have to depend on aid. If only it were that easy.

Neglect in Tanzania

An ammunition dump of the outskirts of the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam exploded. The death toll stands currently at 20, however more than 1,000 people were injured in the explosion, 300 of which are currently in critical care at the local hospital. In an article by the BBC entitled ‘Tanzania blast victims demand aid,’ it explains how the survivors of the crisis, which happened last week, are still waiting for emergency relief.

The unsettling thing about this story is that it is Tanzania’s own government that pledged to help compensate all those affected by the blast, and it is the government that is failing to fulfill their pledge. Many local residents of Dar es Salaam are yet to be provided with adequate food and shelter. They are inhumanely being forced to live in the dangerous ruins of their crumbling homes whilst they wait for the government to pull themselves together.

A local man, whose home was largely destroyed in the explosion, and who is still looking for his missing child, has this to say:

“I went to register [for aid] so officers could come here to assess the damage,
but to date I have neither seen the camp leader nor the area governmental
person. I spent the whole day yesterday at home. I have not seen anyone."

More than half of the dead were children, many of whom drowned in a river in the panic following the blast. It is estimated that hundreds of people, mainly children, are yet to be reunited with their families. The only aid team on the scene helping to distribute aid, and provide services, is the Red Cross.

The Role of the Media

Years after natural disasters, the need for aid still lingers. Hurricane Katrina victims and hurricane Ike victims are still in need of care and shelter. Aid quickly becomes a small priority when the terrible natural disaster loses its drama and floats its way out of the media. This is a problem.

This recent article from the BBC, reports that hundreds of thousands of people in Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta (east of India) still need assistance- a year after the deadly cyclone. Cyclone Nargis killed about 140,000 people in 2008 and more than 2 million people were left homeless. The cyclone that flew across the fields of Burma was a disaster comparable to the Asian tsunami.

“Yet the amounts of aid being requested are just a fraction of what is being
spent on countries like Indonesia after the tsunami- and not much is forthcoming
yet.”

The UN have made an appeal of $ 700 million for reconstruction in February, however so far they have received less than $100 million.

The article pin points the problem in lack of public awareness of the crisis. There are actually around 60 aid agencies at work in Burma, even a year after the disaster, and yet we do not hear about it. This problem is rooted in the fact that most foreign journalists have been banned from reporting in Burma. Another problem is that the public are skeptical of where there money is going, because of Burma’s military government who are increasingly suspicious of foreign involvement in their country. Therefore, the public are worried that their money will be going into the wrong hands. This is despite the fact that the director of STC (save the children) has assured that he is absolutely confident that aid will not be sent into the hands of the military government.

Many cyclone victims in Burma are still living in poorly constructed shelters that are suffering from salt contamination. Additionally, the reconstruction project in Burma has barely begun.

Another situation that has been ignored and only thrust into the spotlight due to a person in government is the humanitarian situation in Haiti. One of the western hemisphere’s poorest nations is in dire need of aid after a year of hurricanes and food riots. Despite its apparently relatively successful economy, there is a hugely uneven distribution of wealth in Haiti and 70 percent on the population are unemployed.

Hilary Clinton wants to pledge $57 million towards Haiti, to help it build roads, create jobs, help with food shortages, and provide relief for recent hurricanes.

An additional country that has been in the news recently due to its need for aid is Somalia. Up to 3 million people in Somalia (half the population) are in need of food aid.

“They don’t have access to basic services, they don’t have access to clean
water. They are in need of emergency assistance that the government cannot
provide.”

Recent lack of aid has been mainly due to the fact that aid workers have been killed, as some Muslim regions of the country are not willing to work with aid agencies.