ABSTRACT
Introduction The issues of poverty and inequality can be ascribed to the colonial period, in which the major European powers divided the world into spheres of influence and areas of control. Although nearly all former colonies gained their independence by the end of the twentieth century, the problems of these countries have not disappeared. Dependency on foreign aid is a serious issue throughout the African continent and other parts of the periphery and semiperiphery, and due to the diversity of challenges, it is difficult to determine how to cultivate development. As a direct result of poverty, disease is a major obstacle to development, and foreign aid helps in ensuring humanitarian assistance in the form of medicine and education (Sachs, 2012a, b). Other scholars, namely Moyo (2010) and Easterly (2003), present the opinion that the deeply rooted problems of Africa, for example, cannot be solved with foreign aid alone, as the problem lies with issues such as corruption; and if not solved, countries will never be able to sustain themselves due to their reliance on aid. In this chapter, I examine whether foreign aid helps or hinders “development” by evaluating and contrasting the views of three prominent development scholars. We present the argument that the only way to break the cycle of dependency on foreign aid is to develop economically; fighting
Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................121 Foreign Aid: Shortcomings of Temporary Solutions ................................................................ 122 Human Rights: Rights with No Value? .................................................................................... 124 Importance of Foreign Aid ...................................................................................................... 126 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 128 References ............................................................................................................................... 128
disease with foreign aid is a great humanitarian deed yet, aid promotes the problems of corruption and a weak economy, more than it solves it, thereby, preventing countries from developing and becoming self-sufficient. While the humanitarians amongst us wish to see aid as the product of selflessness, a belief in equality, and to protect human rights, the reality is different. The second aspect of this article discusses the value of human rights and how they are linked to foreign aid. In the third section, three case studies are presented: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, and Turkey. With these, I attempt to demonstrate why donor countries continue to provide bilateral aid despite signs of either poor development or blatant violations of fundamental rights that foreign aid ultimately seeks to “correct.”
