Chapter 7: Improving Aid

Megan Kilissanly

Major Arguments

• “Trade, not Aid”

• America’s “self-interested” donations

• “Bad Institutions Undo Good Projects”

Arguments Refuted• “The West spent $2.3

trillion on foreign aid over the last five decades and still had not manages to get twelve-cent medicines to children to prevent half of all malaria deaths. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get four-dollar bed nets to poor families….It’s a tragedy that so much well-meaning compassion did not bring these results for needy people.” William Easterly

• In affluent nations 30 cents of every $100 earned is donated.

• Most of the aid from the US is not being given solely nor primarily to help take countries out of poverty.

• The 10 poorest countries in the world receive a combined total of 5% of U.S. aid

• While the total number of money spent on aid is generous it is still not enough to get the countries out of poverty.

Quotes & Facts• The United States

spends 16% of its income on food.

• 100 million tons of corn is annually turned into biofuel that goes into American gas tanks.

• 756 million tons of grain were fed to animals in 2007.

• The United States pays a total of $3 billion a year in subsidies to its cotton growers, enabling them to undercut the West African cotton growers on the world market.

• In Congo, East Timor and Afghanistan, aid amounts to more than a quarter of the national income.

The Millennium Villages Project

• “Offers rural communities assistance in dealing with a variety of problems they face.”

• As of 2008 the project has helped 80 villages and more than 400,000 people.

• Increases the involvement of women in community work

• http://www.millenniumvillages.org/

• Programs offered:– Safe drinking water– Vitamin and mineral

supplements for children– Immunization programs– Bed nets– De-worming programs– Fertilizer– Better seeds– Energy-saving stoves– Local forms of energy

production– Mobile phones

Discussion QuestionsEven though it takes longer and the supply is less than if the US were to get food from a cheaper source, do you think that the United States should only use their farmers when donating aid?

- What about in the case of a natural disaster?

Knowing that tons and tons of edible food is being wasted, on making gas and feeding animals, that could go to people starving; Would you cut back on your lifestyle to help these people?