The aid debate

A New Statesman special report: can we afford foreign aid?

By New Statesman Published 26 June 2012
Grain aid arrives in northern Uganda. Credit: Vanessa Vick/Redux/Eyevine
Grain aid arrives in northern Uganda. Credit: Vanessa Vick/Redux/Eyevine

The question of aid has never been more charged: in an age of recession, should Britain be spending millions helping the people of fast-developing countries?

In this series of articles, the New Statesman invites politicians and campaigners - from both the UK and receiving nations - to consider the most pressing and defining issues surrounding foreign aid.

 

 

Tags: NS aid special      

 
 

4 comments

Ziggy's picture

Mon, 2012-07-09 21:29 — Ziggy (not verified)

No

freedemocrat's picture

Wed, 2012-07-04 16:14 — freedemocrat (not verified)

Foreign aid is standardly distributed in places and situations where it constitutes "a drop in the ocean" in relation to the scale of needs of the recipients, and/or infrastructural problems, so that fundamental and sustainable measurable improvements are extremely rare. This is to ignore the whole issue of corruption and loans which encourage dependency.
If the prosperous nation states were ever to become serious about aid for sustainable prosperity, then I suggest aid policy would need to be virtually the reverse of what it has been historically.
I suggest a global fund to which all nation states contribute a percentage of GDP. The smallest, richest UN nation state would be identified against an independent evidence-base. If that was Litchtenstein or Bahrain or whatever, that state would receive funds from the global pot to eliminate poverty, disease and educational want against sustainable criteria. You then apply the same method to the second smallest, richest nation state and so on. This has to be a better suggestion than the present wasteful farce.

daily mail reader's picture

Mon, 2012-07-02 22:17 — daily mail reader (not verified)

"Since the dawn of history the Negro has owned the continent of Africa - rich beyond the dream of poet’s fancy, crunching acres of diamonds beneath his bare black feet and yet he never picked one up from the dust until a white man showed to him its glittering light. His land swarmed with powerful and docile animals, yet he never dreamed a harness, cart, or sled.
A hunter by necessity, he never made an axe, spear, or arrowhead worth preserving beyond the moment of its use. He lived as an ox, content to graze for an hour.
In a land of stone and timber he never sawed a foot of lumber, carved a block, or built a house save of broken sticks and mud.
With league on league of ocean strand and miles of inland seas, for four thousand years he watched their surface ripple under the wind, heard the thunder of the surf on his beach, the howl of the storm over his head, gazed on the dim blue horizon calling him to worlds that lie beyond, and yet he never dreamed a sail.”
— Charles Darwin

Mr Humanus Wright's picture

Sat, 2012-06-30 16:18 — Mr Humanus Wright (not verified)

Quote of the Day - Regarding Gareth Williams, “The world was ours for the taking.”. There's a rumour going around that Gareth may of had some sort of a last covert mission with 'Dolly the Sheep', prior to his demise, but it hasn't been fully substantiated! Apparently Alex Chapman didn't know about this covert relationship, but he may have Saw(ers) alot! Ronan Summers definitely didn't have anything to do with it, even though he loves to drink Tenets! We all love Wiltshire (Porton Down) more than Gloucestershire (GCHQ), even more so then Worcestershire (RSRE). Military Radiations Signals Intelligence always use to do 'his head in', especially when using ELF or VLF frequencies, impacting directly on the 'Neural Oscillations' of the Central Nervous System. But taking a 'Nano-Medicine' Paracetamol takes the head to a new level of game play, I'll assure you of that! Nothing to do with BCI, RNM, Synthetic Telepathy ... that would REALLY BE MAD!!! An odd thought shared ... the illegal "watching over" in our individual 'castles' of this beloved Britannia, while entertaining Babar Pappa.

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