Evaluating Development Aid
Geography: Edexcel A Level, topic 10.5.5
Successes and Changes in Development Aid
Huge amounts of development aid have been provided by developed countries over the last 50 years. Have receiver countries fully benefited from this aid?
Has aid been a success?
- The outcomes of aid have not matched the inputs, possibly due to:
- Inappropriate forms of aid.
- The syphoning of funds by corruption.
- A lack of sound governance.
- Civil and political unrest that has characterised the recent histories of too many developing countries.
Changes over time
- In the early years of aid, there was an emphasis on economic development and on prestige projects (top-down).
- There was little trickle-down of benefits to the neediest people.
- In more recent times, aid has been directed more at a grass-roots level (bottom-up) and focused on education, skills training and healthcare.
Different opinions
- One school of thought argues that, no matter what form aid takes, it encourages developing countries to become dependent on donor countries.
- There is an ongoing debate about the relative merits of bilateral and multilateral aid.
The 2014/15 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa
The Ebola outbreak caused lots of deaths and was combatted by a combination of different responses.
The outbreak
- An outbreak of the disease took place in West Africa in 2014/15, with over 12000 deaths in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
- The UN coordinated a response, together with help from NGOs e.g. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
Aid
- Aid included establishing and equipping treatment centres with medical supplies, education programmes, monitoring of people at risk and ensuring safe burials.
- Deaths decreased rapidly and the region was declared Ebola free in 2016, although careful monitoring is still required.
Test yourself on Evaluating Development Aid
What level has aid more recently been directed at?
Roughly how many deaths were there because of Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea?
When was West Africa declared Ebola free?