Page 40 - The World About Us

Refugee camp
1.1.1
2.2.2

What is the role of overseas aid in development?

Aid is when a government, a er disasters is s ll far too li le and
organisa on or individual gives leaves affected countries struggling for
another government, organisa on or years a er any par cular disaster.
an individual assistance and resources. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan struck the
Those resources may be money but Philippines nearly destroying the en re
also can be food, products, technology, city of Tacloban and leaving almost 2
specialist workers or training.
million people homeless. Aid worth
Aid can be categorised under many $550 million was pledged by 45
headings. Emergency or short-term aid countries. While this was welcome, the
are the resources given immediately damage caused by the cyclone was
a er an environmental or social es mated at $2,860 million. The
disaster. This could be tents, sleeping Phillippines was le with an enormous
fig.101 UK aid unloaded in the Bri sh Virgin
bags, clean water and medicines a er bill to repair the damage to people’s
an earthquake or hurricane has homes, livelihoods and infrastructure. Islands a er Hurricane Irma, 2017 OECD aid
rules were cri cised as they stated that many
devastated an area, or it could be the Long-term or development aid is Caribbean islands were considered too
resources to set up refugee camps to focused on general economic, social, wealthy to receive official aid budget money.
house those fleeing civil war or ethnic and some mes environmental, issues.
conflict. fig.102 Top ten 2014 recipients of official
These need to be addressed if a UK Government overseas aid.
Medium-term aid could be country or region is to make progress
considered as the help in rebuilding in development. This aid could include Pakistan £351.4m
a er the earthquake or rese ling the providing clean water supplies or Ethiopia £334.1m
refugees a er the immediate danger training more local health workers and Nigeria £253.5m
has passed. Both of these types of aid teachers. It may involve improving the Sierra Leone £213.8m
are usually focused on a very specific infrastructure of a region or helping an South Sudan £205.2m
problem, with a specific end goal. economy to develop new industries.
Syria £201.6m
Without overseas aid many In Britain, past controversies about Tanzania £199.7m
developing countries would not be Bri sh government aid being ‘ ed’ to Afghanistan £199.6m
able to recover at all from such UK business interests resulted in ed Bangladesh £157.5m
devasta ng crises. However, many aid being made illegal in the 2002 India £150.4m
people point out that the aid donated Interna onal Development Act.

fig.103 The various types of aid, from donor to recipient.
KEY TERMS
Official Aid Voluntary Aid
Given by governments. Donated by individuals. Bilateral aid: aid given directly from
one government to another
Mul lateral Aid government.
Distributed by a supra- Bilateral Aid NGO: Non-Government Organisations,
na onal body such as Given directly from the donor such as charities, which often receive
the European Union, country government to the aid from governments and individuals
World Bank or United Na ons. recipient government.
to support their work. UK NGOs include
Oxfam, Christian Aid and Islamic Relief.
Some governments Multilateral aid: donations given via a
Tied Aid
Un ed aid Must be spent in the donor now rely on NGOs third party, such as the World Bank,
to deliver their
No strings country or with businesses development or European Union or one of the United
a ached. Nations organisations. This type of aid
from the donor country emergency aid.
(now illegal in UK). is reliant on donor countries actually
delivering their pledges for donations.
Recipient government This does not always happen.
Aid is used by the receiving NGOs Tied aid: aid which must be spent in the
government, usually a er a Non-Governmental Organisa ons country donating the aid. In 2004 this
discussion with donor na ons and chari es working in disaster amounted to over half of all
or organisa ons: o en large-scale relief or development programmes: government aid donations. After
development projects. o en small-scale projects.
several scandals tied aid was banned in
the UK in 2002.
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The world is developing unevenly.