What people want…

FOREIGN AID & INTERNATIONALISM

Perspectives on Foreign Aid

• ABC News• Global Poverty – to give or not• Which arguments are the most convincing

about the decision to give foreign aid?

Understanding the World

• Needs and Wants: These are relative terms that we must try to classify.

• Write down all the things you would call needs that you have in your life.

• What in your life dictates what you need?• What things on your list would the average

person in a third world country not have?

Comparing Living Standards

• The physical quality of life index was introduced by M.D. Morris and introduced in the 1970’s. It breaks quality of life down into:

• Life expectancy• Infant mortality• Level of literacy

• The categories show the population’s health and well being both socially and economically.

PQLF

HDI ranking Green = High human developmentYellow = Medium human developmentRed = Low human developmentGrey = Unavailable

Infant Mortality – 1990

Infant Mortality

• Infant mortality is seen as a marker of the level of health in a country.

• In developing countries, one child in 12 dies before its fifth birthday, compared with 1 in 152 in high-income countries.

• When there is a high birthrate there is a high infant mortality.

• When nutrition in a country is poor, more infants will die.

Literacy

Literacy• Percent of adult population that can read and write

to a basic level.• Higher literacy leads to a higher quality of life.• Countries that have low levels of literacy struggle to

grow technology, grow in hygiene, be informed of health risks, or job advancement.

• People who cannot read often are taken advantage of by people who can read = exploitation.

• UNESCO estimates that the # of illiterate people is growing because of the high birth rate of poor countries.

Nutrition•Malnutrition is an underlying factor in more than half the deaths of children under five.

•Malnutrition in children often begins at birth, when poorly nourished mothers give birth to underweight babies.

•Malnourished children develop more slowly, enter school later, and perform less well.

•http://www.connect-world.net/Global_Themes/Children/Overview.html

Nutrition

• Lack of an adequate diet leads to malnutrition.• Malnutrition = ill health• Kwashiorkor is a disease caused by a lack of

protein in the diet. • Malnutrition stunts the mental and physical

development of children, thereby crippling future generations

Famine• The world produces enough food to support the

population of the world. • The problem is the allocation of food. • USA has the greatest surplus of food in the world.• Even in Africa, the countries produce enough food to

feed their populations – yet there is still hunger…• Why? – people most in need of food cannot buy it.• Property owners use their land to produce cash

crops to sell to the West.

The Hunger Cycle1 in 6 babies is born underweight – vulnerable to disease and death

0-6 months, babies nourished by breast milk – but mothers are unhealthy.

6mos – 2 years, poverty and lack of parental education = inadequate solid food and early deaths.

3 years, malnutrition = mental development is stunted. No stimulation to develop.

Lack of energy and poor performance at school.

Low paid job = unable to afford the right food in the right quantity.

Poor diet and heavy workload for pregnant mothers

Struggling to Keep Up• Developed world has achieved increases in food production

per capita.• The developing world has been less fortunate. Population

growth in these countries uses up any increase in food production. BUT in most developing countries, except Africa, food production is increasing.

• Africa is growing in population at an average of 3% per year. “Many African countries, if they do not take positive action to encourage a drop in fertility rates, are speeding headlong towards disaster.” Edouard Saouma

• Famine in Africa is a significant problem.

Malaria

• “At present malaria remains the infectious disease that takes more lives of children in Africa than any other—three times as many as HIV infection….. If we are going to dramatically reduce child deaths in the next decade, we need to put more focus on combating malaria.” Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF.

HIV/AIDS • As of December 2005, 40.3 million people living with

HIV, of which 2.3 million are children. • 4.9 million people newly infected with HIV in 2005, of

which 700,000 are children under 15 years of age. • There were 3.1 million AIDS related deaths in 2005,

of which 570,000 were children under 15 years of age.

• Every 14 seconds, another parent dies of AIDS, leaving behind an orphaned child. (Source: UNAIDS)

The World’s Response

• What are the Millennium Development Goals? – The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

– which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.

0.7 Solution

• Lester P. Pearson (former Canadian Prime Minister) suggested that developed countries pay 0.7 percent of their gross national income.

• By 2006 Canada gave only 0.33 percent.• These promised funds were to fund the MDG.

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007

“We are now at the midpoint between the adoptionof the MDGs and the 2015 target date. So far, ourcollective record is mixed. The results presented inthis report suggest that there have been some gains,and that success is still possible in most parts of theworld. But they also point to how much remains tobe done. There is a clear need for political leaders totake urgent and concerted action, or many millionsof people will not realize the basic promises of theMDGs in their lives.”

Ban Ki-moonSecretary-General, United Nations

MDG 2007• Goal 1: Extreme poverty is beginning to fall in sub-Saharan Africa• Goal 2: Sub-Saharan Africa is making progress towards universal

enrolment, but has a long way to go• Goal 3: Doors are opening slowly for women in the labour market• Goal 4: Child survival rates show slow improvement, and are worst in

sub-Saharan Africa• Goal 5: Half a million women continue to die each year during

pregnancy or childbirth, almost all of them in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia

• Goal 6: HIV prevalence has levelled off in the developing world, but deaths from AIDS continue to rise in sub-Saharan Africa

• Goal 7: Deforestation continues, especially in biologically diverse regions

• Goal 8: Development aid falls, despite renewed commitments by donor countries

Quality of life…• The MDG are specific enough to be possible. Why do

countries of the world struggle to invest the money to change the developing world?

• Why set these targets?• What can we do to help others in this world have a

higher quality of life?• Given what you know about AIDS and the MDG’s,

write a response on the topic. The question you will have to answer is: “To what extent do the efforts of the international community address the issues in Sub Saharan Africa?” OR “To what extent should the global community be contributing to poverty reduction in the world?”

Types of Aid and Obstacles

• Tied Aid: When aid is tied to conditions. Such as funding for water development, but the receiving country will have to “hire” a Canadian business to receive the aid. (Canada removed all “strings” in 2008)

• Lack of consultation: Aid is given that is not necessary• Bureaucracy: Aid must go through government

departments before it gets to the people who need it.• Corruption: Corrupt governments sometimes use aid

money for other purposes that helping people in need.• Brain drain: Bright people in a country might begin working

for aid agencies rather than for their own countries.