Checking Foreign Aid
There has been a lot of discussion in the last day or so about foreign aid and whether it is worth it.
A few years ago, I went to a presentation by a senior manager in Unicef.
They said, one of the biggest problem, was checking that aid was spent correctly. Ask the government if the £2million had been spent on say measles immunisation and you would get the answer the government wanted you to hear.
So Unicef always asked an independent organisation, such as a University to check. Even in some of the poorest and less academic countries, academic standards usually ensured that Unicef got an honest answer, they could trust.
The British government should use similar methods to check all aid is correctly spent on what it was intended.
The Anonymous Widower 
It most certainly should, as the money is our money and not the government’s.
I am quite conflicted about foreign aid, because it so often seems not to reach those it is intended for and because it doesn’t seem to have had the impact on poverty that it should have had. One problem of the developing world is constant political instability and warfare. Another is the population explosion, putting a strain on a country’s resources. If the political situation and the need for population control are not dealt with, I don’t see foreign aid as being of much use, except in the case of sudden natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc.), which always need prompt attention. The developing world needs a hand up, not a hand out.
Personally, I give mainly to home charities because there is so much need and poverty within the United Kingdom – consider, for example, how many homeless people we have – and to animal charities because I am a vegetarian who believes that compassion must be extended to all creation and also to the environment.
Comment by Janice Mermikli | March 12, 2013 |