Outline a framework for assessing the effectiveness of aid in Essay

Outline a framework for assessing the effectiveness of aid in promoting economic development in developing countries. Critically - Essay Example Thus, the difference between government enacted foreign aid programs and private, charitable, or volunteer groups donating money and services to development causes can be distinguished as two categories of international development aid: public policy and private charity. What is classified as â€Å"foreign aid† for example under public policy and is â€Å"given† to foreign States as part of a nation like Britain or America’s foreign policy might include military and economic aid together in a package that is intended to strengthen State structures of authority rather than indigenous community economic development. Private groups that seek to implement assistance programs independently of foreign States may have different obstacles and program criteria than the government aid assistance programs. Therefore, it is important to understand the difference between public and private development initiatives, and to analyze each on its own unique set of standards and req uirements relating to the way the issues are framed and the policies set into practice. Government aid programs to developing countries may be undertaken unilaterally, as many of the developed economic States such as Britain, the U.S., Japan, France, Finland, China, Denmark and other countries enact as part of their foreign policy. At the same time, these same countries may also engage in official assistance to international aid programs as part of the UN, EU, OAS, or NATO. This foreign aid is intended as economic assistance but donated in relation to the political goals of the nations involved. Historically, this would be considered the aid most easily lost to corruption, most likely to land in the Swiss bank accounts of despots, to be wasted, funneled into military and police repression tectics, and generally used to encourage a greater system of inequality in the foreign country by exacerbating the division of wealth in the society, or the inequality of capital distribution among its citizens. This type of foreign aid may lead to crony capitalism, dictatorships, banana republics, or proxy States that exist in opposition to their populations and actually deter economic and social development through the production of a corrupt and unequal society. These patterns typified foreign assistance aid to Africa in the 1970’s, Central and South America in the 1980’s, and Pakistan, Egypt, and other countries considered vital in the war on terror in the current paradigm. The characteristic of this type of aid is that it goes to a corrupt or undemocratic and non-transparent proxy State of the superpowers and the resources are used exclusively by the corrupt or crony class of insiders related to the local national party structure. This type of foreign development aid is generally the least effective and the least likely to actually â€Å"trickle down† to the communities represented by three billion of the world’s poorest, families who live on less than $1 per day, often lacking any type of clean water, sanitation, education, or electrical facilities. Yet, the government policy driven types of foreign development assistance may also take the form of â€Å"Peace Corps†