Evaluating the Effectiveness of Aid
Overview
There have long been debates on the effectiveness of aid. It is hard to measure quantitatively, and even when this is accomplished, everyone has a different interpretation of those facts and figures. Most economists agree that aid can be beneficial and is needed; debate arises on how countries should give aid and how that aid should be used within the receiving country to maximize its impact. Most everyone also acknowledges that despite good intentions, aid has not been as effective as it could be and so far major goals have not been accomplished. Another difference of opinions rises here - if aid has not been effective so far, should donor countries continue to give aid in the same manner as before, or should a new course be charted?
William Easterly and Jeffrey Sachs are the two preeminent economists at the forefront of this debate. Easterly is an economics professor at New York University a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. He was an economist at the World Bank for sixteen years and recently authored The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. He argues that despite good intentions, the efforts of the West to aid developing countries have largely failed, and as such we need to commit to a new course of action, not just continue to pledge more money. Sachs, on the other hand, believes that although goals have not been meet, donor countries should increase their aid donation because with enough money, extreme poverty can be eliminated within our generation. He is currently an economics professor and director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is the director of the United Nations Millennium Project and recently authored The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time.
Sachs
As stated in The End of Poverty Jeffrey Sachs believes that with the right policies
-poverty trap
The Millennium Development Goals
Sachs firmly believes that despite initial failures, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be accomplished by 2015. The eight MDGs, as stated in The End of Poverty include:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day
- Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
- Achieve universal primary education
- Ensure that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2015, and to all levels of education no later than 2015
4. Reduce child mortality
-Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
5. Improve maternal health
-Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality rate
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
-Have halted 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
-Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
-Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of
environmental resources
-Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
-By 2020 to have achieved a significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
8. Develop a global partnership for development
-Develop further an open, rule based, predictable, nondiscriminatory trading and financial system. Includes a commitment to
good governance, development, and poverty reduction - both nationally and internationally
-Address the special needs of the least developed countries. This includes: tariff- and quota-free access for least
developed countries' exports; an enhanced program of debt relief for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and
more generous Official Development Assistance (ODA) for countries committed to poverty reduction
-Address the special needs of landlocked countries and small island developing states (through the Program of Action for the
Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the
General Assembly)
-Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to
make debt sustainable in the long term
-In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
-In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries
-In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and
communications
Future Steps
Easterly
oda - official development assistance
