Does Development Aid Work
Ariel Arguelles
International Development
Professor Reifenberg
19 September 2014
In 2014, Does International Development Aid Work? [2nd edit]
I believe that international development aid is making a significant contribution to the world today. Although the system currently installed is not without flaws, the overall good that these programs are doing greatly outweigh the negative.
While these humanitarian relief programs have been criticized for their ineffectiveness, good work has and continues to be done in countries around the world. In the current Syrian conflict, there have been millions of displaced persons. In a study done by Sa’Da and Serafini, they show that while before the conflict Syria had one of the best heath systems in the region, there has been a decrease of equity in care, causing at least 15% of the people to not be able to afford healthcare. However, due to the continued efforts of relief organizations such as UNHCR and UNDP, up to 1.2 million people have been provided with clean water and heath interventions and that number continues to increase.
Developmental aid has been shown to work, though there remains room for improvement. In a study performed by Stephen Kosack in 2002, he sought to see if developmental aid actually improved the quality of life of the recipients through a mathematical model containing variables such as economic trade, GDP and the length of life. He ran a statistical analysis which documented the growth of countries within Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and East Asia and found that aid improved the quality of life by 8% yet (Kosack 2002).
International aid has shown to make improvements into the lives of women and children which is a common metric in determining countries health and wellness. In a study performed by Grundy et al. 2012, the inequities of international aid and how it was distributed within the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Myanmar was evaluated. An assessment was made regarding how
International Development
Professor Reifenberg
19 September 2014
In 2014, Does International Development Aid Work? [2nd edit]
I believe that international development aid is making a significant contribution to the world today. Although the system currently installed is not without flaws, the overall good that these programs are doing greatly outweigh the negative.
While these humanitarian relief programs have been criticized for their ineffectiveness, good work has and continues to be done in countries around the world. In the current Syrian conflict, there have been millions of displaced persons. In a study done by Sa’Da and Serafini, they show that while before the conflict Syria had one of the best heath systems in the region, there has been a decrease of equity in care, causing at least 15% of the people to not be able to afford healthcare. However, due to the continued efforts of relief organizations such as UNHCR and UNDP, up to 1.2 million people have been provided with clean water and heath interventions and that number continues to increase.
Developmental aid has been shown to work, though there remains room for improvement. In a study performed by Stephen Kosack in 2002, he sought to see if developmental aid actually improved the quality of life of the recipients through a mathematical model containing variables such as economic trade, GDP and the length of life. He ran a statistical analysis which documented the growth of countries within Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and East Asia and found that aid improved the quality of life by 8% yet (Kosack 2002).
International aid has shown to make improvements into the lives of women and children which is a common metric in determining countries health and wellness. In a study performed by Grundy et al. 2012, the inequities of international aid and how it was distributed within the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Myanmar was evaluated. An assessment was made regarding how
References: Abu Sa 'Da, C., & Serafini, M. (2013). Humanitarian and medical challenges of assisting new refugees in Lebanon and Iraq. Forced Migration Review, (44), 70-73. Kosack, S.(2002). Effective Aid: How Democracy Allows Development Aid to Improve the Quality of Life, World Development, Volume 31, Issue 1, Pages 1-22. Grundy, J., Bowen, K., Annear, P., & Biggs, B. (2012). The Responsibility to Protect: Inequities in International Aid Flows to Myanmar and the Democratic People 's Republic of Korea and their Impact on Maternal and Child Health. Asian Studies Review, 36(2).