The case for persisting with foreign aid

Digest opened free editor
Rola Khaleda, FT editor, chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
It is disgusting reading Show the richest man in the world “We spent the weekend in the US Agency for International Development in Qatar Wood.” This raises the constitutional and legal issues of the United States Republic of the United States. In fact, it is clear that officials now will be very happy with that Get rid of these fun restrictions completely. But there are also moral issues. Should the American effort to assemble the poorest world in “wood” should be feed at all? The answer is “no”.
Paul Crowgman also notes in A modern exceptional piece With the United States, the United States made a great effort after World War II to be a new and different kind of great power: it has sought to create allies, not tributaries; Economic development, not predation; International institutions, not imperial rule; And international law, not the old idea “may make the right.” There was, definitely, a lot of retreat. But in general, the United States was a benign and successful domination.
Explosive growth of global trade, the rise of China and India one day, and the peaceful fall of the Soviet Union, not at the end, Retreat In the percentage of people who live in severe poverty – from 59 percent in 1950 to 8.5 percent in 2024, though Three times the world’s population It is evidence of its success. The United States should be very proud of its achievements as a global leader, and do not seek to imitate the bullying of Russia Vladimir Putin, instead. (See Plans.)

The American Agency for International Development, then, is part of something much larger. The United States also played a decisive role in establishing the World Bank, IMF, the United Nations, the general agreement on definitions and trade, the International Development Association and NATO – unambiguously, then and now, a defensive alliance.
The basic idea was that the world would be a better place if we realized our common attention in peaceful cooperation. Why does anyone want to sacrifice this ideal to return to the nineteenth century competition between the great imperialist powers, which reached its climax in two global wars, Stalinism and fascism? Do pathology or climate recognize international borders? Is the war between the nuclear powers to think? Can any country really be an island? Can human beings, which have crashed this planet, really find a rescue on the arid Mars?

The attack on the US International Development Agency is a symbol of madness now overwhelming the United States. But he reveals. Its budget 0.7 per cent of federal spending and 0.15 per cent of GDP In the fiscal year 2023, its destruction is above all symbolic. ” The United States Agency for International Development is spent on things like AIDS relief and family planning In the poorest countries in the world. So, what was launched by the left -wing Marxist The president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief? George W. Bush, this is. Even if this attack proves merely a break, it will lead to great damage.

Unfortunately, this comes in a bad time for economic development. As the latest World Bank Global economic prospects Notes, not only the slowdown in global economic growth, but the performance of developing low -income countries has become particularly concerned.
“I have weakened the knees on the levels of the advanced economy’s income steadily across [emerging market and developing economies] During the first quarter of the twenty -first century, “the report argues. This is the result of successive shocks, slowing reforms and a more negative external environment, characterized by a large part of it by” uncertainty in the growing policy and transformations of negative commercial policy. “

“The rapid growth supported by local reforms and a benign global environment has allowed many low -income countries. To achieve medium income in the first decade of this century. Since then, the rate in which low -income countries graduate to intermediate income mode Miscellaneous. “Growth in the real income of each head in these countries is simply anemia. This is partly due to the internal conflict, partly due to harmful foreign developments, including the global financial crisis, the epidemic, the unexpected leaps in basic commodity prices and high interest rates.

As a result, the report argues, through a wide range of development standards, that low -income countries today stand behind the place where the average income is in 2000. They are now more likely to shock related to climate change.
When looking at the plight of the poorest countries, it is necessary to understand restrictions on them. They lack the necessary resources to provide health care or necessary education. Thus, according to World BankHealth spending for one person in high -income countries is more than 50 times as in low -income people, in a real way, and education spending is more than 150 times. Moreover, the cost of debt interest has increased to more than 10 percent of government revenues in low -income countries, partly due to the need to borrow in crises and partly due to high interest rates.

A more prosperous, healthier and more stable world is a better world to live in, not only morally, but practically. The main tools for these goals remain multilateral institutions. If the United States will turn from its previous wisdom, it is up to the rest of us to create a multilateral road forward, while it hopes that the United States will finally find a way to light.
Minouche shalt He argued convincing some serious rethinking. There are already many global challenges in the future, as you notice. But there is one glorious opportunity. Eliminating the scourge of extreme poverty from our planet is now confusing. But we failed. We must try more difficult. This long -awaited goal is very close to abandoning it.
https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Ff80e11b3-4e53-4032-9f3d-3e06311c03c4.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1
2025-02-11 17:35:00