Aid
In Brazil, Carlos Romero harvests coffee. He and his family work a ten-hour day and earn 2p for each kilo of coffee they pick. In a British supermarket a 200g jar of coffee costs about �1.50. Out of this only about 12p goes back to where it is grown.
2 billion people around the world do not have access to safe water and each year 25 million people die from diseases caused by bad water supply.
In 1991, the World Health Organisation estimated that 1.2 billion people were living in absolute poverty.
All around the world people are struggling to survive.
Aid is one way that they can be helped.
WHY AID?
The richest fifth of the world's population receives 83% of total world income. The poorest fifth receives 1.4%. This shows how great the divide has become between rich and poor in the world. Aid is one way richer nations can support the efforts of poorer nations to develop. Aid can bring finance, technology and expertise which would not otherwise be available, to finance development.
WHO GIVES AID?
Aid comes from different sources:-
 | international organisations like the United Nations |
| governments |
| voluntary agencies such as CAFOD, Christian Aid and Oxfam. |
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
Aid that arrives through international organisations is called MULTILATERAL AID. The main organisations administering aid in this way are the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Community and the United Nations. Funds are committed to these by the individual governments who make up their membership.
GOVERNMENT
In addition to the funds they provide to international organisations, most countries also administer their own aid programmes. This enables them to decide which countries they should help and what form the aid should take. The aid is then transferred form one government to another. This is called bilateral aid.
ABOUT 70% OF ALL GOVERNMENT AID IS TRANSFERRED IN THIS WAY.
Bilateral aid depends on good relations between the two governments involved. The donor government can withdraw aid if it no longer sees any political advantage for itself, or if it disapproves of the human rights record of the recipient. Sometimes this may have the positive effect of challenging unjust governments; but it can also mean that the poorest people in the society suffer twice over, form both political oppression and the withdrawal of aid.
VOLUNTARY AGENCIES
Agencies such as CAFOD play an important role in providing aid to developing countries. In 1992 CAFOD channelled 7.2 million to 1000 long term community development projects overseas. The majority of this comes from the donations of CAFOD supporters; the rest is made available by the Overseas Development Agency (ODA) or the European Commission with specific guidelines for its use.
[diagram showing simply that CAFOD supports the following types of project: Adult education; health care; community development; technical skills; clean water; food production
This diagram shows the type of projects supported by CAFOD. These projects aim to empower people to tackle their poverty themselves.
HOW MUCH AID DO WE GIVE?
Official British aid is the responsibility of the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) which is a part of the foreign and Commonwealth Office. The amount of aid a country gives is measured as a percentage of it's Gross National Product (GNP). The UN target for aid from industrialised countries to the countries of the South is 0.7% of GNP. In Britain this would come to an average of �67 per person per year in government aid. Currently Britain gives just under �26 per person.
IN 1979, OFFICIAL BRITISH AID WAS 0.53% OF GNP. BY 1992 IT HAD FALLEN TO ONLY 0.32%. OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY SUCH AS HOLLAND (POPULATION 15 MILLION), COMMITTED 0.98%, AND DENMARK (POPULATION 5.1 MILLION), 0.93%.
GNP is the value of domestic goods and services produced by a country, together with the income it has received from other countries.
WHAT FORMS DOES AID TAKE?
Aid can take many different forms, including the following:
Food Aid
Experts and Volunteers
Technical assistance Emergency assistance
Financial loans or grants
Writing off loans
HOW FREE IS AID?
Most official aid is conditional. 75% of official government aid from Britain is tied to the purchase of goods and services. It might, for instance, take the form of a consignment of British-made tractors to Zimbabwe. In this way, aid also secures thousands of jobs in the UK. Commercial interests strongly influence aid. Aid can sometimes go to the areas of the world where it has the greatest potential for profit, not to where it is most desperately needed.
WHAT HAPPENS IN AN EMERGENCY
Most aid concentrates on long term development projects. In recent years, however, disasters like famine and floods have demanded a massive injection of aid into emergency relief work. Most often, the images seen on the news depict emergency aid used in a disaster area. CAFOD committed �1.4 million to emergency relief work in 1992.
