Does foreign aid do more harm than good?

Schaden die Industrieländer mit ihrer Entwicklungshilfe den Ländern der Dritten Welt, oder sollten die Mittel eher noch reichlicher fließen? Talitha Linehan hat zwei Meinungen eingeholt.

Yes!

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC. He is also editor of the political magazine Inquiry.

Doug Bandow

 Foreign aid is inherently political, it is full of challenges, and the results of aid are largely negative. Governments in the West have donated $2 trillion in foreign aid to agencies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the US Agency for International Development. Yet far from helping donor countries to develop, aid has caused continuing poverty and overwhelming debt in the Third World.

There is substantial proof that foreign aid to countries with bad policy environments is ineffective and counterproductive. It quickly falls into the wrong hands, and is used in a way that the donor country never intended. Officials have taken money intended for local industries, such as the farming community, and used it to invest in expensive state enterprises. They have built roads and bridges, for example, and failed to maintain them. Corrupt politicians have used the funds to promote propaganda and to benefit themselves and their friends. In many cases, the money has simply disappeared, leaving the country with an increasing debt it is unable to repay. Such countries would have a far better chance of developing without foreign aid from the West.