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TabGroup Probe International works to hold both Canadian and international aid agencies, export credit agencies to account for the environmental, social, and economic harm they cause in developing countries. While Probe believes that public support for foreign aid begins with honorable intentions, its inevitable effect is destructive. More than five decades of state to state aid has given Third World governments financial freedom from their own citizens, thereby undermining political accountability and institutions in those countries.
By bankrolling unaccountable governments against their own people, agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Bank have caused environmental havoc, financial ruin and social harm throughout the Third World. Despite "pro-poor" and "pro-environment" rhetoric, such agencies have financed hydro projects, hazardous mining operations, as well as road-building and forestry schemes that have led to widespread environmental damage and impoverished communities. Through it all, these institutions have shown a blatant disregard for the democratic rights of the citizenry and property rights of the people most affected by the projects they finance.
In the pages that follow, we lay out the evidence of 60 years of failed aid.
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After recent evidence showed that China was receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid funds to fight diseases such as malaria that were almost non-existent in the country—and at the expense of other developing countries suffering thousands of deaths from these same diseases—there are new reports revealing that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that China is receiving billons of dollars in foreign aid each year. Many are now asking why, when China spends billions of dollars on lavish projects such as the 2008 Olympics and the Shanghai Expo, it deserves any aid at all. read more »
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Leaders from across the world recently pledged to step up foreign aid efforts in order to meet the much-talked-about Millennium Development goals. But more and more economists, politicians and academics are arguing that an efficient and accountable tax regime will do a much better job promoting development than foreign aid. read more »
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There is nothing egregious about the eight MDG targets. Halving poverty, increasing education, and reducing maternal and child mortality are desirable outcomes. The only problem is that in the poorest countries the goals will not be met because they are based on a failed development model of relying on external aid rather than internal policy change to facilitate economic development and growth. read more »
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Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce Over the past decades, African countries have been forced by external debt burdens to undertake painful economic adjustments while devoting scarce foreign exchange to debt-service payments. On the other hand, African countries have experienced massive outflows of private capital towards Western financial centers. Indeed, these private assets surpass the continent’s foreign liabilities, ironically making sub-Saharan Africa a “net creditor” to the rest of the world. read more »
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Although it proudly lays claim as the second oldest republic in the Hemisphere, and the only nation whose slave population defeated a colonial power to become free,Haiti is, and has been, among the worst governed and most undemocratic states. Few places in the world, and no places in the Western Hemisphere, are poorer than Haiti.This paper2 explains why, after consuming billions in foreign aid over three decades, and hundreds of millions specifically for governance and democratization programs, not to mention billions for other programs, Haiti remains politically dysfunctional and impoverished. read more »
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All spin and no substance: Bill C-31 is a devious bill drafted to convince the public that EDC is doing something to protect the environment while, in fact, EDC is frustrating efforts to stop its environmentally-damaging activities. read more »
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View All Sources TabGroup4
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As calls for a “Marshall Plan for Haiti” continue to make headlines, an increasing number of reports are beginning to ask: is aid the answer? A recent report from PBS interviews a number of aid supporters and critics, asking them if a massive aid program to Haiti is the best option. read more »
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For Haiti, just about every conceivable aid scheme beyond immediate humanitarian relief will lead to more poverty, more corruption and less institutional capacity, says Bret Stephens, writing in the Wall Street Journal. After the immediate impact of the earthquake has passed, and the immediate relief efforts subside, “the arrival of the soldiers of do-goodness, each with his brilliant plan to save Haitians from themselves” will take root. read more »
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Dambisa Moyo, economist and author of "Dead Aid", discussing problems of foreign aid to the developing world. Moyo believes that pouring more aid into the coffers of African governments will do nothing to promote healthy economic growth. Instead, she calls for an opening of global trade, lower tariffs and a functioning tax system. read more »
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