Originally Posted by
swaledale
The pie in the sky fantasy is in your mind, one I suspect persuaded by right wing commentators. I do have a laugh when the citizens of the country with a glorious imperial past, that built its wealth on the exploitation of so called "third world countries" become all smug about corruption and this just after our own PM hands out peerages to his cronies, funders and his own brother. When a government minister is shown to have had funds and contact with a developer whose scheme he just happens to have approved overruling the local authority, yet remains in post. When a leading advisor clearly breaks government instructions, but lies about it and is backed up by the PM. I could go on but you get the drift!
Yes its true, a lot of aid doesn't actually go to where its needed, for a number of reasons, corruption is one, though ts not at the level you suggest, a lack of focus on recoridng outcomes, i.e. what the aid actually achieves and indeed Aid Agencies who like most organisations become fixated with their agenda, rather than solving the issue and getting out.
But and its big but, aid does indeed have significant positive effects, both for the people in the countries involved and indirectly for us the Uk citizen.
Some examples
In the five years from 2011 to 2016, UK aid provided almost 20 million food rations for Syrian refugees. This helps prevent them migrating and adding to our migrant issue, as well as being purely humanitarian. After all the majority would rather return to thier homes in Syria eventually.
Tackling violence against women and girls: the UK’s international aid budget funds programmers in 29 countries. Improving and educating womens lives, helps to modernise a country and improves the economic, health and welfare prospects of its citizens, it cuts down on migration.
280,000 people in Nepal received lifesaving shelter, funded by UK aid. Humanitarian aid after the earthquake.
13.2 million people were given access to TB treatment from 2002 to 2016. Curing TB and other infectious diseases not only improves the economic, health and welfare of a country but means these countries aren't reservoirs for such diseases and the source of future pandemics.
Over 10 million children are supported to get a good quality education by the UK aid budget. The more people are educated the more they can improve their prospects and the more they are able to withstand bad governance within their own country ad this does work, as has shown by East Timor where a basket case of a country was turned into a functioning democracy through foreign aid.
Yes there is corruption, but actually it depends upon the country, but ranges from 2% of the aid budget to around 20%.
0.7% of the Uk's GDP is overseas aid, that does a tremendous amount of good around the world, tackling diseases, improving food production, enabling local people to become self sustaining and able to improve their lives.
To criticise foreign aid on the basis that some of it is lost to corruption ignores outcomes that do have positive effects for the UK citizen, we are going to need to do more, if we don't then the current refugee problem is going to be a blip, climate change, food shortages disease, economic collapse will further push migrants towards europe and it will cost more to deal with them then than direct resources to correcting the issues that have forced them to leave.
Saying every penny spent on aid is like pouring it into an open sewer is not just wrong it ignores the fact and I stress fact (I know the Daily mail likes to pretend otherwise) that the vast majority of foreign aid has positive outcomes.
