Foreign Aid News

Millions of dollars of international aid for victims of the mid-1980s famine in Ethiopia was diverted to rebels to buy weapons in the African country, a BBC investigation reported Wednesday.  read more »

Criticism of the high salaries being offered to contractors working with AusAID, Australia's national aid agency, is the latest example of the increased scrutiny facing aid agencies around the world. The criticism comes after a recent audit showed that a number of aid workers are earning more money than the country’s Prime Minister. And they’re doing so tax-free.  read more »

Soaring Chinese investment in Africa has placed the international aid community on high alert. While policymakers around the world debate whether China's no-strings-attached approach to African investment is good for the continent’s economic development, many onlookers have failed to ask: how do Africans feel about it? A recent poll, "How do Africans see China after all?" by academic Loro Horta, suggests opinion is strongly divided.  read more »

Aid makes governments unaccountable to their own people – with devastating results.  read more »

Africa's fight against corruption is being blocked by gangsters at every level of administrations and the campaign is doomed to fail unless presidents themselves spearhead the battle, a top campaigner said.  read more »

Corruption in Senegal is more than a risk to private investors like Millicom—it's a risk to taxpayers, too. More than half a billion dollars in U.S. development assistance is going to Senegal over the next five years on the assumption of good governance.  read more »

In a recent piece for Foreign Policy, Gerard Russell, a former British and U.N. diplomat and now a Fellow of Harvard's Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, looks at the disturbing effect foreign aid is having on Afghanistan. With over half of the country's licit economy supplied by foreigners, Russell says—referencing Dambisa Moyo’s book "Dead Aid"—all too often "foreign aid undermines society, encourages rentier behaviour, siphons off talent, reduces pressure for reform, and undermines democracy. Does this sound familiar, Afghanistan-watchers?”   read more »

Brian Griffiths, an international adviser for Goldman Sachs, is another voice in what is quickly becoming a chorus of foreign aid critics that are heralding the use of private markets and funds as way to promote economic growth on the African continent. In a recent lecture at Oxford University, Griffiths said churches already working in Africa should help promote businesses and markets in countries across the continent.  read more »

Between 45,000-50,000 may have died in the impoverished country of Haiti according to the American Red Cross as a result of the earthquake that shook Port-Au-Prince and surrounding areas on January 12, 2010. A hospital collapses, the President's palace is left in ruins, and many homes in shambles. Haitians bloodied from the devastation have walked away with tears in their eyes while others lay on the ground struggling to live or dead. This is what we see on the surface, but what is really going on behind the scenes of this catastrophe? What events were ongoing in Haiti prior to the earthquake?  read more »

Aid is an unmitigated, political and humanitarian disaster, declares Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, in her book, "Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa." Hers is such a "tough love" prescription that the author has had to dodge a punch in Toronto, Canada, and has had tomatoes thrown at her elsewhere.  read more »