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Open Think Tank Articles
Jamie Drummond: In 2000, the UN laid out 8 goals to make the world better by reducing poverty and disease — with a deadline of 2015. As that deadline approaches, Jamie Drummond of ONE.org runs down the surprising successes of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, and suggests a crowdsourced reboot for the next 15 years.
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Mohammad Lateef Totakhail: This MA thesis is about Foreign Aid and Economic Development in Afghanistan. The research is narrowed down by focusing on Germany, one of the main donors to Afghanistan. The analysis of German assistance to Afghanistan is made with reference to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.
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Nikolina-Romana Milunovic: One reason why many least developed countries are locked in poverty is climate. Combined with other factors, climatic factors are resulting in a dramatic global injustice which is presently being ignored.
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Jörg Gundelfinger: In 2020 global governance will be increasingly non-institutionally driven and most actors in these processes will act for their own benefit. This is problematic and cannot solve the major problems of our world. We need the UN to control global governance concerning power imbalances.
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Daphne Wolf: Small and local aid agencies are best equipped to help the victims of cyclone Nargis because they are already operating on the ground. Donations to these agencies are more effective since big aid organizations are still struggling to access the affected areas.
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Global Must Read Articles
The annual $4 billion in aid pledged to secure Afghanistan’s futures will not foment economic development until there is peace. ++ After 30 years of war, it is no wonder the country is so underdeveloped. ++ It has been challenging to negotiate a settlement because neither the US nor the Taliban are willing to give in to the others’ demands. ++ A peace accord, overseen by a UN team, between
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More than 10 million people in the Horn of Africa are “in urgent need of food, water and emergency health care” as the UN declared a famine in southern Somalia. ++ Previous warnings by the UN about a drought and impending food crisis in the region have gone mostly unheeded. Britain has pledged $84 million to support drought victims, but other Europeans, such as Italy which mustered
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Once the plaything of the yuppie generation, mobile phones are conquering Africa: Today, nearly 60 percent of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa have access to the technology. The period 2002 through 2007 witnessed a yearly growth of 49 percent in subscriptions, even though the countries in the region count among the world’s poorest. This phenomenon bears enormous economic potential and
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Africa should no
longer be regarded through the narrow lens of humanitarian aid. For the sake of
economic interests, the developed world’s public would do well to discard these
images that have long outlived their usefulness. Africa is growing in strategic
importance, and it is high time that the West adapts its idea of Africa to the new reality on the ground. If the United
States and
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The growing rift between the US and Israel has exposed diverging “goals, expectations, and national interests.” ++ The US gives billions of dollars annually to Israel in military aid. ++ The best thing for the allies would be to cut financial ties. ++ This would allow Israel to pursue its own interests without outside influence, and the US would no longer be seen as favoring Israel.
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In order to achieve the best returns for donor taxpayers and aid recipients, African aid should focus on infrastructure, regional integration, education and health. ++ Regional integration would help African countries compete in the global market - just as the EU helps the economies of its member states. ++ Africa needs to integrate its economies and open its borders internally. ++ Development
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Entrepreneurship, not aid, is the best way for poor nations to end poverty and improve development. ++ Aid engenders poverty, instability and reliance. ++ Help is welcome, but rich nations must have “a head for poor countries, not just a heart”. ++ Poor nations should respect local wisdom, build a culture of innovation and create investment opportunities. ++ Despite challenges, Rwanda has a clear
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The international community is falling “woefully short” of financing Afghanistan’s needs. ++ Security is better funded than any other sector including economic and social development. ++ If this continues, “the suffering of a very poor population will get worse, fuelling support for the fundamentalist insurgency that threatens the entire region”. ++ Aid must be increased and managed by the
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The US’ response to Burma’s suffering under a military junta has been strict economic sanctions. ++ The limited effectiveness of this policy led the US to consider an alternative which will deliver practical benefits to the Burmese people, but this is also met with skepticism. ++ Increased trade will be exploited to benefit the military regime and do little for the people. ++
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The global economic crisis is in fact good news for aid-dependent Africa. ++ It is an opportunity for the continent to move towards the market-driven interventions which have enabled the rise of Brazil, India and China. ++ “Foreign aid has been the biggest single inhibitor of Africa’s growth,” fostering corruption, dependency and bureaucracy. ++ Focusing on the Chinese market
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A Washington plan to involve the Pakistani government in the War on Terror has failed. ++ To handle the situation, US General Petraeus has given Saudi Arabia control over aid to Pakistan. ++ It is hoped that a series of religious decrees against terrorism and a continued debate on inter-religious dialogue with Saudi support will reach troubled areas in Pakistan. ++ Saudi involvement risks pulling
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Many countries in Africa suffer from a stifling dependence on foreign aid and actually receive more money in aid than they do collecting taxes. ++ This imbalance is detrimental to the citizens as the government is more concerned with the interests of the aid donors than its own people. ++ Donors should, therefore, limit their aid to no more than 50 percent of what a government can collect in tax
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There are four main problems that deepen the world crisis: incoherence of American leadership, lack of global financing, lack of contact between scientific experts and politicians, and finally the fact that the G8 ignores the UN and the World Bank — institutions offering the best hope to tackle global problems. ++ The Group of Eight summits have turned into photo opportunities and illustrate the
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Financial aid will not solve the problem of food security in Africa. ++ Western succor is the main source of revenue for corrupt sub-Saharan African governments. ++ An effective way to help the Africans is to remove the trade barriers that cripple the development of their economy. ++ World Bank figures reveal that removing taxes and tariffs on agricultural goods and fertilizers would bring Africa
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Providing food to starving populations - currently under discussion at the summit on the global food crisis in Rome - is less of a challenge than the problem of raising the world’s agricultural productivity in the long term. ++ Industrialized countries need to increase investment in untapped and unproductive agricultural parts of Africa. ++ If this next green revolution occurs in a “greener” and
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Responsibility and emergency to act in Burma cannot be doubted but UN legitimacy is lacking and R2P stands for “responsibility to protect,” not “right to invade.” ++ Any action requires “a careful, informed calculation of the likely consequences.” ++ Now the junta has acquiesced to limited aid “under an Asian umbrella,” the West should drop plans for air and sea bridges that could entail the
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Despite the determination of Burma’s military rulers to prevent foreign interference in fear of losing its grip on power, the international community has a moral obligation to deliver aid to cyclone-stricken civilians by all means necessary. ++ Countries such as Thailand, China and Indonesia, which enjoy closer relations with Burma, could act as proxies to deliver Western aid. ++ If this fails, a
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The reluctance of Burma’s military rulers to help their own people in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis is criminal. ++ The international community should use a measured approach in encouraging Burma to accept aid and de-prioritize the scheduled constitutional referendum. ++ Greater involvement should be elicited from regional actors such as China and Thailand. ++ Pressuring too hard will only be
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Political pressures are preventing the structural problems of the aid system from being solved rapidly. ++ Achieving the development goals set for 2015 requires immediate action, the political will of official donors, and the contribution of non-profit organizations. ++ Even if aid is in short supply, a system which coordinates donors, projects and priorities can deliver quality assistance.
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World Bank lending to Kenya has more than doubled since 2005, yet ever more funds seem to be diverted from the activities’ objectives. ++ The Bank and its country director in Nairobi are contributing to a culture of corruption of which American taxpayers are bearing the heaviest burden. ++ If power sharing offers a solution to the political crisis, one can hope it will also lead to greater
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A new rating of 22 developed countries (and the EC) puts the United States at 16th on Humanitarian Aid. The new Humanitarian Response Index (HRI), carried out by a Spain-based NGO called DARA, focuses less on total funding and more on how well aid dollars reach their target.
Sweden gets top marks for quickly delivering funds in cash, and consistently following up. The US on the other hand
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