Topic Page: Aid
Funds, goods, equipment, and expertise donated or loaned by the world's richer countries to poorer countries and used to promote development. The largest amount of development aid is paid out by the World Bank, specifically through its International Development Association (IDA). All industrialized member states of the United Nations (UN) allocate a specific proportion of their own Gross National Product (GNP) for development projects.
Financial or other assistance given or lent, on favourable terms, by richer, usually industrialized, countries to war-damaged or developing states. It may be given for political, commercial, or humanitarian reasons, or a combination of all three. A distinction may be made between short-term aid (usually food and medicine), which is given to relieve conditions in emergencies such as famine, and long-term aid, or development aid, which is intended to promote economic activity and improve the quality of life – for example, by funding irrigation, education, and communications programmes. In 1970, all industrialized United Nations (UN) member countries committed to a goal of giving at least 0.7% of their gross national product (GNP) in aid. On a global level, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are the two biggest aid dispensers.
In the UK, the Department for International Development (DFID) is responsible for the promotion of overseas development and the reduction of poverty. The department superseded the Overseas Development Administration in 1997.
In 1996, the IMF and World Bank launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative to provide debt relief for low-income member countries. This was revised in 1999 and supplemented in 2005 by the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).
essays
Aid and Development
Meaning of global citizenship
Aid from developed countries to poorer areas
Causes and consequences of poverty
Role of charities and how to be involved
Fair Trade
British Commonwealth
Aid for LEDCs
weblinks
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
WomenAid International
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