WHAT IS THE FOREIGN AID

INTRODUCTION

The foreign aid is the means of a certain country helping or giving a helping hand to another country that is in some kind of trouble and needs help. The foreign aid is aimed at developing a certain country after it has encountered some major problems that are forcing it to seek help from other countries.
According to Moyo (2010) there are three types of aids which are Emergency (the money mobilised in response of disasters), Charity aid (it is the money lent to charitable institution or people on the ground), and Systematic aid (bulk of money transferred from government to other government or via institution like World Bank).
After the decolonization, the African continent was finally on its own, but that was not for too long because many African countries had inherited a huge sum of debt which was not even made by them but made by the colonial government which had colonized those African countries. Now the African countries are left with no choice but to seek foreign help from the developed countries.
The African continent is often referred to be one of the poorest continents in the world, unfortunately, many deadly diseases had hit the African continent very hard and it is very well-known that many African countries lack adequate health facilities. This is where the foreign aid come in, They offer to give those countries a certain amount of money with a very high interest knowing that these countries are desperate and will take the money.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THESE AID?

Aid can be a good assist because it can help countries that had been for example been hit by a massive outbreak of a deadly disease to get back on its feet. The primary aim of this aid is to promote development, for example, if a country wants to create or build something that can guarantee development. One particularly clear example of such loan or aid outlet is the World Bank, the World Bank mainly focuses on development loans that are going to build something that is an important factor towards the economic growth of that particular country.
Africa is well known for the outbreak of very deadly diseases such as malaria and other diseases and millions of Africans die every year due to these diseases. The foreign aid from other countries can help in trying to minimize the number of the victims of these diseases because the foreign aid can be in form of medicine or doctors so then the medicine and the doctors can be a good assistance to these countries.
The African continent has many developing countries such as South Africa, but these developing countries are short of funds to help them develop more.
Foreign aid is being used in many countries, mostly poor countries to help monitor the voting or to fund the voting process and also has been used to help assist the activities of human rights. Foreign aid has also been used to fight the illegal exports of drugs and to help fight against the deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria etc. Many countries accept foreign aid to make their national security stronger for example to train their military soldiers or to buy military arms. Another important role of the foreign aid it is to help to better the suffering that was caused either by natural or man-made disasters, war or disease, it is also to create or strengthen political institutions.

THE CHALLENGES OF THE FOREIGN AID

1. IT PROMOTES CORRUPTION

In the real world, the foreign aid is always meant for the people who need it most and is meant to make difference in their lives, Very, unfortunately, this does not always happen. In most under-developing or developing countries, the foreign aid aimed at developing those countries (mostly monetary form) often land up in the pockets of corrupt government officials or organisational leaders, and the people who need it most often end up not getting it or the things that it was aimed to fix to end up not being fixed because of corruption.

2. IT CAN LEAD TO DIFFICULTIES TO BOTH COUNTRIES

Countries that often put themselves up or volunteer themselves to grant out foreign aid often use a large sum of money from their budget, this can sometimes prove to be a problem because they have their own financial problems to fix. And the countries that receive this foreign aid can end up being too dependent on this foreign aid that is being provided to them and end up being in a very serious debt especially when they receive it in a form of a loan.

OTHER CHALLENGES OF FOREIGN AID

The countries providing the aid can use that aid to apply economic or political pressure on the country that is on the receiving side, and the projects which these aids are aimed at uplifting may end up or often end up benefiting the government officials or officials or employers rather than employees. These foreign aid act as an investment for the developed countries because these projects are often conducted by foreign companies and the earnings of these projects or a portion of these project earnings will be sent abroad