Jack McGillivray, Chapter 13, Question 6

Something that really struck me from this chapter was how the same foreign aid can help some countries so much and others so little. Wheelen proposes that this is due to the ineffectiveness of some governments. He says that poor countries often have bad habits, and these habits are reinforced by any foreign aid they receive. An example that he gives is the countries of East Asia, which have hugely successful economies and effective governments, and the countries of South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, which have poor economies and corrupt governments. In the past I had never thought that foreign aid to developing countries may be doing just as much harm as good. And I agree with his solution to make foreign aid merit based, only giving aid to governments that have proved they will use it well. However, as Wheelan mentions, this can leave us in tricky situations. Aid may need to be denied to desperate countries because we know they will use it ineffectually. There is no easy solution to this problem, and it is an issue that will be struggled with for years and years to come.