American Aid Policy

The fall in States is the leading naughtyly- unquestionable nation in abroad tutelage that considers both the interest of its hold citizens and industries and those of benefactive role countries. Billions of people all oer the world have benefited and appreciated the role of United States in both foreign and f atomic number 18 fear. This enquiry paper looks deeply into the overall military capability of US foreign attend to form _or_ system of government, the need to effect any changes in insurance policy framework or continue to handle affairs in their current form and eventually examine the need to increase or decrease the amount in foreign financial advocate. assist and Millennium Development Goals The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in third world countries and specifically the African continent cannot be complete when foreign maintenance to these nations is not fully availed. Human development has been snub by international donor community no tably the World coin bank and the internationalist Monetary Fund, instead putting more focus on biased economic parameters. Poverty levels in these nations thus cannot be eradicated. Africa yet needs a total of 72 billion dollars in foreign aid per year to achieve its Millennium Development Goals by 2015.This is miserable fraction in comparison to the $ 362 billion in subsidiaries developed countries remunerative to its home based agricultural sectors in 2006. Commitment by developed countries to increase amounts in foreign aid to 0. 7% of their national income has not been realized (Marr, Gunatilaka & group A Killick, 1998). United States has faired poorly in its rating with only 0. 16% and appears at the bottom of the list. Eradicating beggary and improving human flavor demand increase in foreign aid to developing nations and hardship to honor these commitments means that the present status in terms of poverty levels will re important for a great conviction.Effectiveness of alien Aid The sozzled relationship that exists between foreign aid strong point and conditions attached to it has forever been a thorny issue. Important development agendas much(prenominal) as the equilibrise of existing relationship between liquidator and donor, considering first bet on to priorities sectors by the government, deter cases of aid course of instructions duplications and providing means for undertaking transpargonncy assessment on aid performance are factors that essentialiness be put into musing to ensure aid strongness.Furthermore, donor support harmonization in aid programmes that undertake development projects in more than one country demands vernacular accountability. Direct budget subsidy contributed by donor countries which still stands at 5% of aid given to developing nations should be viewed by the recipient countries as domestic hence, implemented vividly on development agendas kinda than being accountable to the donors.Though this may be the best federal agency of implementing aid as it create an opportunity for strong economic principles and political willingness to sub ascribable bureaucracy, donors do not yet willing to adopt this model because of their send channel of aid flow which do onto conform with the developing countries political structures. In essence, increased direct budget support by donors and legal government structure of the recipient countries will increase aid effectiveness (Guillaumont & Chauvet, 2001)Need For Change in Aid Policy Critics have invariably advocated for foreign aid policy reforms. While United States foreign programme has noted high levels of advantage, it cannot be without a list of problems. The original take aim of American aid policy was to generate and improve its economic sub-sectors much(prenominal) as the shipping industry, dump surpluses and promote trade. A clear exercise is the feed aid policy in which forage aid is no longer about providing a meal for th e hungry but takes mission of a multitude of objectives.A half of e very(prenominal) dollar spent on food aid goes into the related exists such as bear upon and shipping. This reveals that policy changes must be put in place to denounce food aid perform to its fullest. This is because the current food aid policy strives to accomplish very many objectives, most of which are obsolete. It takes a very long time to transport food from a farmer to its concluding destination and at times this period takes up to five months. such(prenominal) delay in delivery leads to added costs such as redress and crew wages.Furthermore delay is the delivery in food aid cost lives in disaster situations. Money should be used to purchase food circumferent to their destination and reduce costs of transportation. A drastic permutation must be made towards of food aid procuring, with purchase in the beneficiary nation and in the United States. Purchasing goods in countries secretiver to the benefici ary nations would strengthen agricultural market in these nations (Hansen & Tarp, 2000). The main objective here is local procurement of goods, not aid with conditions.America must move away from tied aid to make its foreign aid policy effective. The global economic crisis has led to questions about the general effectiveness of foreign aid. Questions as to how aid can be sustained interminably in times of economic recessions must be answered to achieve high performance. At the moment, American legislation demands that 50% of aid commodities must be processed and packed at home before shipment. Furthermore, 75% of food aid is managed by the USAID and 50% is under the management of US division of agriculture (Guillaumont & Chauvet, 2001).These commodities must be shipped in vessels flying US flags. Such conditions must be constantly reviewed to do away with long procedures of aid handling and delivery. While there are efforts to reform the aid policy, it is expected to take ti me before full effectiveness is achieved. The 1961 Foreign Assistance Act and the Farm Bill under President George chaparral are some efforts to restructure United States foreign aid policy. An examination into different types of foreign aid reveals a complex scenario on how effective its overall objectives are.The reconstruction of countries reeling from effects of war such as Iraq and Afghanistan are always controversial in nature. Given the overlap in time due to security related issues, it is almost impossible to accurately influence how much and to what level of effectiveness these aid key (Dalgaard & Hansen, 2007). an different(prenominal) area that requires total change is the technical cooperation. This is poorly defined due to its ambiguity and thus hard to measure. They are always under reproval due to the huge amounts involved but often not the right way accounted for.Technical cooperation always means transfer of skills and knowledge from the donor country to the beneficiary country but always become controversial when they involve military aid assistance such as generous packages to Israel and Egypt. The so-called aid for national interest always attracts huge aid packages than moral areas such as poverty and disease alleviation. Pakistan is a major recipient of United States aid due to its influence and geographical location with Afghanistan and receives this foreign aid to maintain stability and peace in the region. America must do away with some aid conditionality.The imbalance in aid contracts creates conditions which supply into donor demands for change in social, political and economic affairs (Burns, 1984). angiotensin converting enzyme of the most absurd conditions from the western donors is the system of state chasten over all sectors of the economy. The demand for democratic states and good governance, free and fair elections, constitute to some of these conditions. Considering achievement of these conditions a yardstick to re ceiving foreign aid undermines its role and objects and thus makes it a political tool to control affairs of other countries.Reforms must be made on how aid is channeled to the beneficiary countries. many-lobed aid is always channeled through World Bank and other regional development banks while bilateral aid is paid direct to the beneficiary countries (Miyashita, 2003). Multilateral aid has so far recorded greater success than bilateral aid since it is not selective and undertakes its programmes on neutral basis. These back up are in the form of grants that ensure maximum utilization for the desexualise objectives. Reforming policies in these sectors to ensure maximum transparency and reduce levels of political check would definitely improve its performance.Conclusion Bilateral aid must not be used to hood-wink political leaders. It is obvious that some developing countries whose economic performances are poor depend mainly on foreign aid to support their programmes. Applicatio n of selective strategies and tough conditions driven by greed to control the smaller nations will eventually render the foreign aid ineffective. The way to go in improving the performance is forging a close alliance with the beneficiaries and improving levels of transparency (Toye, Harrigan & Mosley, 1995).The handling of foreign food must take into consideration the overall improvement of agriculture and readiness of close markets for agricultural markets to regions close to the beneficiary country. Foreign aid must therefore seek to improve the level of human development. References Burns, W. J. , (1984), Economic Aid and American Policy towards Egypt. Sunny Press Dalgaard, C. J. & Hansen, H. , (2007), On Aid, ingathering and Good Policies, The Journal of Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 37(6), 17-41. Guillaumont, P. & Chauvet, L., (2001), Aid and Performance A Reassessment, The Journal of Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 37( 6), pages 66-92 Hansen, H. & Tarp, F. , (2000), Aid effectiveness disputed, Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. , vol. 12(3), pages 375-398. Marr, A. , Gunatilaka, R. & Killick, T. , (1998), Aid and the Political Economy of policy change, Routledge. Miyashita, A. (2003), Limits to Power Asymmetric dependence and Japanese foreign aid policy, Lexington Books. Toye, J. F. Y, Harrigan, J. J. & Mosley, P. (1995), Aid and power The World Bank and PolicyBased Lending, Routledge.