It sounds kind of crazy to say that foreign aid often hurts poor people in poor countries, rather than helps. It should not surprise any developing nation. Aid in developing countries has facilitated despotic regimes and compounding misery. We often undermine the capacity of human beings and their power to develop themselves and the people around them. All development actors, change leaders, and other relevant stakeholders often talk about making informed decisions, but somehow have blindsight to the evidence which reflects the damage aid has done in these communities.
People only find value in things they earn not the ones handed over to them. Why is it that despite having the best resources economies of developing nations are not growing? Despite making big investments, their schools are not improving. Despite the awareness, the healthcare systems are going down? People can blame the government, they can blame the system, but the fact is, the communities have lost the sense of self-actualization. They have submitted their fate to the power of aid and established a mindset called “beggar mindset” which has paralyzed their ability to think and find solutions for themselves. A beggar is never a chooser so they accept whatever comes their way.
In the paradigm of aid-supported pseudo development, communities have been misled and are drawn away from their indigenous practices. The history of aid in the developing countries roots back to the era of British colonialization and despite liberation, the reverberation of modern colonization haunt these societies. On the contrary, none of the developed nations have received Aid for development.
Time has come to realize the unfortunate truth that foreign aid has often presented more challenges than opportunities to aid recipients. In the sixty-plus years’ aid has been mandated by government and these nations have seen small improvements across the globe, from reducing poverty to slowing population growth to curing and preventing diseases. The progress that otherwise would have been absent without an outpouring of foreign support. However, the impact of aid has not been proportionate to the amount of money donated. Aid recipients need to flip the cards and reverse the old adage from “a beggar is no chooser” to “a chooser is no beggar”.
