The Paradox of Foreign Aid and Sustainable Development
B. Mak Arvin
As an economic guiding principle defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development, sustainable development is a “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In other words, sustainable development prones economic growth without the pillage of natural resources. In recent discussions of sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa, one controversial issue has been the significant impact of foreign aid. On the one hand, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) 2006 and Former Expert and Researcher at Brookings defend that foreign aid has caused more environmental damages in developing countries. On the other hand, Professor B. Mak Arvin at the Department of Economics at Trent University contends that international assistance promotes economic growth and sustainable development. Despite their contrasting ideologies, both UNEP and advance key points which, if balanced, can positively impact policies on foreign aid and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In his article “Greening U.S. Foreign Aid through the Millennium Challenge Account” Nigel Purvis argues that despite the increase in US Foreign aid to developing countries since 2002, the Millennium Challenge Account has solely focused on economic growth and not on the role of the environment in fighting poverty. The essence of Purvis’ argument is that the eradication of poverty goes in parallel with the protection of the environment. For instance, environmentally related diseases such as waterborne diseases are the leading cause of child mortality in most poor countries. Purvis also contends that environmental changes are mostly irreversible and their prevention by using sustainable methods is less costly than their reparations. To put in a nutshell, Purvis argues that as poverty reduces and economies grow under unsustainable circumstances, poor countries are less likely to change their development strategies and adopt green methods. Therefore, foreign aid, as it is currently structured in most countries, causes more environmental damages than it encourages environmental protection.
As a result of the 1995 Kyoto agreement, industrialized countries agreed to take more serious measures to respond to climate change. According to Professor Arvin, poor countries “suffer a double injustice” from the resolutions of the Kyoto agreement. In fact, developing countries do not only have to equally participate to the fight against climate change sacrificing their own economic growth but to also do so at the “cost of their own economic growth.” In this light, Professor Arvin contrasts the UNEP report by defending that environmental crisis in the Third World requires immediate funding that helps restore the economy of the country. He goes further in his argument to say that since foreign aid helps alleviate human development and increase the standards of living, it will ultimately lead to environmental protection hence promotes sustainable development. Although Professor Arvin does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that the environmental rehabilitation projects in the developing countries that are financed through foreign aid will always be sustainable. While his assertion that poor countries suffer from pressing issues such as food shortage and poor sanitation and foreign aid is necessary for immediate solutions, it is important to acknowledge that foreign aid will not necessarily shift the focus from poverty alleviation to environmental protection in the long term.
Because of its complexity and a lack of literature on the subject, the debate on the impact of foreign aid on sustainable development in developing countries has received a few attention from experts in general. While opposing opinions have been raised by experts evolving in international affairs or in academia, they all suggest key points such as the necessity of foreign aid as a response to pressing catastrophes in developing countries and the negative influence of aid-based fast-paced projects that aim to respond to economic problems in developing countries. Overall, in thinking about promoting sustainable development in less developed countries, it is important to acknowledge that the solution cannot come from one side of this ongoing debate but rather from a common ground that takes into consideration the strengths of the diverging viewpoints.
Works Cited
Drexhage, John, and Deborah Murphy. "Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development from Rio to Rio+20." (2014): n. pag. United Nations, Sept. 2010. Web.
Arvin, Mak B., Zafar Kayani, and Marisa A. Scigliano. "Environmental Aid and Economic Development in the Third World." International Journal of Applied Econometrics and Quantitative Studies 6 (2009): n. pag. Print.
"UNEP in 2006." UNEP Annual Report (2006): n. pag. Print.
