Talk:Development aid
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[edit] Why does 'technical assistance' point to this page?
Just wondering why 'technial assistance' is pointing here. Is it just because a page hasn't been created for it yet? Otherwise, I would argue that it's not the same thing... though I don't have a definition of it myself (I was looking for one when I got here!) TA would just be one way to spend development aid.
—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Chluke (talk • contribs) 13:19, 26 April 2007 (UTC).
[edit] Title: "Foreign Aid" as a term
Foreign aid is a US term. Outside the US, "development assistance", "international aid" or "development aid" are used. Furthermore, "foreign aid" covers a wider range of activity than development assistance, including humanitarian aid and military aid. It is a US usage to blur the distinction between these by lumping them all together as "foreign aid". The articles should not be merged. Rd232 12:39, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- I believe Canada and Australia use the term "foreign aid." Do you have any references to indicate that it's an exclusively U.S. term? SlimVirgin 06:37, Jan 21, 2005 (UTC)
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- Development assistance should be merged into foreign aid. Consider the BBC, a respected UK news organization. A Google search on BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk) returns the following results:
don:::"foreign aid" - 5170 cases [1]
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- "development assistance" - 145 cases [2]
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- Clearly, "foreign aid" trumps "development assistance." The argument that "foreign aid" is exclusively US usage has no merit.
Try harder. aid+development: 35,100 [3] Add "foreign aid" to that search and it drops to 423. (Moreover, the BBC is a news organisation which naturally reports US usage when the US is involved.) However, you are right that "development assistance" is not a superior term. The one generally used is simply "aid". I tried for "development aid" as being more specific (otherwise we might end up with aid (development), but the database kept failing so I gave up, and "development assistance" worked first time. NB the Australian government uses the term "overseas aid" [4]; the Canadian equivalent is the Canadian International Development Agency" [5]. Both these terms are preferable to "foreign aid":
- From the Congressional Research Service: "There are five major categories of foreign assistance: bilateral development aid, economic assistance supporting U.S. political and security goals, humanitarian aid, multilateral economic contributions, and military aid." [6]
The single most common term for what is "development aid" is simply "aid". Only in the US is the term "foreign aid" used so predominantly. Elsewhere, the term is IMO usually an americanism, or describing US policy etc. Rd232 07:47, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- "Canada strengthens foreign aid program" - press release from the Canadian govt. [7] Australian govt webpages using "foreign aid" [8] [9]; New Zealand Liberty Party website using it [10] Financial Times (UK) [11] Review of book called The Institutional Economics of Foreign Aid (four authors of different nationalities) [12] UK website for school students [13] Article written by two British and Australian academics [14]
- Can you supply a reference indicating this is an exclusively U.S. term? SlimVirgin 08:47, Jan 21, 2005 (UTC)
I didn't say it was an exclusively US term. I said (or at least meant) that the usage of the term much more commonly than all others is US usage. Elsewhere, you get much more variety, eg development/overseas/international/foreign aid/assistance. See eg European Commission: 300 "foreign aid" [15], 9000 "development aid" [16], 560 "international aid", 30 "overseas aid". But although a single institution (like the Commission) may settle on a preferred term other than "foreign aid", elsewhere its a mixed bag, with by far the most common approach being to simply say "aid", possibly after an initial introductory use of a more specific term.
Moreover, there is the point I made about the distinction between the terms "foreign aid" and "development aid" (and the latter's various synonyms): development aid is a specific subcategory of foreign aid, covering (in the Congressional quote above), "bilateral development aid" and "multilateral" contributions (i.e. World Bank etc). Ergo, whatever term we settle on for "development aid", it should not be merged with "foreign aid", because this is unhelpful. (It is also distinguished from humanitarian aid.) Rd232 09:23, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- If it's a subcategory, there's no problem with that being explained in the foreign aid article. SlimVirgin 15:50, Jan 21, 2005 (UTC)
- It's the most important subcategory, worth $50bn+ a year (not including private donations), far outweighing any other subcategory of foreign aid. And it raises particular issues of economic development and politics (re World Bank and dependency theory and aid effectiveness and so on and so forth, which is not enhanced by being mixed in with the other subcategories. Any decent amount of info on this vast topic will deserve its own article! Rd232 18:10, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- You know what, I increasingly feel this is an en-us Wikipedia, so do what you like. Rd232 18:10, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- No, it isn't but nor is it the en-uk Wikipedia. English is spoken as a first and second language in countries other than those two, so it makes little sense to object to a term on the grounds that it's mostly American, then replace it with a term that's mostly British. The issue should be which term is most common with English speakers around the world, if that can be determined. SlimVirgin 18:30, Jan 21, 2005 (UTC)
- European Commission is not British. Whatever. Rd232 21:25, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- No, it isn't but nor is it the en-uk Wikipedia. English is spoken as a first and second language in countries other than those two, so it makes little sense to object to a term on the grounds that it's mostly American, then replace it with a term that's mostly British. The issue should be which term is most common with English speakers around the world, if that can be determined. SlimVirgin 18:30, Jan 21, 2005 (UTC)
- You know what, I increasingly feel this is an en-us Wikipedia, so do what you like. Rd232 18:10, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- It's the most important subcategory, worth $50bn+ a year (not including private donations), far outweighing any other subcategory of foreign aid. And it raises particular issues of economic development and politics (re World Bank and dependency theory and aid effectiveness and so on and so forth, which is not enhanced by being mixed in with the other subcategories. Any decent amount of info on this vast topic will deserve its own article! Rd232 18:10, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)
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- I read a lot of reports on development aid from international organizations (due to my current work on a master thesis) and not once have I come across the term "foreign aid" in these. The most commonly used term by the World Bank, the OECD/DAC, UNDP and UNCTAD is "development aid" when refering to commitments to developing countries when development and poverty reduction is its aim. I therefore think if would be appropriate to redirect "foreign aid" to "development aid".
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- However, I do not think it would be correct to merge "Official Development Assistance" with "Development aid" because it is not the same thing. "Development aid" is the broad term, whereas "Official Development Assistance" only refers to the development aid that is given by the member states of DAC. The distinction is important for various reasons. I am writing an entry about the "international aid target" (the UN 0.7%), which actually only applies to the member states of DAC. In order for me to do so, I need "ODA" as a seperate entry. The reason is quite simple: When they first started discussing the possibility of such a target, the intended donors were just "economically advanced countries" (See GA Resolution 1522, paragraph 1). However, the DAC member countries were specified as the countries that should aim for that target in later UN resolutions. (See GA Resolution 2626, paragraph 1). Today there are many other donor countries than the member states of DAC. China for instance is emerging as a donor, yet they have no reporting requirements to DAC. Several Arab states have been major donors since the 1970s, yet the UN target of 0.7% does not apply to them.
- (Siri We 20:22, 25 November 2006 (UTC))
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This discussion is long over... but I think that an important point concerning the term "Foreign Aid" is that it is written from the perspective of the donor, giving aid to someone/something externally. For that reason, while it may be an appropriate term when the US congress talks about how to spend their development aid money (i.e., abroad), it is not universal enough for an encyclopedia. It seems that Development aid is the more appropriate term, which could be used equally from the donor or the beneficiary (or other) perspective. Chluke 13:03, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Improvement Drive
The article Grameen Bank is currently nominated to be improved on Wikipedia:This week's improvement drive. If you want to support the article, you can vote for it there.--Fenice 06:28, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Remittance as aid?
I would say that it is disputed that remittance falls under Aid. Remittance may aid(verb) but that doesn't mean that it is encompassed by the term Development aid. No doubt, workers in foreign owned factories get a salary but we don't define this as aid. Criminal gangs from country X operating in Japan say, take money back home. Is this aid? I suspect this side of 'aid' is more political than anything. Since a good deal of money is sent from the States to countries such as Mexico as remittances, it biased figures enabling the U.S. to claim it gives more aid than it actually does.
[edit] stub?
This article isn't much more then a stub. i'm not a great specialist myself, but i'll add a few basic improvements just to get started --Karelke 05:28, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Nothing foreign about development aid
Development aid is a general thing. Economically powerful cities often have a variety of public and private forms of development aid available. Development aid from rich regions to less wealthy nearby areas is also common. International borders bring up some specific issues, but even more important are linguistic and cultural barriers. -- M0llusk 03:43, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Foreign Direct Investment
I have removed the section on Foreign Direct Investment. FDI is conducted by private entities/corporations with the clear goal of returning a profit. This is very different from technical assistance, grants, and loans that are generally understood to constitute development aid.
[edit] Merging
I would like to clarify one issue only. Should Foreign aid and Development aid be merged? I am trying to clear WP:BACK and I am more than comfortable to leave the rest of you to debate the article name after the merge is complete. Remember, when we merge, all the previous names refer to the surviving article. Alan.ca 06:42, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
- I think they are two distinct topics and we should have articles for both. Foreign aid refers to all "international aid" or "overseas aid," including military aid, while development aid mainly refers to aid focused on economic development. --Bkwillwm 02:23, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
- I agree. foreign aid also include humanitarian aid/relief. Bassemkhalifa (talk) 13:11, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Biggest GDP contributor
The fact that Norway is the biggest GDP contributor whit 0.7% has to be Inaccurate. Sweden today has 1.03%. This facts have to be updated. http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/8983/a/80050
