In 2009, the amount of money spent on foreign aid peaked at 123.25 billion USD. Since the early 1970s, up to 3,000 billion USD have been allocated to the development of the poorest regions of the world.
Since the 1980s, several approaches have been tried to tackle the development challenge. Structural policies have been used in an attempt to liberate private sector initiative and trigger growth. However, this strategy failed at improving most non-monetary development indicators.
As a response, the United Nations, under the impulse of Secretary General Annan, launched in the year 2000 a wide-ranging campaign to fight poverty, based on precise and measurable objectives: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Despite some major successes in the fields of child education, women rights, absolute poverty levels, and the decline of some diseases, the MDGs failed in triggering a virtuous development circle.
The increase of the international aid volume should not obscure the fact that it is highly unequally distributed. Despite its substantial needs, Africa received only 1/3 of global aid. At a world level, five countries - Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Vietnam, the Palestinian territories and Tanzania – received some 20% of the global bilateral aid.
Despite many achievements, there is still a long way to go on the path to eradicating poverty. 50 years of international assistance have not put an ideal assistance model to light. Instead of thinking solely about aid in terms of volume, it is urgent that donor and receiver countries think about ways to adjust and optimize their development policies.
