Aid is vital for many countries in the world and saves millions of lives each year.Foreign aid is defined as the voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another and many nations try as hard as possible to provide others with the necessary equipment to get through hard times.
It can involve a transfer of goods like food or military equipment, or even people to provide training and medical help.
Usually these are loaned by governments, organisations, entrepreneurs and even citizens in richer countries to help people in poorer ones.
An example would be the millions sent from many countries to fight the spread of Ebola in West Africa.
In 2016, the amount of 140b $ was distributed around the world.
U.S gave the most money away 31.08 billion.The receivers were at least 40 countries (such as Pakistan,Mexico,India )and different types of organizations. Other countries being high in that list were UK (18,7 b),Germany (17,78 b),Japan (9.32 b),and France (9,23 b).
Sweden and Norway,may not have been on the top of that list,but they were considered to be the biggest givers since they donated more than 1 % of their gross national income (imagine US is gave just the 0,17% ).
About the countries that received this help, on top of that list were Afghanistan ,India,Vietnam, Ethiopia,Indonesia.
Recent international development statistics showed Egypt, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Ethiopia received the most in bilateral aid .
The total amount of foreign aid is at an all-time high up to 9% in 2016 and I believe it is everyone’s hope to stay at that point or go even higher if possible.
So,how does the public feel about this:
The public seems to be happy with the spending on foreign aid. However, surveys released in June showed that people generally are in favour of giving aid out of a national interest rather than need. So perhaps we’re not as altruistic as we might think but that doesn’t mean that we can’t change it anytime near in the future.
Sources:
https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/types-of-foreign-aid/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_country_donors
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-foreign-aid-in-the-world.html
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/sep/09/foreign-aid-which-countries-are-the-most-generous
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-foreign-aid-in-the-world.html