1. What links all of these images together?

4. Political (bilateral aid) This is aid given by one government to another. Since this is ‘two-sided’ aid, it is often called bilateral aid. Often this is tied aid with conditions attached to its use; the recipient government is often forced to buy goods and services from the donor country. It is therefore a n example of conditional aid. Indeed, it may be little more than trade promotion – finding an overseas market for the donor country’s manufactured products and funding the trade with credits or low-cost loans. The political nature of this aid raises several problems. The goods may not be best suited to the real development needs of the country and its people. Many bilateral deals focus upon large-scale projects such as dams and power stations, which rank high prestige but low in value to ordinary people. A second problem is that the choice of donor country is made for political reasons rather than on the basis of need. The UK and France give most bilateral aid to their former colonies. Israel is the single largest beneficiary of aid from the USA, despite not being among the world’s poorest countries.

5. Multilateral aid Governments give money to international agencies which decide how the money is spent. Many of these agencies operate under the United Nations. Each one has a particular area of interest. WHO is the World Health Organisation while UNICEF focuses upon helping children, UNESCO upon education and the World Bank upon funding and development projects. Although these pay more attention to development needs, as large organisations they are often slow to change and do not always target the real needs of people in poor countries. This is also an example of conditional aid with conditions for its use determined by the organisation instead of the government which donated the money.

6. Charitable Aid Charities are examples of what are called non-governmental organisations or NGOs. Most are based and funded in industrialised countries. Money is raised through public appeals, regular voluntary donations and charity shops. They also receive grants from governments, some of which now realise that the NGOs are better able to run projects which are more likely to reach the people in greatest need. Some, such as Oxfam and Christian Aid, have developed a vast international network of operations, but they do work closely with community-based organisations. This allows aid to be more closely targeted on local need, which makes it more effective.

7. Question Explain why governments usually prefer to give bilateral aid.