Cuts in development aid could contribute to global instability; violent conflict is already on the rise in countries that rely heavily on foreign assistance
CPL ROBERT WHITMORE/AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE HANDOUT/EPA
The UK is among countries cutting international aid payments, which could affect the world in four key areas: poverty, extremism, democracy and refugees.
A growing number of assistance programs give recipients money.
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A global team of researchers analyzed 34 studies of unconditional cash-transfer programs administered in low- and middle-income countries.
A woman sorts through some maize kernels received as part of a food donation amid a devastating drought in Marsabit County, Kenya.
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Building business skills to improve livelihoods is increasingly recognised as bringing value to the fight against poverty. But it can also set up identity conflict and community-level tension.
Protests against the coup in Myanmar, an example of ‘democratic backsliding’ that is growing more prevelent worldwide.
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How can democratic nations help fledgling democracies and others struggling against the tide of autocrats?
Zimbabwe leaders welcome Chinese COVID-19 experts at the Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare on May 11, 2020.
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China is providing masks, vaccines, medical equipment and personnel to African countries ignored by the U.S. in recent years, positioning itself as an essential partner to the region.
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s sculpture dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Transatlantic slave trade on display in Montgomery, Alabama.
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The turn towards authoritarianism, xenophobia and racism in Western democracies makes it unlikely that former Western slave-trading nations will agree to reparations in the near future.
Until now the U.S. hasn’t coordinated its disaster aid and development spending.
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The Trump White House questioned the value of foreign aid and neglected policies related to helping low-income countries. But US aid had already needed improvement.
African countries have an opportunity to reduce poverty with new policies.
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The mere presence of NGOs, no matter their size or aims, inadvertently reduced the legitimacy of local village headmen.
Lone Sharks supporter Scott Morrison gives out Wallabies rugby jerseys to Pacific Islands leaders after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Port Moresby. There will be fewer hand-outs in future.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
The strength of Australian aid is that it has been fully grant-based. Offering Pacific nations debt-based development financing instead is no way to win friends.
Many people in South Sudan live in camps for the internally displaced after years of war.
AP Photo/Sam Mednick
Without change, the trajectory of growth and development in the world will remain consistent with that of the past 80 years.
Malian migrant Mamoudou Gassama met French president Emmanuel Macron on May 22, 2018. He was officially given French citizenship soon after.
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Power imbalances and inequality lie at the heart of the international development industry. But the Oxfam scandal shows that organisations mustn’t succumb to it.
Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, and Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), SOAS, University of London