Was Development Assistance a Mistake? 论文

摘要

“More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery … For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and the skill to relieve the suffering of these people. ” Harry S. Truman, Inaugural Address, 1949 “We have the opportunity in the coming decade to cut world poverty by half. Billions more people could enjoy the fruits of the global economy…And for the first time, the cost is utterly affordable. ” United Nations Millennium Project, 2005 The repetition of virtually the same language after more than half a century and $2.5 trillion worth of development assistance (in today’s dollars) is not encouraging for its promise to achieve the reduction of poverty and misery. This paper argues that development assistance as originally conceived and still largely conceived today, was a mistake. This is not based on any original research undertaken for this paper, it is just drawing the natural implication of a large body of literature quickly surveyed here. 1 The conclusion of the paper will argue that foreign aid could still accomplish some good things for poor people, even if it cannot fulfill the purpose of “development assistance.”