It's become a bit fashionable to criticize aid in recent years. Another notable book on the subject is The White Man's Burden by William Easterly (which I haven't read though).
Gates make a good point that aid actually has helped a lot of poor people and countries. The Marshall Plan to much of Europeand the country of Taiwan are just two examples off the top of my head where aid has done good. Sure, if you give money to a dictator of a poor country and tell him to do with it what he wants, it doesn't help the people. But like Gates says, how is giving vaccines to children that couldn't otherwise afford it (for instance) a bad thing? Maybe he goes a bit overboard saying that criticizing aid is evil though.
I think the 2013 UNDP report stated that poverty is going down in a lot of places. How much of this is thanks to aid? Difficult to say, but it most probably plays a part, along with a bunch of other things. I think linking poverty reduction to foreign aid is difficult to sustain through statistical analysis. It's one of those instances where it is better to just think about it rationally: Is giving vaccines to dying children good? Yes. Is throwing money evil dictators good? No.
Gates make a good point that aid actually has helped a lot of poor people and countries. The Marshall Plan to much of Europeand the country of Taiwan are just two examples off the top of my head where aid has done good. Sure, if you give money to a dictator of a poor country and tell him to do with it what he wants, it doesn't help the people. But like Gates says, how is giving vaccines to children that couldn't otherwise afford it (for instance) a bad thing? Maybe he goes a bit overboard saying that criticizing aid is evil though.
I think the 2013 UNDP report stated that poverty is going down in a lot of places. How much of this is thanks to aid? Difficult to say, but it most probably plays a part, along with a bunch of other things. I think linking poverty reduction to foreign aid is difficult to sustain through statistical analysis. It's one of those instances where it is better to just think about it rationally: Is giving vaccines to dying children good? Yes. Is throwing money evil dictators good? No.