Aid to Developing Countries

Aid to Developing Countries

1.1 Introduction

This research paper is going to analyze and evaluate why despite the billions of dollars of aid, The Democratic Republic of Congo and many other African countries with similar problems still does not improve the economy and the standard of living within the country.

Apparently, all these donations do not work at all and, therefore it is necessary to approach the problem differently and firstly solve the internal issues, because it is not important to look at how to help the developing countries, but it is important to firstly realize what is the root cause of the problem that they are suffering from, and find the solution to this problem.

If western countries keep dumping millions of dollar into the problematic countries before the internal problems are efficiently solved, it is very likely to just exacerbate the problems. There has to be a system and structure in order for the aid to have a positive effect on the country's economy rather than to complicate the situation by giving the aid to the incorrect authorities.

2.1 Overview and analysis of The Democratic Republic of Congo

The population of The Democratic Republic of Congo is almost 74 million people with an average life expectancy of about 55 years, mainly due to HIV virus. The GDP per capita of this country is $300 a year, where 70% of the population lives off under $1 a day (Congo, Democratic Republic Of The). The average growth rate in the past twenty years was 1% and 5% in the last five years, which has benefited from a recent price increase. The main exports of this country are: copper, gold, cotton, and sugar. The government has adopted a formal democracy more than a decade ago, after two decades of being a one party state ruled by the same political party and the same president (Moyo 71).

The country achieved its independency from European colonial rule more than 50 years ago and the reason why this country is used in this essay is that its characteristic and background are very similar to any other average African country. A socialist economy in the 1970´s, faced privatization in the mid 1980´s and eventually the country achieved democracy (Moyo 71). The Democratic Republic of Congo is ranked 3 out of possible 10 on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. In the 1980´s, the country had achieved a debt of $3 Billion, which was two times larger than the annual GDP and more than three times its budget for education and health care. (Congo, Democratic Republic Of The) The debt relief in the beginning of 2000 brought some benefits to what eventually caused the debt to be minimal (Moyo 71). The country is still left with the beneficiary of billions of dollars worth of donations each year. More than ten percent of the country´s GDP is gained via donations