One of the intended outcomes of the Millennium Development Goals

One of the intended outcomes of the Millennium Development Goals was to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” in the world. However, like many international organizations and internationally-led goal, it often creates more of the problem it is supposedly trying to solve. A former US member of Congress once criticized foreign aid assistance by saying that “foreign aid is the taking of money from poor people in a rich country and giving it to rich people in a poor country.

• Consider the performance of international aid organizations, the problems that are faced, and the context of the above quote together with the following:

• What could international organizations do to actually solve some world problems like ending hunger or poverty?

• What positive outcomes could international aid cause? What unintended negative outcomes can be caused by international aid? Consider what giving something for “free” can cause…

• What improvements could be made to actually make things work?

• What are some of the problems that international aid organizations face that can or do prevent them from accomplishing their goals? These could be problem with the organizations themselves or the countries they are they are trying to help.

• What did that former member of the US Congress mean by that quote about international aid?