Aid impedes development, it does not promote it. Discuss - Essay Example

For the purpose of this essay, development is defined as “the process of eradicating factors that bring about hindrances to social, political and economic progress. These factors include poverty, unemployment, lack of access to education and health facilities to name but a few. (Pieterse, 2001, pg 15). Development in this regard collarets with the views of Sen (2001, pg 3) that states that “development is the process of expanding the real freedom people enjoy and it requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom such as tyranny, poor economic opportunities, systematic social deprivation and neglect of public facilities” This essay will be divided into two sections.

Section one is dedicated to the understanding of the notion of aid; what it is, how it emerged and what are the factors driving its existence? Focus in section one will be on defining the term development aid, highlighting the different types of aid as well as presenting a brief history of aid. The objective of section one is to gain an in-depth understanding of the notion of development aid before scrutinising it. Section two is the crux of this essay. This section will essentially discuss the role of aid in development by presenting the views of proponents and opponents of aid.

This section will essentially highlight the view points of different scholars on the subject of development aid. The main aim of this section is to present a balanced scrutiny of the role of aid by evaluating the debates that present both positive and negative impact of development aid. Noteworthy examples of how aid has impacted positively and negatively in development will also be highlighted. These examples are meant to act as evidence of the reality of aid so as to determine whether it impedes or promotes development.

It is also in this section where alternatives to aid are briefly discussed before the conclusion of the essay is