Selfish Role Played by International Agencies in Developing Countries Essay

Introduction

International agencies are fundamental units of international life. Often, it is hard for instance to talk about the sovereignty of a nation without it being accredited by the United Nations. International organizations have diverse goals that they aim to achieve. Such purposes might consist of environmental interests, political interests, social interests or even economic interests. Notably, it is vividly evident that the gap that exists between the nations developing and the developed has subjugated international relations as well as diplomacy over a period. The niche between the developing and developed countries has resulted in capital inflow from the designed to the developing, i.e., Africa to assist them in curbing the existing problem and bridging the gap between those nations (Andrews, N., 2009). However, In Africa, they are still experiencing ineffective foreign assistance mainly due to the corruption among the African and some developing national leaders. Mostly, these leaders use the funds provided to satisfy their personal needs instead of using the capital contributed to the aid of those who require assistance. Hence, little change is occurring in the developing nations, most of which still experience small growth rates (Freeman, R. B., 2004). This phenomenon shows that the people receiving the funds are not working as being part of the solution instead they are resulting to the increase in the gap that exists between the developing as well as the developed nations. Also, International agencies at some point propagate their agendas paying no attention to the needs of the people they are meant to assist. Notably, the international aid is playing a role in supporting in the establishment of the global system; however, the selfish character they represent does not allow any developments to take place (Bradford, C., 2007). The paper will discuss the selfish role played by International Agencies in developing countries, indicating the challenges and past ways used to rectify the problems, current policies and recommendations to aid solve the issue at hand.

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History of the Challenge and Past Approaches to Rectify the Challenge

International agencies began in the 19th Century when the global system of states (mostly those state within Europe) become stable to be able to offer support to other countries. Notably, the international agencies grew due to the rise of problematic situations that concerned many states and a means to resolve the issues had to be created (Freeman, R. B., 2004). As time passed by it became clear that the international organizations were not only required by the developed states but they need to offer assistance to the developing nations. Henceforth international agencies have resulted to assisting the developing countries to be able to bridge the gap between the developing and developed nations, showcasing a feature of maturing civilizations among the leaders and citizens in the different states. However, there's been a challenge among the international agencies as developing countries still require assistance up to date. Consequently, the problem is ancient, but there have been prior methods to aid curb the challenge (Bradford, C., 2007).

International agencies possessed the neo-imperial character where they acted for the interest of the First World War at the expense of the third world countries. International organizations looked down upon the sovereignty of the promising global state, by wanting to achieve their own goals at the cost of what the third world countries people are experiencing.

Poverty is one of the oldest and most significant problems in Africa. It's evident to state that the continent has the most widespread and extreme poverty. However, the engagement of international agencies has done little to improve the condition. Notably, this is a challenge as the International agencies are yet to accomplish their goal (Hopkin, J., et al., 2007). In contrary Mali levels of poverty increased after IMF and the World Bank altered policies that affected the cotton sector and resulted in people in that industry to end up in debt. Also, in Kenya, once the SAPs was introduced it weakened the Kenyan shillings resulting in incrementing poverty as people had to be retrenched and the government spent less money.

Since the old-age, most Africans, have been dependent on aid, notably without support most of their yearly budgetary commitments cannot be fulfilled. However, aid failure has not begun recently; it has existed, the challenges that result to failure in aid are mostly found within the recipient country of the aid and obvious weaknesses such as the unfair global economic structure (Jochnick, C., 1999). Also, western NGOs have dominated developing countries but have slowly forgotten their roles and end up engaging in other activities at the expense of addressing economic, collective and cultural rights. For instance, international agencies involved in corrupt activities, some of these activities include the provision of fake and unwanted goods in the markets mostly because the developing countries cannot speak out as they are receiving assistance. Unfortunately, the donors manipulate the macroeconomy or political outcomes in some of the developing nations receiving the aid (Jochnick, C., 1999).

In the past, International agencies in Africa, in reality, tend to protect their interest first and of their mother country. Hence, such organizations goals scarcely address the issues of the developing countries in which they operate. Instead, it is the promoter country that incurs the cost of running these international agencies. There has been a significant challenge over a period, for instance, research shows that despite Africa being treated as a recipient content it spends funds servicing its BWI loans than the actual amount of money received. Also, another challenge occurs when international agencies suggest the devaluing of currencies, which end up eroding the wealth and buying the power of the people in developing countries.

Past Approaches

International agencies have amended some economic policies to deal with the financial issues. For instance, agreeing to have projects monitored and evaluated to ensure proper utilization of funds. The World Bank of IMF has a place in the finance ministry to oversee any financial malpractices that might occur (Peet, R., 2009).

Also, many other policies were put in place and implemented to prevent the self-role played by international agencies. For instance, to avoid the over-reliance that has resulted in continuous intervention by aids, the international agencies were to provide permanent solutions like the creation of highways, power plants, and telecommunications. Often, this prevents the un-development on the third world countries. For African countries to effectively use the use the aid provided, they need to site the critical policies as well as measures that can help in the absorption of higher aid levels (Peet, R., 2009).

Another approach applied, was ensuring that the International agencies policies were only aimed at assisting the developing countries to avoid organizations that to benefit from the scenarios. International agencies, involving the African leaders, solved most of the challenges as the leaders knew what was best for their people and the best approaches to be employed to assist their countries. Also, this resulted in cooperation which benefited both the International agencies and the people in the developing nations as their needs were met. International agencies acted as peacemakers in some countries like Congo and Somalia, the stopping of the war, allows such countries to develop on their own (Murphy, J., 2005).

Overview of Current Policy and Programming Approaches

A policy is the rational system of values that guide decisions to be able to achieve sane outcomes. In other words, it is a set of rules that govern an organization towards achieving its objectives. Mainly, a policy assists in decision making in the organization. Foremost, for theories of international agencies to work effectively, African countries or the recipients of aid are expected to possess specific resources to make the help they receive more effective. For instance, public investment programs, transparency, medium fiscal programming, public expenditure reviews and donor support for government programs. Often, having these things in place enables the international agencies to attain their objectives. Secondly, according to Andrews, 2009 aid can have its efficacy levels higher when the donors cultivate a good relationship with the recipient country (Murphy, J., 2005).

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness policy outlines that for the impact of aid to be increased to attain various achievements. These include minimization of poverty and inequality, the increment in growth and attainment of the MDGs goals the countries must focus on the donor harmonization, focus on country ownership, alignment to the recipients or aid receiver strategies for national development, and presence of accountability, mutual between the donors and partner nations. Also, the High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra outlines that there are obstacles that prevent effective utilization of aid. Concerning this, the Canadian aid policy stated that it would support fewer countries. However, the strategy aims to increase transparency and certainty of the help (Shah, A., & Khan, K., 2015).

International agencies policies aimed at ensuring that the developing countries receive assistance, i.e., financial aid to bridge the niche between the developing and the developed countries. Also, their policies aimed at promoting sustainable economic development, reduce poverty (Shah, A., & Khan, K., 2015).

China policy aims at providing various forms of support to the developing countries. For instance, economic, human resource, technical, administrative support and technical assistance to receipt countries. The Chinese Financial resources support all these forms of support for foreign aid. The Chinese country aid policy indicates that recipient countries can receive grants, interest-free loans, and concessional loans. However, the system is guided by the principle of mutual benefit and equality (Zheng, Y., 2016, August).

The World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank programmes focus on adding financial resources to developing countries, in forms like 100% debt cancellation of outstanding debts especially among the 18 poorest countries. The World banks six guiding principles to be precise, client orientation, results orientation, cost-effectiveness, selectivity, financial integrity, and partnership, acts as ways International agencies can aid African countries to be able to develop their own countries. International agencies to work effectively, current policies indicate that the developing countries need to employ transparency and be accountable for their actions. Often, this aids both parties to work effectively towards attaining a common goal (Williams, O., 2004).

Research Methodology

The desktop research was used as a significant source of information during the investigation to obtain relevant data. It provided valuable information on the how to address the policy challenge. Scientific articles, Scholarly journals, online-newspapers, academic papers, and books were used, and all sources and references acknowledged accordingly. To ensure that adequate data were collected, all the information was obtained was thoroughly scrutinized and cross-checked for correctness and comparison, to ensure that only relevant data is used. The data collection method requires for one to have complete knowledge on the topic to acquire the required...