One of the most common topics in the context of addressing international issues is "Official Development Assistance," commonly known asODA(in Japanese history)Official Development Assistance)This is what it is called. always a topic of discussion when discussing measures to deal with conflict, disaster damage, or long-term development issues such as poverty, health care, and education problems.ODAThe first is the "high income country to low-income country" program, which is a relatively good idea. Relatively good in terms of support from high-income countries to low-income countries.impressionAlthough "support" is well-established as a "support" for the company, the reality is that it faces a variety of problems. In this articleODAThe report will address the actual conditions and problems of the

Pakistan after the floods. EURelief supplies delivered fromEU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid  / Flickr [CC BY 2.0 DEED ])

History of International Assistance

In order to analyze contemporary international assistance, we will first outline the history and development of international assistance.

Support has always taken many forms. Religious organizations and nongovernmental organizations (NGO), foundations, and wealthy individuals have a long history of supporting others for various reasons. Nations have been a major party to this support, and have always provided "support" to other nations in various forms. Many of these "supports" have been given to allied countries in the name of "support" in order to guarantee their own security, to promote their own trade, to gather diplomatic support, and so on,strategicThe current system of international assistance by states can be said to have been formed during the World War II period. The current system of international assistance by states can be said to have been formed during the World War II period.

World War II draws to a close.1944At the Bretton Woods Conference in 1964World BankandInternational Monetary Fund (IMF)The system was conceived to support the international economy on both axes. As part of this system, the postwar reconstructionInternational Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)was established as an institution from the early days of the World Bank Group and initially operated primarily for the purpose of rebuilding Europe. HoweverIBRDis somewhat different from so-called literal support because it is primarily a loan.

Also, the U.S.1948in the yearMarshall Planand provided assistance to European countries to rebuild their states. This attitude of the U.S. toward the Soviet UnionspeculationThere were Initially, Eastern countries, including the Soviet Union, were included in the Marshall Plan's support, but the Soviet Union accepted it as part of U.S. imperialism.refusalThe United States and Japan were in the midst of a Cold War. This ultimately led to the fixation of the Cold War structure between East and West. Conversely, the Soviet Union was trying to strengthen the unity of the Eastern countries.1949in the yearEconomic Mutual Assistance Council (COMECON)was formed. Initially, support was given to European countries among the Eastern countries. At this point, non-European countries such as Asia and Africa, with the exception of some countries such as Japan, received little support, and this had a significant impact on the disparity that laterhow to look at something (e.g. noh, train schedule)There are also 

The DAC high-level meeting (OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED ])

1948The Marshall Plan of 1949 led to the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEECwas established. TheOEECas the predecessor of1961In 1985, the United States and Canada were added to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).OECDThe establishment of the "European Union (EU)" (the "European Union") has transformed the country from a European-driven one to a more global one.OECDschool (e.g. of ikebana)1960In 2006, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), and established Official Development Assistance (ODA).ODA) coordination and rule-making activities.ODAindicates word or phrase being definedDACIt is defined by the government as "government assistance that promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries.1969In the yearODA to "gold standardIn other words, it set the core of foreign aid and remains the main source of development assistance.

1970Based on the recommendations of experts at the International Development Assistance Conference in 2006, developing countries (includingnote 1) to finance the necessary funds for proper development.DACMember countries areODAto their country's gross national income (GNI(Against) the0.7%A numerical target was set for the contribution. This isUnited Nations General Assembly resolutionsIt was also adopted as a benchmark and remains a benchmark to this day.

Lack of and bias in ODA

ODAIs the system of "is it working properly today? Answer.NOIt must be said. First of all, there is an overwhelming lack of support in absolute terms.2022The data for 2006 show that the above-mentionedGNIratio0.7%, that isODAThe amount was achieved by30We're in a country.DACOnly Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Sweden among participating countries5counter for countries This was only the case for the This is2022The year was not particularly small,1The same was true two years ago and similar levels before that. As the amount of support1The United States, which is also ranked No.GNIIn terms of ratio0.22%The first is.30Even when averaged across all countries0.36%and0.7%It can be seen that we are far from the goal of Moreover, as will be discussed in more detail in later chapters, this includes irregularly large amounts of aid, such as aid to Ukraine, which in past years has often been a bit lower.

OECD.dataCreated based on

In addition to the low volume, there is also the issue of whether aid money is being allocated appropriately when looking at the problems the world is facing, i.e., whether there is a bias between the need for aid and the supply of aid. The reality is that there is a large bias. A few examples of the large bias in support (see below).*2(See Section 2.1.2.).

2003year due to the U.S. invasion.Iraq War (2003-)In the year that the war began against Iraq, a total of approximately34hundred million6US$10 million was supported.2The amount of aid to Ethiopia, which is in second place, is about4hundred million9US$10 million,3Against Afghanistan, which is ranked No. 1, about4hundred million5The amount was US$10 million. It is important to mention here, however, that other major conflicts were also unfolding in this year. For exampleDemocratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)Then, by conflict2002counter for years (following a number in the hito-futa-mi counting system)11By March, it was said to be the largest number since World War II.330that 10,000 people lost their lives, most of them due to disease and hunger.reportThe amount of aid to the DRC has been Nevertheless, the amount of aid to the DRC is7Rank.1hundred million8The fact that the amount is US$10 million shows how skewed the support is.

Another recent example.2022In 2006, total emergency aid to Ukraine amounted to about43hundred million9The amount was US$10 million.2Afghanistan, which is ranked No. 1, with about38hundred million8The amount of the loans was US$10 million,3Yemen, which is ranked No. 1, with about27hundred million5The figure is US$10 million. While the number of deaths alone is not comparable, it is only2022counter for years (following a number in the hito-futa-mi counting system)6When you consider that as of March, more people died in the conflict in Myanmar than died in Ukraine.It was a lot.Myanmar. However, to Myanmar2022The amount of support for the year was23400 million in the second place3The total amount of aid to the Ukrainian government is approximately US$10 million.10-th (e.g. one fifth)1The result of this remarkable support for Ukraine was often criticized by African countries at international conferences as a "double standard". The donor country's significant support for Ukraine has often been criticized by African countries at international conferences as a "double standard," and the donor country's position on the issue has been criticized by the United States and other donor countries.blameThe company is doing so.

Shelters provided to displaced Iraqis with British assistance (DFID - UK Department for International Development  / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED]) 

A similar trend can be observed in long-term development assistance. The proportion of aid to countries with moderate levels of poverty is higher than that of long-term development assistance to the poorest countries, where the need for aid is supposed to be permanently higher.dataThere are also For example.2021Only a small amount of German aid to the poorest countries in 200613%The results of the survey were as follows. This suggests that aid is being used strategically to gain political support and to secure good terms for investment and trade.

Another aspect to analyze is the use bias.2000Almost every year since 1949, a large percentage of humanitarian aid money has beenWorld Food Program (World Food Programme)The most recent distribution was made to the2022Of all emergency assistance in the yearabout34%andWorld Food ProgrammeThe company was provided with aWorld Food Programmeis working to save the world's people from hunger and has been recognized for his2020He was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. HoweverWorld Food Programmewas initially linked to supporting the U.S. economy by purchasing U.S. agricultural products in the course of providing assistance.blameThe food industry has been a major source of income for many years. While there are a variety of issues around the world that need attention, and food relations is a very large issue, the fact that it is so heavily skewed suggests that some arbitrariness may have intervened in the budget allocation.

The reality is that a large support gap is occurring in this insufficient amount of support.

WFP relief supplies for storm damage in Haiti (United Nations Photo  / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED])

Assistance that does not reach local communities but stays within high-income countries

So what other problems are there? Countries areODAof the target value.GNIratio0.7%One problem is that in many cases, the aid money is not spent in low-income countries, but in high-income countries, and in many cases, it is paid to the country itself.2011Since the year2021During the year, the Global South (*3The direct aid received by the countries in theODAAverage of total40%The reality is that this is not healthy support. This is not a sound support system. One of the reasons for this is that the name of the program is "theRefugee AssistanceIn the "in" category, the "in" category is the "out" category. Examples exist of aid to refugee aid organizations in their own countries and to refugee aid agencies in other high-income countries to fund the support of refugees accepted into their countries. For example.2022In the United Kingdom in 2006ODAThe total amount of3-th (e.g. one fifth)1were used to assist refugees in the country. In recent years, this problem became especially apparent during the refugee outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Another example is the budget for training and facility operation in Japan by the agency responsible for support.ODAIn some cases, it is converted as For example, in Japan, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICAThe training expenses for trainees accepted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan and a part of the project to accept foreign students by the MEXT are also included.ODAat one's expenseContains.The same is true in the United Kingdom. The same is also true in the UK for training fees and international students.ODA(before a negative form) even (e.g. "not even a single person")Conversion.These are, of course, not necessarily indirectly related to assistance to low-income countries, but the cost of theseODABy converting as,ODAA large portion of the "money" is used within the home country and returned to the home economy. 

There are also other reasons that keep them in high-income countries. That is the medical sector. This is a problem that has existed for some time, but has become especially pronounced with the coronavirus epidemic.2019The spread of the new coronavirus since 2006 has resulted in a large amount of support. The result,ODAThe total international value ofnew recordachieved.

However, it is difficult to believe that the record highs recorded at face value do not translate into real international support. So, while there may have been an increase at face value, behind the scenes, high-income countries are buying too many extra vaccines from pharmaceutical companies for their own use, and the expiration of those vaccines is looming,ODAThe aspect that they were "disposing of" in the name ofreportbeing made. Vaccine.ODACounting in the name ofDACby ruleI got to be recognized.. However, some of these vaccines that were about to expire arrived in Africa and could not be used before the expiration date and had to be disposed of in Africa. In addition, the recipient country had a problem with the expiration date issue, and the vaccine "ODAIn many cases, the government refused to provide the "Mere Old Man" with the vaccine. Furthermore, high-income countries paid more than the actual cost paid to purchase the vaccine.ODAhas also been counted.reportThe company is now in the process of developing a new business model. This is why it has beenGNVoftenpointing outAs we have seen, in the end, the pockets of certain pharmaceutical companies and industrialists who research and develop vaccines and test kits are likely to be enriched.

A vaccine for the new coronavirus delivered to Ethiopia by the German government (UNICEF Ethiopia / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED])

Support that reaches the local community but is ineffective or counterproductive

In the previous section, we pointed out the problem of aid not reaching the local communities. Even if the aid reaches the local community, there are cases where the effect is not so great, or where the aid itself has the opposite effect. Let us first introduce some examples of ineffective aid.

One isTied AidSimply put, it is a type of assistance in which the donor country designates a company or organization to be responsible for providing support, which is often a company or organization in the donor country. In other words, for example, if a donor country provides assistance to develop infrastructure in a recipient country, a company from the donor country is designated as the company that undertakes the infrastructure development.

Infrastructure remains in the recipient country, but may be very expensive for the recipient country as a result of having to maintain it at the unit cost of high-income countries. Moreover.ODAwould be partially returned to the home companies and to the home country. In addition, a portion of theODAis a loan, the recipient country must make debt service payments on something that is very expensive for the recipient country. Because this form of assistance is condemnable, it is ostensibly being eliminatedMotion.The "Tied Assistance" is a term used to refer to the assistance provided by the government. However, there are many cases where aid that is ostensibly declared to be untied aid is still, in effect, an appearance of untied aid. For example, the Canadian government has2017The year's assistance was100%While they declare that it is not tied aid, when viewed in monetary terms, the overall aid95%was paid to a Canadian company.reportThere is a

Japan is also the first country to extend tied aid, and while many other countries publicize their partnerships in technical cooperation, Japan does not.postureand lack of transparency. This may suggest that aid is still provided informally but with strings attached. It is pointed out that such tied aid is very inefficient for recipient countries in terms of costs. In Japan, suchODAAmong the firms and organizations undertaking the project, "ODAmoneyand "ODAbusinessThere is even a slang term for it.

In many cases, the purchase of food and other goods is also tied to the purchase of the goods, but if aid to distant countries is contingent on the purchase of goods from companies in the home country, the transportation costs will be high. In fact, U.S. foreign food aid expendituresApprox. 65%is accounted for as "transportation costs," which can be viewed as extra costs that would not be incurred if the product were purchased from nearby locations, and not only is this inefficient in terms of cost, but also buying nearby would create an economic cycle around the local area and provide more effective support. In addition, due to greenhouse gas emissions in shipboard transportationglobal warmingThe negative impact is significant, as it can lead to such problems as the following.

JICAThe bridge was built in Sri Lanka with the support ofMahinda Rajapaksa  / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED ])

ODAThe problem has also been pointed out that the government side receiving a Not a very large percentage, for example,ODACorruption and fraud are also taking place in the process ofreportThe following is an example of a project that is being done and is reaching the local community, but is not being used appropriately.

In addition, when the will of the people who truly need assistance and the will of the government of the recipient country, which determines how much and in what form they will receive the assistance, diverge, the government's will is respected. However, there are cases in which aid is not as effective as it could be, even if it is given. In other words, the head of the government of the recipient country gives an order to the donor country, and the donor country responds to the request. However, it is a project for the political benefit of the heads of government of the recipient country themselves, and not for the actual needs of the people.unequal toThe first is the "the" one. One example is the support that China is providing toStadium Constructionsupport. This is building many stadiums in low-income countries that are not truly necessary for the people's daily needs. Moreover, despite the official proposal of "no conditions" for this construction, the government has been urging the recipient countries to break off diplomatic relations with Taiwan.demandIn addition, the company's pursuit of its own national interests can be seen in such actions as the following.

There are also cases in which providing assistance can have the opposite effect on the recipient country. For example, in 2009, the Japanese government and the Brazilian government led an agreement to provide assistance in Mozambique as part of their ODA.Pro Savanna BusinessThe project was a project to develop agriculture in the Nacala Corridor region of northern Mozambique. This project targeted the Nacala Corridor region in northern Mozambique, and was intended to reduce poverty among small farmers, ensure food security, and develop agriculture in the tropical savanna region that would contribute to economic development through private investment. However, the project was to proceed with only limited information to the local people, and much was hidden from them. Although the project was intended to be a triangular cooperation between Japan, Brazil, and Mozambique, it was in fact the result of bilateral diplomacy between Japan and Brazil, and was not intended to be a means to combat unemployment in Brazil or to secure inexpensive food for both countries.speculationThe government of Mozambique was only selected after the fact as the target of the project. As a result, small farmers in Mozambique flooded the country with accusations that the project constituted a plundering of their farmland. As a result, the project was abandoned in the middle of the road after a campaign of opposition.

The signing ceremony of the Strategic Partnership between the United States and Thailand (USAID Asia  / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED ])

This is a bit of a departure from the state-supported aspect of the project so far,NGOand others have disrupted the textile industry in recipient countries by providing used clothing aid to African countries.ExampleThere also exist The donation of used clothing and the resale of used clothing at low prices by large countries have resulted in the loss of jobs for textile workers in the country, causing them to lose their jobs and fall into poverty. When the recipient countries tried to control the inflow of used clothing, the U.S. government responded with a letter of protest, stating, "The U.S. government is not going to allow us to do this.pressureIn some cases, the cost of aid has been as high as $3,000,000. In some cases, such easy aid has worsened rather than improved the situation in a country.

Is ODA the perfect solution?

So far.ODAWe have outlined some of the problems with the In theODAvolume has increased significantly and is distributed more in line with needs, andODAIf more and more of the "good" aid is reaching the local communities in the right form and is used efficiently, will we achieve the kind of world that foreign aid aims for? No, this is not the case. In particular, emergency aid is expected to serve only as a temporary band-aid. In other words, it does not directly lead to solutions to fundamental problems such as poverty. While some long-term development assistance can help to ameliorate fundamental problems, it is not always possible to provide assistance in the form ofdependenceThe support itself is not sustainable, as it is not always possible to provide the same level of support to the same people. 

Each country also has its own domestic causes of poverty, but a major factor in poverty is the unfair global trade system that favors high-income countries and their corporations. In other words, it has beenGNVAs has been pointed out by theunfair tradeand tax havens.illegal capital outflowIt is difficult to solve the fundamental problem without solving the problem of Such2Dots have historically spreaddisparityThis is a major factor in the also prominently highlighted in the event of a global crisis such as the coronadisparityThe problems discussed in this chapter are a kind of exploitation of low-income countries by high-income countries. While the aid discussed here is structurally provided by high-income countries to low-income countries, the problems discussed in this chapter represent a kind of exploitation of low-income countries by high-income countries. We need to work seriously to solve this distorted structural problem,ODAThe role that can be played by the company will be very limited. The road to solving deep-seated problems is a long one.

note 1　usualGNVThen words like developing and developed countries arenot usedThe words "low-income and high-income countries" are used, butODAIn the context of the officially developing countries (developing countries), so that's what we're going with here.

*2　Here, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHAof theFinancial Tracking Services (FTS)The data in the following table refer to the data in the following table. These figures are only the amount of assistance provided through the UN system and2Please note that this does not include all assistance between countries. The bias discussed above is based on the assumption that the data is biased toward aid to certain countries. In addition, the data presented here is for emergency assistance only, and may not include long-term assistance in monetary terms. 

*3　Global Southis a polysemous term, but hereOECDThe data is used as is based on the report of the

Writer: Yusui Sugita

Graphic: Yusui Sugita

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