Does giving international aid sometimes cause more harm than good?

I agree with the statement that giving international aid can sometimes cause dependance and more harm than good but I would argue that aid can exponentially help develop and improve countries if it is used in the right way.

I think if aid is used in the wrong place and time it can cause governments and people to be too reliant on it. For example Food parcels are helpful in the short term but aiding farmers is a long term solution for communities and can help them a lot more. Aid focused on only short term solutions doesn’t allow a country to recover, develop or become able to help itself and provide basic resources for itself. This aid can close opportunities for businesses or farmers by taking away markets and incentive as communities could be reliant on aid instead.

In my opinion, once the suitable time and place for aid to be used is found, aid can become very effective and help accelerate a country’s development economically and systematically. Aid can be used to open doors and opportunities and create areas for businesses or governments to expand. Aid cannot only help a country survive and recover from a disaster but also encourage it to develop further. Aid can give countries the extra ‘boost’ needed to overcome perennial challanges. This can be seen in the transformation of South Korea from receiving aid to giving it because they used aid effectively. They first used it for short term and basic needs then went on to use it for factory building to make money in the future and to create incentive for communities to help rebuild.

Some of my peers may argue that finding the right time and place is too hard and that aid does more harm than good in a lot of situations. I think there are many ways to find the apt time and place and that there may be a lot of situations where harm is done but more with successful results. A way to find where to focus aid is through the community that needs the help. They understand where they are struggling and need the help because they live through those challenges on a daily basis. They also know the areas they can improve without help and where opportunities exist for them to develop and solve the problem if they are well educated.

In conclusion I think that international aid can cause harm if it is focused on the wrong areas and methods and if it isn’t long-term.