You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
The money given to help poor countries does not solve the problem of poverty, so rich countries should give other types of help instead. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer 1:
It is said that support funds that are given to third world countries will not solve the poverty issue and therefore developed countries should think of other kinds of help, which are more effective. To a certain point, I would agree that there should be an alternative kind of help for the poor countries, but financial support would also be needed for a short time period.
Many experts believe that financial supports that are given to poor countries are not effective and efficient; therefore there should be other kinds of help which could be considered. Firstly, it is a fact that illiteracy has become one of the major issues in poor countries, and developed countries could send some of their teachers to improve the education system there. It is hoped should the literacy rate increase, the number of unemployment will gradually reduce. Secondly, people of the poor countries are suffering due to the low quality of the health system there. Building more qualified hospitals and improving the quality of the medical staffs would be an effective way to help them. And lastly, many third world countries have a bad infrastructure and public transportation facilities. By building more roads and improving the public transports there, it is hoped that people of these poor countries would be more productive as they will have easier access to their workplaces.
It can be seen that all of the alternative ideas are long term projects, and people would only see the improvement after ten or fifteen years minimum. For a short period of time, financial aid is still needed by the third world countries; as governments could not provide decent health and education system, and many people are starving and sick. However, since corruption is also a serious problem in poor countries, strict monitoring over the financial support should be a priority, to ensure that the fund is appropriately utilised.
In conclusion, to a certain extent, I would agree that financial aids given by advanced countries to poor nations would not be the best solution in solving the poverty issue. However, since resolving poverty problem would be a long term project, financial help should also be given for a short period of time, but it should be strictly controlled.
[ Written by –Darwin Lesmana ]
Sample Answer 2:
I fully agree with the given statement as monetary help often failed to improve the condition of poor nations. So other forms of improvement schemes and help could be a better solution to help the poor countries.
It is true that donation provided by rich countries has not solved the problem of poverty in the developing country like Bhutan, Afghanistan etc. It is important to understand why rich countries provide money. The reasons behind this are to accelerate development of poor countries by establishing industries, tourism and others pre -requisites. Some of the causes for failure of donation programme are corruption, poor governance, scarcity of skilled population and lack of proper planning.
Firstly, corruption is mostly prevalent in the developing countries like Nepal, Congo etc. according to data of the Transparency International. Most importantly, corruption is deeply rooted in almost all fields like health sector, civil service etc. and exists involvement of simple clerks to high-level bureaucrats and politicians. The cause of corruption may be rooted to the lack of handsome salary, lack of severe punishments, selfishness and the slack of rules and laws etc. If money allocated for development projects is misused, then the quality of the projects reduced or it may not be finished in time. In fact, scenarios like these affect the rate of development in the developing countries.
Secondly, the sustainable and harmonious development cannot be achieved without effective and efficient administration which is lagging in the poor countries. Succeeding any projects is a daunting task for management committees. At first, the problems arise at the local levels where local people ask for unfeasible demands such as the job for each household, high compensation of lands etc. If these problems are addressed, then, other problems like the strike of employees occur or negligence of contractor occurs. Is it possible to complete projects at the specified time? No, it takes decades to complete the projects or strands in the middle forever.
Thirdly, there are problems in formulating plans and policies. Even though they are formulated, the authorities cannot implement in a scientific way. So, funds freeze for next financial year. These are only some instances how money provided by donors is used.
Education, expertise support, training, monitoring the development, conducting research, establishing factories are better alternative than giving money to the poor nations and these should be embraced by the rich nations to truly help the poor countries.
[ Written by –Basnet ]