Utilising Aid Effectiveness to Address Global Poverty and Pandemics for Inclusive Growth in Developing Countries
The global community encounters and addresses global extreme poverty and pandemics like Ebola, COVID-19, Mpox, etc. Global poverty has reduced because of the growth achievements made by India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). However, extreme poverty persists in Africa where this researcher hails from. In Africa, poverty is a widespread phenomenon, with about a third of the continent’s population living in extreme poverty. The World Bank predicts that Sub-Saharan Africa will be home to the majority of the world’s poor by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic deepened poverty across all countries and regions. However, the global economy is predicted to grow. Africa now faces yet another pandemic, the Mpox that seems to be under control. Official Development Assistance (ODA) is significantly helping Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to cope with growing development demands from citizens. ODA impacts extreme poverty in numerous ways, although empirical evidence is required to claim causality. However, the fundamental question is not whether ODA works, but rather how can it be made more effective and efficient? Without peace and stability, fragile states cannot grow their economies to embark on sustainable development. Stability cannot be guaranteed amidst widespread poverty. Pandemics add even more worries to poverty situations when they occur. The extreme poor really suffer the most during pandemics. Therefore, pandemics, instability, fragility, and poverty seem to be positively correlated and they are symbiotic. Hence, they need to be addressed urgently and expeditiously as a global public good. Thankfully, global attention concertedly focused on ending the COVID-19 and the most recent Mpox pandemics so that states return to a linear development trajectory. Advanced economies need to forgive poor countries’ debts because some of the debts have made no quantum impact on national, regional, or global development. In some instances, political elites benefit from donors’ monies more than the poor people themselves. Developed States that provide ODA need to increase their share to assist LDCs and Middle-Income Countries (MICs) to achieve strategic pro-poor and inclusive growth to help alleviate extreme poverty and engage in wealth creation. The provision of development assistance does not mean that developing states must singularly rely on ODA. They need to become innovative to grow their own economies and remain accountable and or transparent in handling development assistance. In some instances, donors need to deploy their citizens or nationals and companies in poor states to implement infrastructural development projects and to address economic growth challenges in receiving states so that the assistance does not easily get corrupted. Receiving countries need to supervise the project and program implementation processes by those foreign individuals and companies to mutually prevent corruption. In line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, institutions are deep determinants of growth. To alleviate poverty, developing states need to build inclusive and effective institutions that will protect the rule of law, property rights, ensure macroeconomic stability, as well as provide public goods and services, and invest in health, education, food security, peace, and infrastructure development to achieve sustainable growth. Both donors and recipients need to target development assistance towards economic growth corridors to help enhance and ignite economic growth. This might better serve the needs of the most excluded and vulnerable.
Keywords: inclusive growth, global poverty, aid effectiveness, developing countries, global pandemics.
