The Case for Global Aid
Arushi Katyal, student advocacy volunteer with Asha for Education and the St. Louis chapter of RESULTS
Article recognized by Dr. Madhukar Pai
I started volunteering with RESULTS four years ago, a grassroots organization advocating legislation that supports measures to end poverty. Covid-19 led us to focus almost completely on gaining funding for various global health programs, so we wrote op-eds and letters to the editors in support of an increase in funding. We wrote in support of GAVI, a vaccine alliance that supports access to vaccines for underprivileged children, and global relief packages to support ending hunger and international development projects. As I read through the op-eds in support of global aid, I found comments on the websites they were published in which people criticized the concept of helping other nations in this time, claiming it was “not our responsibility”, or even a “waste of resources”.
The same people who believe spending a small portion of our money to ensure global prosperity is a “waste of resources'' ignore that we invest a much larger amount of our budget into the military because of the threats global instability pose to us. For example, the United States invests 1% of its budget in Global Aid and over 50% of it in the military. If we were to neglect providing global aid during this difficult time, we would not be able to ignore the aftermath. South Asian countries like Afghanistan and India have been hit extremely hard by the Coronavirus lockdown. Here, we hear stories of single mothers with five children unable to afford medical treatment for their newborn baby. Children in overcrowded slums subsisting on one meal a day. Farmer suicides rates increasing due to overwhelming debts. The New York Times article “The Lockdown Killed My Father” : Farmer Suicides Add to India’s Virus Misery, explains how the lockdown has nullified the income of farmers and other low wage laborers and increased farmer suicide rates. The article “Virus Trains : How Lockdown Chaos Spread Covid-19 Across India” documents how workers were forced to journey back to their hometown on communal trains which were breeding grounds for the virus after losing their jobs from lockdown. The NPR Article titled “‘I Cry At Night’ Afghan Mothers Struggle To Feed Their Children in Pandemic” documents the hard blows Afghanistan’s fragile economy faced and sunk vulnerable people even deeper into poverty. Alarming predictions show that across the world, global hunger could double, 80 million children will be at risk for contracting preventable diseases, and 2.3 million mothers could die due to a lack of resources.
We see these situations as pitiful, but they are also dangerous. Although we may not feel it yet, the impact of this turmoil will have consequences later. Afterall, the root of violence is instability and poverty. For example, terrorism in Yemen has been fueled by the poverty and lack of job prospects. Across the Middle East into Pakistan, most refugees are recruited from slums and terrorist camps and are bribed with room and board for their children. Al-Quaeda, the extremist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks in 2001, even advocated terrorism to its participants as a response to “humiliation and poverty”. Operatives of other extremist groups are also instructed to target poverty stricken areas to recruit individuals. A lack of stability brought on by poverty prompts people to believe that the current system is flawed and leads them to embrace radical ideology. This is why young men in poor areas are drawn to terrorism – because it provides them with an illusion of power and some financial benefits in a world where they have no other opportunities. If we neglect providing foreign aid in this time, the pandemic will raise a generation of impoverished, hopeless children who will be at a greater risk of being radicalized by these forces. That hungry child whom we ignore will be recruited by an extremist group, and become a threat to the world. And we will then spend larger portions of our budget, countless lives and resources in order to stop the radicalized men created by poverty.
It would be a more effective and less painful strategy to stop these young children from becoming radicalized in the first place by eliminating poverty. This will restore stability to countries in need by providing education, infrastructure and support. For example, countries in Sub Saharan Africa that received AIDS relief and contributions to other health programs were more stable and had increased quality of governance and a more civil society. Job training programs in the Middle East and Afghanistan allow thousands of people to be employed and keep them away from terrorism. In all, extreme poverty has fallen from 30% of the population in 1990 to 8% in 2019 and maternal and child mortality have been cut in half. The increased stability resulting from these measures deters crime and terrorism.
While these are long term benefits to providing global aid, there are immediate benefits as well. If the markets and workforce of countries affected by Coronavirus are weakened, and since our world depends on these countries economically, our own prosperity will decline. For example, China and Germany are amongst the greatest exporters in the world, and if their production capabilities were affected, the global economy would suffer alongside theirs. The pharmaceutical industry in India manufactures the bulk of the worlds’ supply of medicines. If this sector were hurt due to Coronavirus, the global healthcare system would be hurt as well.
Although we may feel overwhelmed by the turmoil in our countries right now, losing sight of our interconnectedness will make us ignore issues in other parts of the world which might have major consequences. Therefore, the money we invest in global health is certainly not a “waste of resources”; it is an investment in our world.
About the Author
Arushi Katyal is a Junior at John Burroughs High School in St. Louis, Missouri.
She is a volunteer with the St. Louis chapter of RESULTS, an advocacy organization that supports legislation that fights Poverty, and also volunteers with Asha for Education, which supports education initiatives in India.