Should Developing Countries Depend so Much on External Aid or Should They Be Self Reliant in Their Attempt to Develop?

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In order to understand why developing countries depend on foreign aid to begin with, it is important to fathom their state and examine what they are. Developing countries, also known as third world countries or Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDC’s), are countries that are characterised by high levels of illiteracy, disease, population growth rate, unemployment, infant mortality rate, external debt, poor sanitation, low life expectancy, low per capita income, low Gross National Income (GNI) and unstable governments among other features. They are said to be in “transition” - trying to attain economic stability, higher living standards and technological advancement as well as alleviating poverty in order to reach the levels of ‘First World’ countries. Their industry is almost entirely reliant on primary products which are exported to developed countries in return for finished products. Examples of LEDC’s typified by low income, human resource weakness and economic vulnerability are Angola and Zambia in Africa, Bangladeshi and Yemen in Asia, Solomon Islands in the Australia/Pacific region and Haiti in the Caribbean (Economic and social council of the United Nations). Globalisation and intervention from major international bodies (such as the UN) have made it possible for More Economically Developed Countries (MEDC’s) to sympathise with developing countries and make efforts to provide assistance to them through foreign aid. Foreign aid or External Aid is any form of assistance that one country gives to another including donations of money, goods, services and technical expertise which can either be by bilateral agreement- between two countries, or multilateral - involving a group of countries (McCormick). Most developed countries give aid to enhance developmental projects in the less developed recipient countries. Over the past fifty years, for instance, over

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