Bill Pennington Foreign Aid for Third World Countries
As part of a thirty year plus career in international development, Bill Pennington has been variously a diplomat, aid worker, consultant and adviser to governments in South East Asia. He has designed, managed and evaluated development programs and projects in over 20 countries, working for and with government agencies, international organisations, managing contractors and non-government organisations. He continues to ask questions about why we give foreign aid, where it is used and whether it does any good. In his talk Bill provided some answers, with examples based on his personal experience.
- 0.22% of our budget goes in foreign aid. Most of the work is done by professionals.
- Much of the aid comes back to Australian contractors and farmers.
- Benefits include: 88% of one year olds immunised, 22% in 1980; 90% of school girls, 65% in 1970; 90% of people have access to clean water, 8% in 1980; child mortality down from 37% in 1990 in 17% per thousand in 2020; life expectancy up to 72.74 from 52.58 in 1960; global poverty on decline.
- Natural disasters cause food shortages. Best to send money to NGOs, e.g. Red Cross, rather than sending things.
- Australia employs Pacific Islanders to work on farms etc. They send remittances back home.
Frank Love