Philanthropy Action

Category: Foreign Aid

There are 52 entries in this category.

Aug 05, 2008

New AIDS Numbers Reveal Past Inaccuracies, and Conflict Over Best Approaches

The newest CDC data on HIV/AIDS infections in the United States suggest that the agency has underestimated new US infections by 40 percent since the late 1990s. The agency nonetheless asserts that the number of annual new has remained stable since the late nineties. The UN likewise says that new infection rates worldwide remained stable this year overall, with decreases in some countries (such as Uganda and Ethiopia) offset by increases in others (such as China, Russia and Vietnam). The conclusion being drawn from the evidence is that prevention efforts are failing the vulnerable.

Jul 07, 2008

Bush Proposes Tracking Mechanism for Aid Pledges

A mechanism for tracking whether members of the G8 are keeping up with their pledged contributions toward development in impoverished countries would be a step in the right direction for injecting more accountability into foreign aid.

Jul 03, 2008

More Young People Looking for Post-College Stints in the Volunteer Corps

More recent college graduates are applying to join volunteer organizations such as Teach for America or the Peace Corps. Yet in the last few months two relevant stories have come out about the Peace Corps specifically, both of which suggest that its historical reliance on young volunteers has played a role in the organizations’ reputation as a particularly ineffective conduit for humanitarian relief.

May 22, 2008

Silver Linings and Dark Clouds Surround the Food Crisis

It seems that everyone except for the US Congress has woken up to the food crisis. The topic has made the cover of many magazines, and is featured almost daily in major national newspapers. Most debate has now turned to the causes and solutions, if any, to the situation. While there are some silver linings, the biggest dark cloud of all is centered over Washington, DC this week where the US Congress will overturn a presidential veto and pass the 2008 farm bill.

May 20, 2008

Interview: AIDS Journalist Helen Epstein on The Invisible Cure

Philanthropy Action sat down with Helen Epstein, author of The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight Against AIDS, to discuss her book, Uganda, and how Western dollars could best make a difference in the African AIDS crisis.

Apr 16, 2008

Global Food Inflation: What Can Be Done?

Rapidly rising food prices around the world are capturing front page headlines daily. The problems in the agricultural sector of been decades in the making and will take several years to fix.The biggest danger is that in the rush to short-term fixes, we’ll simply create more distortions that don’t deal with the real issues and make future food crises even worse.

Apr 07, 2008

Grim News From Afghanistan

Poppy cultivation and wasted foreign aid are like twin sisters perpetuating the cycle of poverty within Afghanistan.

Mar 27, 2008

Are they Venture Philanthropists, Philantropreneurs or Philanthropcapitalists? Ask the Times

The debate about how business thinking should be applied to philanthropy has been circulating in the nonprofit sector for nearly a decade.

Mar 17, 2008

Top Five: Books on Foreign Aid

The listed books provide a complete picture of the good and bad of foreign aid. They are readable and contradictory, alternately scathing in their reprobation and hopeful in the possibility of improvement. Though some are shriller than others, the collective take-away is that foreign aid is simultaneously necessary and deeply needful of improvement.

Feb 25, 2008

China’s Role in African Infrastructure Development

It’s important to understand the reasons for the differences between Western aid/philanthropy and Chinese aid in Africa. While “fashion” in aid plays a role, Western donors have largely moved away from infrastructure projects because of the way in which they have been historically mired in deep corruption; and Western-funded buildings and roads have rarely been maintained once they’ve been built. Because of Chinese insistence on using Chinese firms and labor and the lack of transparency in many of these deals, there is reason to be concerned that China is undermining Western philanthropy’s investment in good governance and human development.

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