Development-icillin, Recommended Dosage: 0.7%

With the oil shocks of the 1970’s, the developed world sneezed, and the developing world caught pneumonia. The developed world’s economies were hit sharply and banks there decided to cut interest rates drastically to offset the huge profits that were being invested by the oil-producing countries. Developing countries pounced on this opportunity for cheap loans to maintain development but as commodity prices dropped further, their debt began to accumulate rapidly.
In an effort to curb the inevitable plight of the developing world as it dealt with massive debt and lack of infrastructure, the paradoxically virtuous rich nations of the developed world pledged to reach a goal of foreign aid of 0.7% of their GDP. After more than 30 years, only 5 nations out of 22 nations, none of which are on the G8 elite of the elite, have attained this goal. Talk about some ridiculous long waiting times at the global hospital.
Nurse, could I get a litre of 0.7% Official Development Assistance solution, these developing countries have critically high debt levels in their bloodstream. The foreign aid that was pledged would be in the form of Official Development Assistance, which was to promote economic development and welfare. A definition that has grown to include growing economic issues in developing countries including debt relief and subsidies on exports to developing countries.
For development to occur fluidly, there needs to be a stable economic base from which to work upon. This means that developed countries have to make a concerted effort in debt relief or developing countries will have to continue to stall development as they transplant funds to pay off massive amounts of debt. According to the Jubilee 2000 coalition, Sub-Saharan Africa spends twice as much on debt relief than on basic health care services. A direct injection of monetary flow is needed into these highly indebted countries to speed up the development of their economies so that it can actually have direct benefits for the people.
The X-ray shows you have quite a bit of broken infrastructure and it seems to be due to these high levels of debt pressing against it. There needs to be immediate reform to ensure that the ODA is used in a two-pronged approach to help with the debt problem but also address crumbling infrastructure in the developing world. The important point to realize is that the two problems are synonymous to each other. An effort to rebuild infrastructure will allow the rapid rebuilding of the economy to stave off the increasing pressure of the debt while tending to the basic needs of local citizens. The problem has to be attacked from the other end as well as the debt is just too daunting for many countries that there needs to be some direct alleviation of the debt to reduce the pressure on the fabrication of infrastructure.
Doc, your hand is in the chest cavity keeping its heart beating, you can’t just take a breather. One can argue that especially with the recent financial crisis, that much of the developed world will reach that goal at some point but not at the present moment as it deals with their own economic problems. A valid point but that means you keep the scalpel on the critically ill patient, you don’t start retracting just because you need a break, as Canada has done in recent years. Canada has cut its spending on ODA to a meager 0.28% from 0.34%, surprising considering the way its economy has grown in the last decade. The debt accumulation leading to the growing cuts in basic health care services, education, and building of infrastructure, sadly doesn’t have the luxury of taking a coffee break.
The G8 pride themselves on being the elite class of the developed world, yet not one of these rich nations has lived up to the pledge they had agreed upon. The United States has covered up its follies with this pledge by claiming success with other campaigns including investing more money towards mosquito net distribution.
Commendable, yet it is but a mere band-aid that covers up the wound of underdevelopment. A band-aid’s function is to protect the wound from invading bacteria, it, in no way shape or form, heals the wound. In the same way, these peripheral campaigns do a formidable job of containing the plethora of direct problems such as the high incidence of preventable diseases. But on its own, its insufficient as these initiatives are not enough to fix the underlying problem in that there is no base to work on for effective development. Thus the justification that these campaigns are effectively attacking underdevelopment are unwarranted. On the other hand, you can give a patient vitamin K to help the blood clot more effectively and help the wound heal itself, just as rich nations have the ability to provide the necessary resources to help developing nations build the appropriate infrastructure to tackle its problem of underdevelopment. Simply put, the bleeding needs to stop.
The developed world sneezed in the 70’s and the developing world, with a weakened immune system to begin with, caught pneumonia. With the recent global economic crisis, I ask that the rich nations of the developed world use a napkin this time around before they sneeze again because the developing world cannot afford to become any sicker. Don’t just stop with the napkin though, swallow down some moral vitamins and fulfill the pledge you made to aid the developing world because they have been in the global critical care ward for an awful long time.
Where are my manners? Gesundheit, developed world.