Unbalanced ecological footprint and foreign aid in the perspective of long-term global economic development

Abstract

The unbalanced ecological footprint existing today among countries around the world is an economic problem that has historic roots. It represents the result of many years of exploitation of the natural resources that some countries were able to find in abundance in foreign lands. By appropriating those resources, some countries experienced an economic growth that was much faster than the economic growth of the nations whose resources were being exploited. An uneven global economic growth translated in uneven consumption levels among countries around the world. By consequence, the ecological footprint of some countries became much bigger than others. Nowadays, those countries having the higher levels of ecological footprint (e.g.: USA or some European nations) are somehow trying to “give back” what they have been able to appropriate to less developed countries. The act of “giving back” is happening in the form of foreign aid. The global aid system represents an effort to take less developed countries out of poverty, so that, in the long-term, all countries will be equally economically developed. However, the aid system has failed in its mission. No matter if foreign aid comes from governments, NGOs or for-profit organizations, the evidence suggests that it is not working. Nations have adopted the wrong system to solve a global economic problem that has made some countries less developed than others. At times, foreign aid has been a tool to actually impose donors’ will on recipient countries, in an attempt to pursue personal economic interests abroad. Governments, sometimes having NGOs doing the job for them, were driven by personal objectives in the allocation of foreign aid. For-profit organizations, on the other hand, were able to use foreign aid as a marketing tool to improve their image and increase their sales. The global aid system has caused more harm than it tried to alleviate. It has proven to be the wrong approach to equally balance the economic development of countries around the world.