The West has pumped trillions of dollars into poor nations over decades and despite a poor track record, the levels are increasing every year. Why has aid been so unsuccessful in promoting development and why do we continue to believe in it?

In this video we look at the situation today, who is giving and who is recieving, the history of aid and why aid has failed in many instances.

Part II is coming up in May.

Small Circles Forward by Daniel Karlsson Lönnö 2023.
Follow my updates on Instagram @smallcirclesforward

00:00 Intro
02:01 Who are giving?
03:05 Who is the most generous?
03:24 Who is recieving?
04:04 History of Aid
06:08 Aid and dictators
07:14 Structural Adjustment
08:18 Why has aid failed?
10:40 The problem of planners
13:32 Outro

Visualizations:
ODA Giving Nations 2021. 1 marker = 100 million USD. Yellow markers indicate bilateral support and pink markers multilateral support. DAC Member and Observer states.
ODA Giving Nations as % of GNI 2021. 1 marker for 0,1 % of GNI. DAC Member and Observer states.
ODA Recieving nations 2020. 1 marker for 100 million USD.

Sources:
Banerjee, Abhijit V. and Duflo, Esther. (2011). Poor Economics.
Burgis, Tom. (2015). The Looting Machine.
Easterly, William. (2006). The White Man’s Burden.
Macaskill, William. (2015). Doing Good Better.
Marshall, Tim. (2015). Prisoners of Geography.
Moyo, Dambisa. (2009). Dead Aid.
Perkins, Dwight H et.al. (2013). Economics of Development (7th ed.)
Rist, Gilbert. (2014). The History of Development (4th ed.)
Rosling, Hans and Ola and Rosling Rönnlund, Anna. (2018). Factfulness.
Sachs, Jeffrey D. (2015). The Age of Sustainable Development.
Wesseling, Henk. (1992). Original Title: Verdeel en heers. De deling van Africa 1880-1914. Swedish Title: Söndra och Härska – Uppdelningen av Africa 1880-1914.
World Bank GDP https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2021&locations=AO-BJ-GH-KE-MG-ZA-ZM-MW&start=1960
UNCTAD Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: Performance and Potential. Speech by Secretary General Kofi Annan (1999). https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/poiteiitm1501.pdf
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (2001) https://archive.uneca.org/publications/economic-report-africa-2000
Uppsala Conflict Data Program. 2021. https://ucdp.uu.se/year/2021
Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation. Disease statistics. https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/
UN Aids. HIV in Angola. https://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/angola
World Bank. Immunization Measles. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.IMM.MEAS?locations=AO-BJ-GH-KE-MG-ZA-MW-ZM
USAID. Syria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Afghanistan. https://www.usaid.gov/
West, Paul C et.al. Trading carbon for food: Global comparison of carbon stocks vs. crop yields on agricultural land. PNAS. 2010. https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1011078107

The map uses current day geographical borders and divisions. The borders on the map does not necessary represent the views of me.

Music from Epidemic Sounds:
"Girl with Balloon" by Sayuri Hayashi Egnell downloaded from Epidemic Sounds. https://www.epidemicsound.com/

"Government Secrets" by Craft Case downloaded from Epidemic Sounds. https://www.epidemicsound.com/

"Lightness Falls" by Craft Case downloaded from Epidemic Sounds. https://www.epidemicsound.com/

"The Unexplainable" by Craft Case downloaded from Epidemic Sounds. https://www.epidemicsound.com/

"Chrysotile" by Farrell Wooten downloaded from Epidemic Sounds. https://www.epidemicsound.com/

"Projector Screen 3" and "Slide Projector 8" by SFX Producer downloaded from Epidemic Sounds. https://www.epidemicsound.com/

Image rights (for all 4 parts):
Reagan Library, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dambisa Moyo, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Indian Diplomacy, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Richard Stupart, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
TEDxColombo, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bryn Pinzgauer, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Huangdan2060, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Qasioun News Agency, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Doctors Without Borders / MSF-USA, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Roel Coutinho, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

All other videos are either in the Public Domain or from Storyblocks; https://www.videoblocks.com/.

Vectorized map: World with Countries - Single Color by FreeVectorMaps.com