Aside from leading to global development, improving foreign aid is essential in both promoting and protecting American values against emerging threats. Foreign aid provides relief to affected societies and thus prevents poverty from growing in new areas. In fact, recent aid efforts reduced poverty rates since 1990.

This achievement in reducing poverty is a result of collective efforts at the individual, national and global levels. This made societies achieve more and more progress in a faster time.

Technology is a helping factor as well and it could help achieve better efficiency and ensure even distribution of aid. Aid is not an obsolete measure and is very relevant to even the poorest of nations.

Furthermore, Oxfam, a global NGO dedicated to fighting poverty believes that aid is the best hope and option for poor communities. Oxfam believes in bringing new and innovative ideas to reform aid.

The goal is to be efficient and to leave no one behind. Some of the ideas are millennium villages, public-private partnerships and cash transfers. Oxfam believes aid works better if governments and people work closely in supporting local capabilities.

However, the process of delivering aid is widely criticized. This was the case in Haiti where many countries sent aid but it was poorly delivered. This led to an outbreak of cholera for the next few years.

At the latest World Humanitarian Summit in May, leaders suggested innovative ways to improve aid programs. However, many critics suggest that there should be a radical reform. This reform tasks local and national groups with leading the aid response.

In the Middle East, there are many conflicts and tensions that require the attention of the international community. Recently, countries like the United Arab Emirates and Turkey started to take the initiative and increase their aid packages.

In other regions such as South America, there are countries that both receive and give aid on the regional level. This helped regional capabilities to rise and depend on themselves toward more sustainable futures for generations to come.

– Noman Ahmed Ashraf

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