International Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

International Policy - Essay Example Poverty and how to reduce it has been a concern from the time of Adam Smith until today. My view is that poverty can not be eradicated; it can only be reduced to certain levels. To ensure that all countries globally are developed is ideal. The plan of the Canadian government, being one of the developed countries, is to aid the developing countries to eradicate poverty. There has been great improvement in human development through the implementations of the MDGs. A significant number of people are living on more than a dollar a day for example, the number of people who lived below a dollar a day decreased by 50% in East Asia and reduced by 7% in South Asia ( Canada International Development Agency). Prevalence of hunger has reduced by half in 57 countries in the last three decades. I believe that if MDGs are followed, the world will have fewer people suffering due to poverty and diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. Canada, joining other developed countries in fighting poverty, is a way of enhancing decency and fairness all over the world. With the MDGs implementations, literacy levels have been seen to increase. A majority of the women and young girls have attained basic education. Women play a vital role in developing a nation. Thus the high literacy levels show that developing countries will start experience high Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product (GNP/GDP) as long as the women and girls are gaining from the education. Criticisms Regarding the International Policy Statement Trying to eradicate poverty globally has many obstacles. From the time of Adam Smith, economic, social and political policies have been a major source of concern. First of all, giving donor aid to the developing countries has been nothing but a failure since it started. There is no single developing country that has come up by being given grants and loans. The developing countries have had a challenge of repaying the money given to them by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank due to increasing interest rates and low or negative GDP levels. They are unable to pay the money because: The money is never used for its aimed purpose. The money usually lands in the hands of politicians who use the money for their own self interests and most countries cannot account for it. There is so much corruption in the leadership of the countries. Money does not trickle down to those who truly need it because the leaders take it and use it for their own personal needs. The money is given with strict conditions. The country in need ends up spending money to improve what the donors think they should improve and not what the people really need. For instance, a country will be told to prepare roads to enhance its transport system but what it really needs are boreholes to get water for its citizen's daily use. The money never trickles down to the citizens of the particular country. This is so because the donor country comes in with its machinery and workers leaving citizens of that particular country unemployed. The donor country ends up paying its own citizens instead of using workers and machinery in the developing country. Aid heightens the levels of dependency. The developing c