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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

leveraging technology, foreign aid, Ureporters

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

A structural problem plagues the delivery of foreign aid: the beneficiaries have little ability or means to inform the donors of the projects’ initial needs, progress, or effects. As development projects are typically executed, donors carry out assessments that often involve surveys or other before-and-after appraisals. But the approach is nearly always observational, and thus the results are likely biased toward positive findings. Thus, the feedback mechanisms that could regulate public spending in domestic contexts are broken or missing when it comes to foreign aid. Some scholars have identified the absence of feedback as the key reason why aid sometimes fails to create intended benefits. Easterly1 argues that aid fails because aid agency bureaucrats in faraway countries determine what impoverished people need, instead of the people themselves. The poor rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to provide input on their needs or feedback about whether aid addressed the needs. Therefore, aid agencies frequently have misplaced incentives and efforts.

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