Hard News on Committee Session #2

Dilemma of Foreign Aid During Pandemic : Treat or Threat ?

(February 27, 2021, African Union Meeting)

By Huspidiatul Anwar Gemadiyah. February 27, 2021

UNITED NATIONS – Foreign aid during the pandemic might be very tempting, as it does help the recipient country to face the gruesome situation that affects the whole country in many sectors. Yet, it may become a threat, for those who need it, or may be a threat that the aid could be politicized, corrupted, or misused in which will not help any of those who are in need.

The representatives that attended today’s ECOSOC meeting were concerned about how they could ensure the liability of both donor and recipient countries in regards to the foreign aid they have sent or received. Norman Loayza – Director of Global Indicator Group of World Bank – has stated that international aid has not always fulfilled its objectives and that, at times it has been misguided, misused, wasted, or even stolen.

Japan’s representative stated that bilateral aid is better than multilateral or regional foreign aid. This is due to their questioning on the effectiveness and responsibility of the multilateral foreign aid. However, it may seem contradictory to Konosuke Kokuba - Japanese Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs – as Kokuba stated Japan will actually support various efforts to counter the COVID-19 crisis. To be specific, it will be through Japan's COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan.

Nevertheless, according to the study from Janice Gross Stein, foreign aid would spend any time at all considering the ‘output’, ‘outcomes’, and the ‘benchmarking’. The study is specifically related to the codes of conduct, the standards of delivery of relief, outcome mapping, also the evaluation methodology of the foreign aid distribution. Thus, further discussion will be needed in regards to the evaluation, monitoring and verification (EMV) protocol to ensure the foreign aid is distributed and used accordingly.