Much attention is focused on the considerable volume of `foreign aid` given by rich countries to the poorer developing countries. Huge campaigns are waged to increase debt relief, while international conferences serve to impress the world and its media about the generosity of the donors. There is another side to this picture - the ways in which many poorer countries are providing direct and indirect aid to richer countries. Some examples:
Provision of trained medical staff Each year tens of thousands of doctors and nurses are trained in developing countries to internationally prescribed standards, usually at the expense of the governments concerned as the students do not have the resources to pay for training. A significant proportion of these qualified doctors and nurse then emigrate to rich western countries to better themselves, and in most cases are offered jobs in hospitals and other health services in the host countries. Approximately one-quarter of medical professionals practising in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia were trained abroad. In the UK some 60% of these came from developing countries, and in the USA the equivalent figures was 75%.
No payment is made by the host countries to the countries of origin, despite the fact that the cost of school education and professional training of such staff can amount to a western equivalent of £100,000-£200,000 or more for the most skilled medical staff, and £50,000 or more for nursing staff. The value of this annual export amounts to several billion pounds a year. The cost to the host country is not only in the expense of educating and training those who leave, but also in the huge volume of ill health resulting from the loss of health staff who would otherwise have been caring for and curing ill people in their countries of origin.
With the growth in educational and training facilities world wide, western societies are milking even more of the massive amount of skilled human resources that are now available in poorer countries, with no recognition that western foreign aid is probably exceeded by the importation of great numbers of trained staff in a multitude of skilled occupations, with the resulting loss of talent and enterprise for the exporting countries, and only a limited flow of temporary staff in the opposite direction.
Water privatisation Some western governments, including the UK, are using their own foreign aid disbursements to compel the recipient countries to sell their public water utilities to international companies, who then compel residents to start paying for this water. The argument for this policy is that the revenue generated can be used to improve and increase the provision of clean water. But there are also sizable contributions from the recipient countries to the profits of the international companies, profits which will continue to roll in for decades after the original investment has been paid for.
Export of agricultural products and minerals in their raw state For generations this has meant a significant transfer of wealth from the poor source countries to the rich user countries. As a prime example, most coffee beans have to be exported in their raw state, at a relatively low cost, to the rich consumer countries where the value of the coffee is multiplied many times by the process of grinding, mixing of grades and tastes, and packing of the finished product. It is factories and wholesalers in the host countries who benefit greatly from the sale of the coffee, while farmers in the producer countries are often living at near starvation levels, with some easing of their lives when “fair trade” is introduced by more socially-minded importers to ensure a higher price for the farmers and possibly win kudos with consumers in the rich countries.
The same principle has long been used in compelling producer countries to provide raw mineral ores to industries in the rich countries, where the ores are converted into copper, steel and other usable materials.
The hidden factor in the exports of raw agricultural and mineral products is that trade barriers in the host countries allow these imports unhindered entry if they are not processed, but put high tariffs on those same products if they are processed. This discourages international companies who might otherwise set up processing facilities and provide high tech process methods in the producer countries.
Ref. empowerment 004, ECDC. Sources: : New Engl. J. Med. (2005, 353: 1810-1818) and other reports on the international flow of human and material resources. 06.07.
Copyright: ECDC/PCEO Bristol UK 2008
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