International Aid

Recipient: a person or institution that receives something, like a donation. Humanitarian aid: usually short-term help, like money, food or medical supplies. Technical assistance: sharing information, skills, instruction, or technical data. Tied aid:  foreign aid that must be spent in the country providing the aid Bilateral aid:  assistance given by a government directly to the government of another country. Multilateral aid: assistance provided by governments to international organizations like the United. Nations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) NGO: refers to a non-governmental organization So, international aid can be described as in its most basic form as assistance that flows from one country to another usually from developed countries to developing countries. The flow is from the donor––the one who gives, to the recipient––the one who receives. International aid is also commonly called foreign aid, overseas aid, or foreign assistance. The contribution can be of money, equipment, or services. There are many types of international aid––too many to list here––but let’s look at some of the most common: Humanitarian aid. Humanitarian aid is the assistance that usually gets into the newspapers. Humanitarian aid is meant to help in the short term. A good example of humanitarian aid would be a donation of food or medicine from one country to another after a man-made catastrophe––like a civil war–– or an environmental disaster, like an earthquake or a flood. Humanitarian aid. Do you hear the root of “humanitarian”? It’s the word “human”.