几十年来，对外援助一直被视为实现经济发展的快速通道。自第二次世界大战以来，已有超过2.3万亿美元从西方世界流向各类项目，以帮助第三世界摆脱贫困。真正的问题在于，发达国家在提供援助时究竟抱有怎样的动机。

For decades foreign aid has been seen as a fast track to economic development. Since World War 2 over $2.3 trillion has flowed out of the Western world into projects that would aid the third world in its endeavour to move out of poverty. The question is really one of what motives the developed world has when it gives aid?

援助很少是出于纯粹的利他动机。它往往被用作在国际政治中支持盟友的手段，并旨在影响受援国的政治进程。这种援助是好是坏，取决于人们是否认同捐助国在特定情形下所追求的议程。在二十世纪共产主义与资本主义的冲突中，这两种意识形态的拥护者苏联和美国，都曾利用援助来影响其他国家的内部政治，并支持其较弱的盟友。美国制定了马歇尔计划，旨在把欧洲国家拉向资本主义、远离共产主义。对欠发达国家的援助向来更符合捐助国的利益，而非受援国的利益。具体动机包括国防支持、市场扩张、外国投资、传教事业和文化扩张。近几十年来，国际货币基金组织和世界银行等机构的援助被揭露主要是一种为全球资本家开辟新领域的工具，而关注受援国人民福祉至多只是次要的，甚至根本不予关注。

Aid is seldom given from motives of pure altruism. It is often given as a means of supporting an ally in international politics and with the intention of influencing the political process in the receiving nation. The consideration of such, being bad or not, has depended on whether one agrees with the agenda being pursued by the donor nation in a particular case. During the conflict between Communism and Capitalism in the twentieth century, the champions of those ideologies, the Soviet Union and the United States, each used aid to influence the internal politics of other nations, and to support their weaker allies. The US developed the Marshall Plan in order to pull European nations toward Capitalism and away from Communism. Aid to underdeveloped countries has always been in the interest of the donor than the recipient. Specific motives have included defence support, market expansion, foreign investment, missionary enterprise and cultural extension. In recent decades, aid by organisations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has been exposed as being primarily a tool used to open new areas up to global capitalists, and being only secondarily, if at all, concerned with the wellbeing of the people in the recipient countries.

威廉·伊斯特利教授是一位知名的主流经济学教授，专研发展与援助问题。他批评外国援助在许多宏大承诺之下收效甚微。他说：“世界上穷人的一个悲剧在于，西方在过去五十年间花费了2.3万亿美元的外国援助，却仍未能把价值十二美分的药物送到儿童手中，以预防一半的疟疾死亡。西方花费了2.3万亿美元，却仍未能为贫困家庭提供价值四美元的蚊帐。西方花费了2.3万亿美元，却仍未能为每位新母亲提供三美元，以预防五百万名儿童死亡……令人心碎的是，全球社会已经发展出一种极其高效的方式，把娱乐送到富裕的成年人和儿童手中，却无法把十二美分的药物送到垂死的贫困儿童身边。”

Professor William Easterly, a noted mainstream economics professor on development and aid issues has criticized foreign aid for not having achieved much, despite grand promises. He says: ‘A tragedy of the world’s poor has been [that] the West spent $2.3 trillion on foreign aid over the last five decades and still had not managed to get twelve-cent medicines to children to prevent half of all malaria deaths. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get four-dollar bed nets to poor families. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get three dollars to each new mother to prevent five million child deaths…It is heart-breaking that global society has evolved a highly efficient way to get entertainment to rich adults and children, while it can’t get twelve-cent medicine to dying poor children.

长期以来，人们一直质疑对外援助的有效性，因为这类援助无一例外都附带条件。捐助国以及美国都曾利用援助来实现其地缘政治目标。例如：

The effectiveness of foreign aid has long been questioned since in all cases it has come with strings attached. Donor countries as well as the US have used aid to meet their geopolitical aims. For example:

a. 美国曾将援助导向其认为与国家安全存在关切的地区，例如中东；尤其是在冷战时期，还包括中美洲和加勒比地区。

a. The US has directed aid to regions where it has concerns related to its national security, e.g. Middle East, and in Cold War times in particular, Central America and the Caribbean.

b. 瑞典向“进步社会”提供了有针对性的援助。

b. Sweden has targeted aid to “progressive societies”.

c. 法国一直试图维护或保存并传播法国文化、语言和影响力，尤其是在西非地区，同时对那些与法国有广泛商业往来的国家给予不成比例的援助。

c. France has sought to promote maintenance or preserve and spread of French culture, language, and influence, especially in West Africa, while disproportionately giving aid to those that have extensive commercial ties with France.

d. 日本的援助也严重偏向那些与日本有广泛商业往来的东亚国家，并附带购买日本产品的条件。

d. Japan has also heavily skewed aid towards those in East Asia with extensive commercial ties together with conditions of Japanese purchases.

自殖民主义结束以来,非洲尤其一直被许诺获得援助。无数次八国集团峰会都承诺向这片大陆提供援助和债务减免。然而,这些承诺的目的是为了赢得对本国利益的支持,而非真正帮助这个贫困的大陆。正如“南部非洲行动”(Action for Southern Africa)所指出的:"非洲确实存在治理不善、腐败和管理失当的问题,这一点无可否认。然而,殖民主义的遗留影响、冷战期间八国集团对镇压性政权的支持、债务陷阱的形成、国际货币基金组织和世界银行强加的结构调整计划的彻底失败,以及极不公平的国际贸易规则,同样是事实。八国集团在造成非洲危机的条件中所扮演的角色不容否认。它的首要责任,是整顿自身,并终止那些阻碍非洲发展的不公正政策。"