Pakistan’s foreign aid paradox
Foreign aid keeps many developing nations, such as Pakistan, afloat. It funds essential projects in health, education and infrastructure, pillars meant to drive growth and stability. However, despite billions of…
Foreign aid is no panacea
EVERY year brings forth a plethora of books on various topics. As far as economics is concerned, one of the interesting releases of 2023 was Didac Queralt’s Pawned States. Analysing…
Foreign aid or export-led growth?
Pakistan’s total public debt rose to Rs36.3 trillion, which is equivalent to 87 per cent of the GDP, by the end of the previous fiscal year, and is anticipated to…
Dirty air, foreign aid, and climate funds
Burning of fossil fuel has had a significant role in exacerbating climate change crisis, the tipping point of which appears to be around four decades ago as the recent monumental…
Foreign aid: a curse?
The economic team of the PTI seems to be engaged in chest-thumping after getting the nod from the IMF for $1 billion to steer the country’s storm-tossed economy towards ‘boom’.…
Scapegoating foreign aid
In our Brexity, Trumpist times, you only need to see the words “foreign aid” to understand that such a thing – and also its entire operational philosophy – is in…
Creaking Afghan hospital symbol of foreign aid failure
Hunched low over a hernia patient on a broken operating table, an Afghan surgeon bemoans the lack of life-saving equipment in a US-funded hospital that is crumbling into disrepair, exemplifying…
Has the foreign aid worked?
The United States should set conditions for aid to Pakistan, US defence secretary Leon Panetta recently said during a Senate budget hearing. By saying this he actually meant revision of…
Demystifying foreign aid
There is a carefully constructed mythology in development about how key risks that prevent donors from providing money directly to the government are mitigated by using these alternative instruments to…
Demystifying foreign aid
To have a serious conversation about foreign aid to Pakistan, one doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist. However, a basic appreciation for the subtleties that distinguish different kinds of…
