Executive Summary on Africa

When it comes to donation did you know that not all of the money you give to the cause will reach those who need it, actually only one-third of all donor money ends up being used correctly. Phantom aid is a portion of donor money that is either "skimmed off the top" by those handling the money, or is poorly spent, like overpriced assistance, thus most of it never reaching its intended recipients. Some excess expenditures that contribute to phantom aid are: transaction costs, administrative costs, technical assistance, etc. One of the bigger players in the phantom aid problem is the United States because of their lack of focus on the poverty subject due to other political reasons, like the War on Terror, also 86% of US foreign ends up being foreign aid, and there are solutions to the phantom aid problem. These solutions can be: clearer policies regarding aid, a UN run international forums where the progression of aid can be viewed, and a re-prioritizing of spending.

With our money and resources, as a class we can do a few things tohelp end the problem of phantom aid. A few options are: writing letters hassling congress to spend aid money better to help end phantom aid, we can find a legitimate organization to donate money to that will make sure all of our money becomes real aid, and we can open more eyes to the problem of phantom aid because if more people see the problem, more would want to help end it. If we were to choose one of these recommendations we would be able to help put an end to phantom aid because if people see what is happening the government would be pressured into doing something to end phantom aid.