Three Important Reasons You Should Care About Foreign Aid
My not-so-conventional way of learning lessons on social impact
According to GSMA, 47% of the world’s population does not have access to the Internet. That’s approximately 3.6 billion people, or almost one in every two individuals. If you are reading this, you are likely part of the 53% that has a stable internet connection. But can you imagine permanently losing your internet access? What would your future look like? What education or services could you access? Without the ability to connect to the internet, our opportunities are severely limited.
The U.S spends less than 1% of their federal budget on foreign aid, which is more help than any other country. This number appalled me. Most people believe that percentage to be well above 25%.
There is a belief that this number should be higher. Economists and the Government defend this number because the value of money is far more impactful to developing nations. Every $1,000 directed into aid provides access to services, health care, and basic needs such as food, water, and shelter. While $1,000 might cover our food expenses for one month, that same amount feeds up to five households in Africa or provides an exponential increase in opportunity. At a high level, this money helps countries improve their current state and grow their economy, so aid is no longer needed.
Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.
Three years ago, while I was in undergrad, United Nations (the company that truly embodies aid and social service) wrote a report on internet connectivity — “How internet and mobile connectivity can improve refugee well-being and transform humanitarian action.”
It starts off powerful, prefacing the daunting realities that 65 million forcibly displaced refugees and internally displaced persons are living without reliable internet and mobile connectivity. A blurb in the executive summary reveals the long-term effects without internet:
Without access to up-to-date information on events back in their home countries as well as in their countries of asylum, refugees cannot access basic services such as health and education or make informed decisions on how to start improving their lives. A lack of connectivity constrains the capacity of refugee communities to organize and empower themselves, cutting off the path to self-reliance.
My parents came to Canada as Vietnamese Refugees forty years ago. Like the forcibly displaced, they didn’t have the luxury of phones and lacked the same communication, healthcare, education, and basic needs to improve their lives. Those times were very different with minimal technology, so they had to work infinitely harder than I ever do now for the same opportunities. As I’ve reflected about this important topic, I’ve dedicated three separate pieces (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3) about what it’s like growing up in a refugee family.
This report fueled me with important information to paint a vision during a University business pitch competition to connect 10 million refugees to the internet. I tried to think of any business idea that would change the status quo. This was my response to the Hult Prize Challenge in 2017 where the theme was Reawakening Human Potential — the ultimate test to “Teach the man to fish.”
In 2017, I pitched my ideas to anyone who would listen. The ideas and commitment to do something became more real, and the stories were resonating. Empower was born — a web service that made content on the internet affordable and accessible to people living in refugee camps who were dealing with expensive and unstable internet connections. It also had to be compatible with phones the group commonly used with limited mobile connectivity, feature phones. And I intended to bring this to populations that were least connected in the world and without internet towers anywhere in sight — African refugees camps in Uganda.
An unruly task, but 100% worth it. With the help of grants, investors, and pitch competitions, it funded us to hire a team, build the product and execute the vision. Through sheer luck and perseverance, I reached out to the authors found on the last page of that report and received an overwhelming response to help. As a 22-year old who didn’t know any better, I proposed the idea to make this happen — get the support of the United Nations to enter the Nakivale Refugee Camp in Western Uganda and connect their communities to Empower. An absolutely ridiculous proposal that was overly optimistic. But a simple “Yes” would change my life forever.
The thought of it still doesn’t seem real. I tested our solution on site, and connected three refugee settlements, over 5,000 people to the internet, partnering with several companies and internet providers. The project opened my eyes and took me to slums and refugees camps across Uganda. Once again, I pitched my vision, but this time to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and at the United Nations (UN) HQ to Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammed Yunus, UN executive team, and other tech and social impact leaders.
Why does it matter?
Witnessing foreign aid in real-time and the impact is like no other. The connections and moments of joy are indescribable. With another purview of respect, I truly understand why people have such fulfilling careers in this sector. The experience put into perspective what this means in the grander scheme of things.
My reason for this piece of writing is not to encourage anyone to pack their bags and head to a refugee camp or be an aid worker, it is to understand and articulate the meaning of why social impact and aid is important for society as a whole.
My experience gave me purpose, a larger horizon and desire to fulfill my life missions. Following a humanitarian mission to uplift others have benefits far beyond the people who need help. Here’s why.
- Safety. If a country receives aid, it fosters education and economic opportunity, giving fewer reasons for people to become desperate. Desperation and poverty can spur radical ideologies and terrorism. In short, foreign aid creates stability, reduces military spending, making the world a safer place. Health systems also improve, allowing countries to take care of their well-being when an outbreak occurs. Bill Gates called it long before Covid-19 that when the next pandemic comes, it will spread quickly into rich countries and there is an enormous benefit to help developing nations improve their health systems before the disease has the chance to go global.
- Prosperity. Other countries uplifting themselves is not bad for us. Wealth creation is not zero-sum. When countries do well, they invent new things you and I use every day — laptops, cars, video games, among many more. This bolsters economies and creates a virtuous loop. It ploughs new funds back into the production cycle for new tools, increased wages, and jobs. More importantly, it gives people more opportunities to create that next thing. The most common answers in identifying the smartest person include names like Einstein and Da Vinci. With over 100B people who’ve lived on planet Earth, this is probably not the case. Statistically, it is someone we’ve never heard about who spends their energy trying to get clean water, looking for food, and trying to survive.
- Self worth. We enjoy doing good. It helps us to live a life with meaning and purpose. It’s cliche to say, but we do, in fact, desire to leave a long-lasting legacy. If we understand these implications, we can aspire to create value that uplifts the world. Solving the gigantic problems that impact millions. Save lives rather than optimizing businesses. A rising tide lifts all boats.
