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50 years of development gains

>> Foreign Aid in the National Interest >> Overview >> 50 years of development gains
 
  Acknowledgements

Foreword

Overview: Promoting Freedom, Security and Opportunity

Chapter 1: Promoting Democratic Governance

Chapter 2: Driving Economic Growth

Chapter 3: Improving People's Health

Chapter 4: Mitigating and Managing Conflict

Chapter 5: Providing Humanitarian Aid

Chapter 6: The Full Measure of Foreign Aid

Last updated: Tuesday, 07-Jan-2003 10:18:07 EST

 
 

Jump to Overview Sections:
>> 50 years of development gains >> Promoting democratic governance >> Driving economic growth >> Improving people's health >> Mitigating and managing conflict >> Providing humanitarian assistance >> The full measure of U.S. development assistance-official and private >> Notes >> Background papers >> References

The development progress in the past half century has been extraordinary. Developing countries now have an average infant mortality rate (69 for every 1,000 live births) equivalent to what industrial countries had in 1950 (see feature overleaf). In 1951, 40 percent of people in industrial countries had a secondary education; today 50 percent of people in developing countries do.

  1. Back then almost 1.8 billion people lived in countries with an average daily intake of less than 2,200 calories; today only 432 million do.
  2. Life expectancy and literacy have increased almost everywhere.
Some countries have achieved even more dramatic grains. In the late 1950s the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore were all considered economic basket cases. Yet all three have moved from low to high incomes as a result of sustained, rapid economic growth. Malaysia, Thailand, and more recently Indonesia have also made impressive progress. And Mauritius, with the help of foreign aid, achieved rapid economic and social development.

Over the past half-century most of the world's people, including the poorest, have seen continual and substantial improvement in their basic living conditions. Developing countries are catching up with industrial countries-particularly in life expectancy, nutrition, and literacy. And in infant mortality and secondary school enrollments they have already reached or surpassed the levels achieved by industrial countries in the early 1950s, when the era of foreign aid began.

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