Urbanization and Foreign Aid

Urbanization is highly associated with the material growth of metropolitan cities (Mills & Song, 1979). This growth has over the years attracted both positive and negative effects to both the people and the environment. Foreign aid, as observed, has been the driving force towards the development of urban centers in the world, especially the developing and under-developed countries (Rondinelli & Johnson, 1990). This essay will revolve around three positive and three negative effects of urbanization in Peru and will seek to know the how this growth has been influenced by foreign aid and the impact it has caused.

Positive Effect of urbanization in Peru

Needless to say, Peru has been identified as the backbone partner of the much needed development in the Latin American region. Democracy has been wanting and continuous violation of human rights in terms of security has been the order of the day. As a result, the government has been on the move to revolutionize all sectors beginning with education and ending with better services to the people. Therefore, the number one effect that can be deduced from urbanization is the increased investment opportunities for both small and large entrepreneurs. This is another way of increasing employment opportunities for the young and the old. This does not only create more business opportunities but also is the force behind the development of new and modern day buildings. In other words, urbanization has led to the elimination of old physical structures through the finance aid (Hillman, 2013). The people who are interested are also taken through training facilitated by the foreign aid. This means that illiteracy level among the Peru citizen has drastically reduced.

The other positive effect of urbanization is technological advancement. Traditional ways of doing business in Peru have been costly and thus affects the economic status of the country. With the help of the finance aid, the country has been able to outgrow native methods of doing business and instead most entrepreneurs have applauded the introduction of new technology. From crop and livestock farming to the processing of the goods and services, Peru has been outshining many other countries in the region in terms of technology. In addition, the heavy use of technology has proven to be efficient, accurate, and time saving as a way of achieving big dreams. It can be argued that this could be one of the reasons as to why developed countries like Canada are willing to work with Peru to help her upgrade their way of life, thus improving the livelihood of the people of Peru.

The third positive effect of urbanization is remarkable economic growth, which is a byproduct of the two effects discussed above and it can be considered as the overall outcome of urbanization (Moomaw & Shatter, 1996). The rate at which foreign aid is being directed towards improving the domestic and foreign trade, making deliberate efforts to introduce technology in institutions of learning, and the way industries are being revolutionized in Peru must bring about a turning point in the country’s economy. The government of Peru has continuously looked for finance aid to aid these development projects. Stable economy in Peru is expected to attract other positive effects that urbanization can ever bring like better infrastructure, health care provision and good governance.

Negative effects of Urbanization

The number one effect in this category is uncontrolled rural to urban migration, which can be considered as the root cause of many other effects of urbanization. For instance, many youths in Peru have been leaving rural homes to come and settle in urban centers with high hopes that they will get employment. However, this has not been the case because many of them end up forming criminal gangs which raises crime rate. In addition, this problem leads to the formation of illegal structures which in turn becomes slums. This attracts other related problems like disease outbreaks and pollution. Since health sector in Peru leaves much to be desired, high mortality rate has been the order of the day. The uncontrolled population increase is currently a complex equation to solve for the government, humanitarian organization, and the Finance aid committees.

The other effect concerns environmental degradation, catalyzed by pollution and lack of social amenities like modern toilets and housing. Research has shown that Peru lacks recreational facilities, which has caused serious environmental hazards. The scramble and partition for a living space or a business premise has opened a dangerous door for the destruction of recreational facilities. Most of the city sewers have been wanting and this has contributed to the rapid spread of communicable and transmittable diseases like diarrhea and Tuberculosis. This congestion in the urban city affects all classes of people beginning from the poorest to the richest. For instance, ever increasing of motor vehicle ownership in Peru by the middle and high income earners has increased traffic congestion in the urban centers and the gas emitted during combustion is one of the major causes of air pollution (Moomaw & Shatter, 1996).

The last negative effect but not the least is the increased gap between the rich and the poor. The rich have the tendency to exploit the poor, who have little or no say in the kind of employment and accommodation they receive from the rich. In other words, the rich depend on the services of the poor and the poor heavily relies on the rich for them to get their daily bread. This has been the trend and it has paved way for exploitation by the former to the latter. This directly interconnects with social related problems. Many marriages have been put at risk due to unstable financial status, and therefore they face the greatest predator of divorce, prostitution and unwanted pregnancies.

Comparing and contrasting the effects

A comparison can be made of which the positive effects of urbanization outweigh the negative ones. As discussed above, all the negative effects are controllable and therefore can be avoided. This implies that the government of Peru must make deliberate efforts to make sure that even distribution of finance aid has been done such that the effects are felt at the grassroots (Cyrill, Oldroyd & Renzaho, 2013). This is a way of discouraging rural to urban migration since the resources that they migrate to search and get can now be availed to them at the grassroots level. This perhaps would explain the reasons as to why the government of Peru has been flagged for more financial aid. There have been major breakthroughs for the government in education, health and social economy of her people. However, the success level has not been exploited to the maximum, and this leaves room for improvement. For example, it has been observed that big strides to reform education sector have been made, but the quality being offered is low, far below that of their neighbors. In general the foreign aid that Peru has so far received has been utilized properly but more is needed to complete the process of urbanizing the country.

References

Cyrill, S. Oldroyd, J. & Renzaho, A. (2013). Urbanisation, urbanicity, and health: a systematic review of the reliability and validity of urbanicity scales. BMC Public Health , 1-11.

Hillman, B. (2013). The Causes and Consequences of Rapid Urbanisation in an Ethnically Diverse Region. Urbinization perspectives , 1-32.

Mills, E. & Song, N. (1979). Urbanization and Urban Problems. Harvard University Press:

Cambridge.

Moomaw, L. & Shatter, A. (1996). Urbanization and Economic Development: A Bias toward Large Cities? Journal of Urban Economics , 40, 13-17.

Rondinelli, D. &. (1990). Third World Urbanization and American Foreign Policy: Development Assistance in the 1990’s. Policy Studies Review , 9, 247-262.