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Iran Loans More than $250 Million to Bolivia

Bolivia's President Evo Morales and Iran's Industry Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian

Bolivia's President Evo Morales and Iran's Industry Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian

Interesting article from the Voice of America today.

Of particular importance in this news: 1) the loan is intended to help “end the unilateralism” (President Evo Morales) of the world powers; and 2) the loan has no use restrictions. The lack of spending restrictions has been one of the biggest complaints against many of the new players in the aid field (China, Venezuela, and Iran, for example). Where much of Western aid is conditional on improvements in human rights and democratization, aid from these new players is not, raising fears that developing countries will turn away from Western aid in favor of untied grants from other players.

 

Author

Keena Seyfarth

Keena Seyfarth is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, getting a combination Masters degree in International Health and Humanitarian Assistance at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and International Development and International Economics at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. She has lived much of her life in rural Africa, and traveled extensively through southern and eastern Africa. She recently returned from six months in Ethiopia, where she worked for the public hospital system.