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Zambia, southern Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world, where one in every six children dies before reaching their fifth birthday. Its economy depends heavily on international aid: over 40% of the Zambian government's budget comes from foreign donors. In 2003 that was $560 million. While the EU prefers to channel most of its aid through the government, the US and the Japanese still fund individual projects, such as the building of a new school which is being completed by a Japanese contractor.
There are many individual NGOs in Zambia involved in local projects, independent from government and funded directly by international donors. But now the government is arguing that it should be in control of dispersing all international development aid. The days of individual donors funding individual projects could be a thing of the past.
'The visual impact of the gripping documentaries in the Life 5 series make them extremely powerful teaching tools for university, and indeed, other classrooms. In succinct episodes they raise and contextualise some of the most critical issues in the world today. These episodes are produced in an extremely objective manner and allow an audience easily to come to grips with an array of complex problems. They ought to be an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum.' Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Visiting Professor of International Human Rights, Tufts University
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Citation
Main credits
Summers, Ben (film director)
Kerr, Alistair (editor of moving image work)
Bower, Dick (film producer)
Dunbar, Sally (narrator)
Other credits
Editor, Alistair Kerr; series producer, Dick Bower.
African Studies; Anthropology; Developing World; Economics; Geography; Globalization; Humanities; International Aid; International Studies; Millennium Development Goals; Poverty; Sociology; United Nations
Keywords
Zambia, international aid, poorest countries, NGOs, foreign donors, EU, Japanese, local projects, international development aid; "The Donor Circus"; Bullfrog Films
Distributor: Bullfrog Films
Length: 26 minutes
Date: 2006
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: 7-12, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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