Medical kits, nutrition supplements, massive amounts of food aid- the global community has generously poured resources into the Philippines relief effort after Super Typhoon Haiyan. Yet with the destruction of agriculture infrastructure, loss of crops and market areas in ruin, immediate emergency relief aid can only go so far. The disaster in the Philippines demands solutions beyond the humanitarian phase; sustainability is required to ensure an adequate rice planting season, fruitful harvest for the new year and restored livelihoods in the future.

Americans too often focus on aiding developing countries through unsustainable donations. Service Learning Leadership, in an effort to initiate sustainable support, has plans to study microloans. A prime example of needed aid, microloans help finance small businesses in developing countries, which in turn, ameliorates the local economy. This type of help, rather than simple donations or money, is greatly needed in order to create long-term solutions.

Despite such efforts, billions in donations continue to be directed the wrong way. Poorly directed aid has entangled many African nations into a worse crisis of dependent, slow-growing and in-debt economies.

Foreign food aid too often results in plummeting food prices and local farmers lose profits. Many go out of business. With less food production, the area’s citizens need more food aid, creating a vicious cycle of dependency. Other charity efforts have been as equally misguided. A prime example stems from efforts to donate used clothing to Africa. Charities that import donated clothing have devastated local African textile industries; According to Time Magazine’s article “Is Foreign Aid Bad for Africa?,” Africa’s textile industry collapsed from the impact of donated clothing in the 1970s.

To date, at least three clubs have promoted donation drives for developing countries. While The Pen does support such benevolence, we believe that sustainable efforts like microloans are preferable.