Political influence and also ignoring various aspects of conservation in large international trade treaties can have an effect. A lot of updates regarding East Timor have been added. The World Bank and IMF offer help, but that is met cautiously. Another piece from Noam Chomsky criticized US policies and the lack of food drops from the mightiest air force on the planet. IMF and World Bank policies come with a lot of conditions including the cut back and privatization of national resources and services.
Some countries end up paying more in debt servicing than in providing health and education services.
Unfortunately though the same old problems of forcing poor countries' economic policies to be dictated by the IMF remains unchanged. However, the US has offered to cancel all debt owed to it, which is a great step forward. Congress will need to make the funds available for this to happen, but it puts additional pressure on other governments. The derailing of the MAI by hundreds of thousands of activists world-wide was a major achievement. However that is not the end of it. .