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Loading...We Must Reform U.S. Foreign Assistance
Did you know that the U.S. foreign aid system is still largely governed by a law President John F. Kennedy signed in 1961? Various lawmakers in the last 48 years have added bandaids to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 — and it has brought help to millions of people suffering around the world. We’ve helped reduce child deaths, improved agricultural capacity and increased school enrollment.
But more lives can be saved if the way we deliver foreign aid is improved. Fewer children will die of hunger. Parents will be able to feed their families. Communities will have access to safe, clean water. And better foreign aid means less waste and more impact for our tax dollars.
With the global concerns of today, it’s time to move beyond our outdated foreign assistance program — one that’s scattered across 12 departments, 25 agencies and nearly 60 government offices — and develop a streamlined program equipped with 21st century tools and the transparency we know is possible from our government.
On April 28, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Representative Howard Berman (D-CA) and Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009. This bill will direct the president to develop and implement a comprehensive national strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting global development.
It would also require the president to establish a monitoring program to evaluate the efficiency of foreign assistance and insists that American taxpayers and recipients of the aid would have access to that information. It also repeals outdated provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
Simply put, this bill is a vital first step in reforming our foreign assistance program.
We have until only May 20 to get cosponsors for H.R. 2139. I urge you to write your Representative to cosponsor the bill today!
Read more: foreign assistance, foreign policy, global development, politics, take action
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It's heartbreaking. "not if but when they raped."
Good project
they are right, hungry kid is angry kid!
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+ add your ownI agree U.S foreign assistance needs a serious correction for the previous presidency has damaged the image of the World leading donor's opinion in front of different countries people! To give one example, Ethiopia is one of the recipients of the U.S. donations and the people were thank full for the genuine help they indeed received for years forwarded to them by the American Tax payers money. Ethiopia as a country was potentially rich and once known as "the bread basket of Africa”. Unfortunately for decades she had experienced mismanagements from the government administrators and head of states consecutively.
The draught was also one reason but not the main, as it could have been easily corrected with the rich resources of the country! Since the last17 years it has been ruled by one of the worst dictators the World could have imagined and sadly enough now it is long classified as one of the poorest in the planet. The tyrannical Government of present day of Ethiopia is the reason behind the poverty since it has stashed all economical incomes of the country to hide it in the foreign Banks mainly in the very donating countries themselves. It is also sad enough that the previous U.S presidency supported tyranny that has got a well known horrendous Humanitarian violation of Genocide proportions in the name of "coalition with War on terrorism" YES U.S. FOREIGN AID NEEDS SERIOUSE REFORMS!
Thank you
So many people fall for the myth (one of many about the US) that the US supports the whole world. Well, the truth is that while the US economy accounts for 23% of the world's economy the US is 16th in per capita government spending on foreign aid/development. NORWAY is 1st at $1.02/person, DENMARK is 2d at $.64/person, SWEDEN is 3d at $.61/person, THE NETHERLANDS is 4th at $.57/person & THE USA IS 16th at $.13/person. And you have to ask yourself how much of that US foreign development aid is guns, landmines, cluster bombs, missiles, CIA/NSA "support" (as in coups, disinformation, civil unrest etc.) & how much of that US aid actually "aids" real development?
The US has caused so much misery through assassinations, coups, disinformation, economic chaos, & blackmail to install rightwing dictators & destroy different countries' social welfare systems to put into place radical Chicago School unregulated, free market, vulture Capitalism (which has finally brought the whole world to its financial knees) so predatory US corporations can strip the countries of their resources - all in the name of "democracy" of course (it's happening in Iraq right now - read "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran for one example & for one of the best books on US economic imperialism & neo-colonialism read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, a fascinating read like a good mystery/thriller. You'll never look at the world the same way again!)
America's blessing did't happen by chance but by divine and some of it should betow on countries which are still struggling from basic human requirements.Only when all these darkened corners of the globe are lit up by our humanity than we will be able to develop our full potential as a HUMAN RACE.
Do we know that transparency is possible from our government? I don't think I know that.
We have a wall poster in my Quaker meeting house that reads:
"Won't it be a great day when our schools and hospitals have all the resources they need and the airforce has to hold a garage sale to buy a bomber".
I agree with the comments made by many here. I have focussed my concern on the following:
US should in the first place never interfere with the politics of other nations but by all means help generously with food, education, shelter, clean water and technilogy wherever needed as most nations look up to US as their Big Brother.
Must always help elected governments to solve their home issues independently without interfering and wherever necessary should use its veto to stop, if others try to interfere in these matters.
By all means help openly to eradicate terrorism which is a cancer that might affact many parts of the world if not treated and prevented at the right time.
Must look after her own people which should be the priority
The extended hand in help to other countries should never be tainted with cravings of political gains/advantages and US should maintain and improve its respect it has earned in the past from other countries.
I still wonder how the massive projects of exploring the physical universe (i.e. expensive explorations of other planets)could help the people in US and all other living beings on earth. If these projects could be terminated and divert the valuable resources into developing improved technology to improve the usage of naturl resources, minimise wastage, improving health and bringing a good balance in the nature the earth would remain longer as well as the survival of the human race and other beings. These improve economy, create more jobs.
I too agree with many of the above comments. Helping people is a good thing but we need to take care of our own backyard first and then when that is done reach out to others. We have so many jobless, homeless, and sick people right here in the USA why are we sending money out to countries like Isreal? I beleive it is not to help their people but to promote politicle interests which often turns out to be a matter of trying to force our way of life and beleifs on people who have been in exsitance far longer than us. It also often seems we only won't to help countries that will help us to gain controll over some other countries resource that we want. Lets clean our own back yard first and then reach out to others.That may sound like a heartless attitude but if everyone did this I beleive we would have a chance of seeing a global change of love and peace. There is enough for all of us world wide. We just need to get rid of the attudes and motives of greed and power grabbing. Political buying in the name of helping while your own people go hungry , sick and homeless is shameful in my veiw.
This is a worthy goal but since it fails to address 2 critical bottlenecks, it will only marginally increase efficiency. The bottlenecks are not going to be surmounted because of their political power in DC. One, US foreign aid must be shipped in US flagged ships (merchant seamen union) and a certain percentage must leave from Great Lake ports rather than whatever port is the most practical/cheapest. Two, US foreign aid in the form of construction funds/equipment must be used via US firms and US equipment as much as possible despite cost differences. This combines unions and big business thus effectively unites much of both political parties in harming donation efficiency.
Unrelated to those bottlenecks is something that needs addressing. US private donations/charities donate far more cash/material than virtually the entire world together does. Anyone like Michael who thinks US government aid is the sum total of aid work misses the boat. As in so many things concerning the US, the main driver remains the private/religious sector -government is the far smaller though noisier partner in our world aid movement. Other NATIONAL governments may give more per capita but the US citizen remains the most giving ones on the planet bar none and they don't need the government to compel them to do so.
On a per capita basis Australia gives twice as much OS Aid as the USA.
You would expect USA aid to be large overall as their Economy is the biggest in the world..But. .
The top six counties per capita are
* Luxembourg:
* Denmark:
* Norway:
* Netherlands:
* Sweden:
* United Kingdom:
Also much US aid is tied to trade and political considerations
For example Aid to Israel accounts for over 12% of total US foreign Aid.
Many US aid programmes (about 90%) are "tied" to force recipient countries to buy USA services and products with the Aid the US gives.
While personal as well as Government Aid is also large., figures often include migrant workers remittances back "home"
For example Latin America alone received some $45 billion in remittances in 2004, almost 27% of the total private Aid
The amount given for the Indonesian Tsunami was generous but with government and private donations it amounted to about $2 per head.
Many less dramatic and newsworthy events receive little notice in the US media. These are the "orphaned disasters," they are not on TV and they are ignored and overlooked
Many thanks Ms Cooper for that post of common sense! I'm in the UK so the US situation doesn't affect me directly but I agree whole-heartedly with what you say and would make similar comments relating to our situation here. We would probably all agree that terrorism is 'wrong' - to say the least - but there are often legitimate grievances behind the violent action. If we in the west acted with more fairness towards and acceptance of the rest of the world maybe those grievances would be addressed and the violent situations defused.
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