5 things you may not know about US foreign assistance

Few would disagree that the aim of US foreign assistance to developing countries must be to help people help themselves. But did you know…?

1)   Foreign assistance is a bargain.

For the last few years, the US devoted just 0.7 percent of the federal budget to poverty-focused foreign assistance. In FY2014, the US government spent $23.4 billion on it around the world. Cutting foreign aid will not solve our nation’s budget problems, but it will impact the efforts of local leaders around the world making positive changes in their nations and neighborhoods.

2)   The vast majority of Americans support foreign assistance.

Would you agree that the US has “a moral responsibility to work to reduce hunger and severe poverty in poor countries”? If so, then you agree with eighty-one percent of the US public that hold this view. Surveys show that Americans also believe that it is in rich countries’ own interest to help poor countries develop.

3)   Americans greatly overestimate how much the US spends on foreign assistance. 

According to surveys, Americans on average think the US spends as much as 30 percent of the federal bud­get on foreign aid - more than on Social Security or Medicare – which is much different than the 0.7 percent reality.

4)   Americans spend more on candy, lawn care, and soft drinks than the US government spends on poverty-reducing foreign assistance.

The US government spends about $80 per taxpayer on development aid. Compare that to what Americans spend: $101 per person on candy, the $126 per person on lawn care, and $204 per person on soft drinks.

Need we say more?

5) When you compare US foreign assistance to other industrialized nations, the US ranks low.

Even though the US is the largest donor of official development assistance in absolute dollars, it spent about 0.19 percent of its gross national income on it in 2012. That puts the US in 19th place behind most industrialized nations. Britain, for example, contributed 0.56 percent of its gross national income in 2012 – more than twice the US percentage.

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Figures are taken from Oxfam’s newly-released third edition of the quick and easy guide, Foreign Aid 101, which dispels the common myths around foreign aid to developing countries and answers some fundamental questions as to why the US provides it and how it can be more effective.

Tell the US Congress to invest US poverty-reducing foreign aid in women!