Aid That Doesn't Deliver

Emira Woods, “Aid That Doesn't Deliver,” (Silver City, NM & Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus, February 1, 2005).

The Bush administration has pledged $350 million to tsunami relief. It’s a safe bet that at least $248 million of that money will be spent right here in the U.S.

The U.S. government places conditions on its foreign aid that require most relief and development assistance materials and services to be purchased from U.S. companies and agencies. The last time the the government revealed any data on this issue—back in 1996—72 cents out of every U.S. foreign aid dollar was spent on U.S. goods and services.

[T]his arrangement makes aid less productive. Requiring that foreign aid benefit U.S. companies often means that precious resources are used buying more expensive goods or services; while valuable time is wasted transporting these goods to the region. This hurts poor countries, including those devasted by this disaster of monumental proportions.

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Despite having signed international agreements and commitments on lifting this kind of restriction on foreign aid, the Bush administration maintains doggedly intransigent. The Bush administration hasn’t even bothered to provide any data about the issue.

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Tying aid promotes goods and services from the donor country and undermines the humanitarian purpose and the overall effectiveness of assistance. It results often in inappropriate aid, which does not meet the needs of the poor.