Following up on U.S. foreign aid generosity
In the wake of President Bush’s decision to triple the amount of official U.S. aid to tsunami-affected countries to $950 million, it’s worth revisiting the question of U.S. foreign aid generosity. Steve Radelet has a solid Q&A on the topic for Foreign Policy‘s web site. On the question of whether, “America Is the Most Generous ...
In the wake of President Bush's decision to triple the amount of official U.S. aid to tsunami-affected countries to $950 million, it's worth revisiting the question of U.S. foreign aid generosity. Steve Radelet has a solid Q&A on the topic for Foreign Policy's web site. On the question of whether, "America Is the Most Generous Country in the World if You Include Private Donations to Charities," he writes:
In the wake of President Bush’s decision to triple the amount of official U.S. aid to tsunami-affected countries to $950 million, it’s worth revisiting the question of U.S. foreign aid generosity. Steve Radelet has a solid Q&A on the topic for Foreign Policy‘s web site. On the question of whether, “America Is the Most Generous Country in the World if You Include Private Donations to Charities,” he writes:
According to U.S. government figures, private donations to low-income countries through American churches, charities, foundations, nongovernmental organizations, and college scholarships was at least $6.3 billion in 2003. And such data almost certainly understate the actual amount of private aid. Some organizations do not respond to the government survey used to collect the data, and some important forms of contribution are omitted, such as volunteer time. Alternative estimates vary, with the upper-end figure (including gifts to more developed countries such as Israel and Russia) at $17.1 billion for 2000. By this estimation, private charitable donations per American total $58 per year—or about 0.16 percent of U.S. income—ranking the United States second among major donors in private giving (the first is Ireland at 0.22 percent). Combining public and private donations puts total U.S. development assistance in the range of $35 billion per year, or about 0.32 percent of U.S. income. In other words, for every $3 of income, the United States provides about one cent in development assistance. Even with this broader measure (and using the larger estimate of U.S. private assistance without making a similar adjustment for other countries), the United States ranks, at best, 15th among the top donors.
Read the whole thing. UPDATE: The Radelet essay is particularly good in contrast to James Traub’s effort in the New York Times Magazine. Traub covers some of the same ground, but can’t seem to concede the point that on development policy, the Bush administration is actually closer in its stated plans to Traub’s “ideal” than either the Clinton administration or the European Union (link via Tom Maguire). [Must be the Davos Kool-Aid–ed.]
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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