What

“Foreign assistance” is a term used to refer to a wide range of U.S. programs in other countries. IGD focuses on the categories of foreign assistance whose primary purposes are to boost the productive capacity of developing countries and their citizens, thereby catalyzing the economic growth and job creation necessary for sustained poverty reduction. Other major categories of foreign assistance include global health and education, disaster relief, and reconstruction activities in post-conflict areas.

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, governs most U.S. assistance programs. It has not been comprehensively reauthorized since 1985, but has been amended 140 times and currently exceeds 380 pages.

How much

Assistance focused on economic growth and poverty alleviation currently comprises 0.6 percent of the total federal budget, roughly $20 billion in 2008. This 0.6 percent includes aid for agriculture, investments in transportation infrastructure, micronutrient supplements and clean water initiatives, funding for schools and teacher training, mosquito nets for people living in malarial areas, microcredit and technical assistance to help small and medium-sized enterprises grow, to name a few.

Who

While U.S. assistance is commonly perceived as a large monetary transfer from one government to another, only a small percentage of our foreign assistance is implemented by U.S. government agencies and funneled through the government of the recipient country. Most aid gets to the field via private entities – for-profit aid contractors, nonprofit NGOs, universities and private voluntary organizations. These entities compete for government aid grants to fund their development projects and work directly with poor populations in recipient countries.

In 2006, 28 separate U.S. government agencies, departments and offices provided and administered some portion of U.S. assistance. Agencies other than the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided over 40 percent of the total. These included the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Justice, Labor and Treasury; the Millennium Challenge Corporation; Environmental Protection Agency; Peace Corps; African Development Foundation; Inter-American Development Foundation; Trade and Development Agency; Export-Import Bank; Overseas Private Investment Corporation; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Institute of Standards and Technology; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Forest Service; and the National Science Foundation. No single individual is responsible for the overall administration of all U.S. foreign assistance.

Click here to see a visual representation (Lael Brainard, Brookings Institution) of the many government departments, agencies and offices that have a role in of the overall foreign assistance program and their many, sometimes conflicting, objectives. This fragmentation saps the effectiveness of our aid programs.