THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: PARTNERING FOR GROWTH
Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs
Washington, DC
September 16, 2008
"We lead the world in providing food aid, improving education for boys
and girls, and fighting disease. Through the historic commitments of
the United States and other G8 countries, we are working to turn the
tide against HIV/AIDS and malaria in Africa. To achieve this noble
goal, all nations must keep their promises to deliver this urgent aid."
–President George W. Bush, June 13, 2008
The United States is committed to helping the world’s poor. Development
depends on strong, accountable governance and economic policies
unleashing private sector growth. At the International Conference on
Financing for Development at Monterrey in 2002, the world articulated
a new model for development, calling on developing countries to
establish sound economic and social policies and for developed
countries to support these efforts through an open trading system,
private capital flows, and additional development assistance. The
United States approach to development assistance is based on the
belief that foreign assistance is most effective when it supports
nations making necessary political and economic reforms.
The U.S. Record
World’s largest donor of bilateral foreign assistance and largest
contributor to multilateral development institutions. Official
Development Assistance (ODA) of $21.8 billion (net disbursed) in 2007.
U.S. bilateral ODA to sub-Saharan Africa (excluding debt relief)
increased to $4.5 billion in 2007 from $4.2 billion in 2006.
U.S. bilateral ODA to least developed countries increased to $4.8
billion in 2007.
$6.3 billion in compact funding approved for 18 strongly performing
countries in the last four years by the Millennium Challenge
Corporation.
$18.8 billion in HIV/AIDS funding through the U.S. President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through fiscal year (FY)
2008. Reauthorization of up to an additional $48 billion for HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis and malaria for 2009-2013.
$3 billion in U.S. humanitarian assistance provided in 2007.
Top net goods importer from developing countries at $573 billion in
2007 ($981 billion in imports minus $409 billion in exports).
$12 billion in private U.S. charitable contributions (not included
in ODA) to developing countries in 2007.
Top contributor to humanitarian clearance of landmines and explosive
remnants of war.
Elements of the U.S. Contribution to Development
>From 2000-2007, the Bush Administration dramatically increased
U.S. Official Development Assistance. The increase of 118% over eight
years is a faster rate than at any time since the period immediately
following World War II.
In 2007 U.S. ODA was $21.8 billion, a decline of $1.8 billion relative
to the 2006 level; $1.6 billion of this change is accounted for by a
decline in debt=2 0relief activities after major new actions in 2006
and a decline in ODA to Iraq. Iraq and Afghanistan were the largest
recipients of bilateral aid in 2007, with $3.7 billion going to Iraq
and $1.6 billion going to Afghanistan.
This assistance provided for programs in humanitarian relief, economic
development, counter-narcotics, good governance, health, clearance
of landmines, and other reconstruction assistance. In addition,
$4.8 billion went to the world’s least developed countries, and a
further $1.6 billion to other low-income countries, not including
U.S. regional and global programs. In advance of the 2005 G-8 Summit,
President Bush announced that the United States would double its
assistance to sub-Saharan Africa from 2004 to 2010. From a 2004 base
of $4.3 billion, with planned increases in disbursements, the U.S. is
on track to meet that pledge.
In March 2005, the U.S. endorsed the Paris Declaration on Aid
Effectiveness, which emphasized that existing aid levels should be
used more effectively.
The USG reached an agreement in October 2007 with the "Nordic +" group
of leading donor countries to work jointly to improve aid effectiveness
in selected countries, and in September 2008 endorsed the Accra Agenda
for Action to advance Paris Declaration implementation.
Millennium Challenge Account
The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is an innovative model in
development assistance. It is built on the principle that foreign=2
0aid yields better results where sound economic policies and good
governance provide an enabling environment for economic growth. The
total MCA appropriated funding from FY 2004 through FY 2008 exceeds
$7.5 billion.
Since its inception in 2004, the Millennium Challenge Corporation
(MCC), which implements the MCA, has approved agreements, called
compacts, with 18 strongly performing countries — Armenia, Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Georgia, Ghana, Honduras,
Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Vanuatu — totaling $6.3 billion dollars.
To provide further incentive for reform and help additional countries
qualify for compact funding, MCC provides "threshold" assistance to
help countries address specific areas of policy weakness. To date,
MCC has approved threshold programs with 18 countries totaling over
$400 million.
MCC also created a private sector initiatives office in November 2007
to enhance private sector engagement.
U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
In 2003, President George W. Bush launched the U.S. President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to combat global HIV/AIDS
– the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease
in history. By the end of FY 2008, the American people will have
invested $18.8 billion in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. On July
30, 2008, President Bush signed into law a=2 0bill that will increase
the U.S. financial commitment to the fight against global HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis, and malaria, authorizing up to $48 billion more to
combat the three diseases for five additional years, from 2009 to
2013. When President Bush launched PEPFAR, approximately 50,000 people
in sub-Saharan Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatment. Today,
PEPFAR supports lifesaving treatment for over 1.7 million people
worldwide, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. PEPFAR
has also supported care for more than 6.6 million people, including
2.7 million orphans and vulnerable children. To date, PEPFAR has
allowed nearly 200,000 children to be born HIV free.
Through PEPFAR, the U.S. Government is the largest single contributor
to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, having
provided over $2.5 billion since the launch of the Fund in 2002,
or approximately thirty percent of the Global Fund’s total resources.
Other Health Initiatives
President Bush announced the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in
June 2005. A five-year, $1.2 billion program, PMI challenges other
governments and the private sector to join the U.S. government in
combating malaria, with the goal of cutting the malaria mortality
rate by 50 percent in 15 countries in Africa. Through partnerships
working in the first three target countries – Angola, Tanzania,
and Uganda – PMI reached about six million people in its initial
year. In its second year, with an expanded program, an estimated 25
million persons benefited from life-saving prevention or treatment
interventions including insecticide-treated bednets, indoor residual
spraying, artemisinin-based combination therapies, and preventive
treatment of pregnant women. Other target countries added in FY 2007
include Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Senegal. Benin, Ethiopia,
Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, and Zambia were added in FY
2008. Evidence is beginning to show that this effort is effectively
reducing malaria transmission.
The U.S. has also been a strong supporter of tuberculosis (TB)
control efforts globally. Between 2000 and 2007, the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) provided nearly $600 million for TB
programs worldwide, including about $166 million directed specifically
to Africa. USAID support has contributed to increased average detection
rates and treatment success rates in 19 focus countries, and between
2002 and 2008 the United States supported effective treatment for 10
million people with TB. In FY 2007, USAID provided $5 million to the
STOP TB Partnership’s Global TB Drug Facility (GDF), an important
mechanism that provides drugs to countries in need, including many
countries in Africa. USAID funding to the GDF will increase to $15
million before the end of FY 2008. Additionally, seventeen percent of
support for the Global Fund has been dedicated to TB work, and PEPFAR
0Aincreased its funding from $26 million in FY 2005 to a planned
level of $150 million for FY 2008 to address TB/HIV co-infections.
Humanitarian Assistance
The U.S. is the largest donor country of official humanitarian
aid for victims of famine, persecution, war and natural
disasters. U.S. humanitarian assistance totaled roughly $3 billion for
2007, and was aimed at helping those affected by disaster through the
rapid delivery of food, water, shelter, and health care. The United
States is working to help the countries most affected by increased
global food prices. As the largest single country providing food aid,
the U.S. gave $1.87 billion in food aid in 2007 to help food insecure
countries. The U.S. is also the largest single country supporting
refugee protection, assistance and durable solutions. In addition,
the U.S. provides major resources for ongoing reconstruction efforts
to help nations recovering from conflict and natural disasters. The
U.S. military, in cooperation with USAID, has been mobilized to deliver
life-saving aid to victims of large-scale disasters as quickly as
possible, such as after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and the
South Asian earthquake of 2005.
Through the Humanitarian Mine Action Program, the U.S. has contributed
over $1.3 billion since 1993 to mine clearance, mine survivors
assistance, mine risk education, and research and development on
detection and clearance technologies. These efforts have contributed
to the steep decline in casualties from persistent landmines and
explosive remnants of war, from about 26,000 annually five years ago
to approximately 6,000 worldwide in 2006.
Debt Forgiveness
At the G8 summit in 2005, the U.S. led efforts to obtain G8 approval of
the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). The initiative called
for 100 percent cancellation of heavily indebted poor countries’
(HIPCs) eligible debt obligations to the World Bank, African
Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
Nineteen African countries have already benefited from MDRI debt
relief and another 14 African countries are eligible to receive similar
debt cancellation once they achieve the required standards. With the
additional debt relief provided by the Inter-American Development Bank,
this initiative has eliminated over $42 billion in current and future
multilateral debt service for 25 countries in Africa and elsewhere.
Under the enhanced HIPC initiative, the United States and other
creditors together have cancelled an additional $45 billion. Taken
together, these international efforts are projected to remove a debt
burden of over $110 billion in current and future debt service for
33 heavily indebted poor countries. Another seven countries could
eventually qualify under these initiatives.
Multilateral Contributions
The U.S. is the world’s single largest contributor to the United
Nations and to the multilateral development banks (MDBs). In 2007,
U.S. contributions to multilateral organizations including the UN,
World Bank, and other MDBs totaled approximately $2.9 billion. Of
this total, $692 million was provided to the United Nations. The
U.S. has committed $950 million per year to the International
Development Association, the component of the World Bank that helps
the world’s poorest nations, for 2006-2008. These contributions
are to organizations promoting economic growth, poverty reduction,
and increased living standards through development and humanitarian
assistance. Our assistance leverages tens of billions of dollars from
other donors.
Trade
Trade is a powerful anti-poverty tool, spurring economic growth,
increasing opportunity, and creating new and better paying jobs. In
recognition of this fact, the U.S. has led by example in promoting
trade with developing countries. The United States is the largest
net importer from developing countries at $573 billion in 2007 ($981
billion in imports minus $409 billion in exports). This amount dwarfs
the size of other financial flows to these countries, creating jobs
for millions of people. Through preference programs including the
African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Caribbean Basin Initiative,
the Andean Trade Preference Act, and the Generalized System of
Preferences, many developing country goods receive zero-tariff access
to the U.S. market. The U.S. has taken a bold position in World
Trade Organization =0 Anegotiations, with ambitious proposals that
aim to ensure the realization of the development potential of the
Doha Round. The U.S. is also a leader in "trade capacity building"
programs aimed at allowing developing nations to better integrate
into and benefit from the global trading system, contributing $7.6
billion total since 2000.
Other Private Financial Flows
The U.S. is the leading country in private financial flows to the
developing world, with net capital flows exceeding $99 billion in
2007. In addition, residents of the United States lead the world
in their personal generosity, sending over $48 billion in personal
remittances and giving an estimated $12 billion in private charitable
contributions in 2007. This funding is not included in total Official
Development Assistance figures.
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)
USAID’s Global Development Alliance (GDA) was created in 2001 to forge
public-private alliances that leverage the skills and resources of
non-traditional partners in development efforts. To date, USAID has
cultivated over 680 public-private partnerships with 1,700 different
organizations, leveraging over $9 billion in partner resources. These
1,700 organizations, including international and local businesses,
private foundations, non-governmental organizations, and governments,
are alliance partners in every country where USAID works. One
such partnership was the South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund, which
raised more t han $100 million in cash and in-kind contributions
for earthquake relief and reconstruction in the affected region
of Pakistan. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the
U.S. Export-Import Bank, and the United States Trade and Development
Agency also engage in public-private alliances, implementing programs
ranging from increasing access to potable water to providing technology
for sustainable environmental protection among the world’s poor.
The U.S. State Department’s Global Partnership Center, launched
in December 2007, supports State’s existing partnership activity
by building partnerships, providing needed guidance and practical
tools, and serving as a point of contact for outside partners’
inquiries. State’s broad-ranging public-private partnership program
supports a variety of development efforts, including programs that
combat AIDS and reinforce official humanitarian mine action.
Peace and Security Cooperation
Peace and stability are critical preconditions for development. U.S.
spending on overseas security programs helps build and promote
stability and contributes to an environment conducive to sustainable
economic growth and poverty reduction. U.S. foreign military financing
to developing countries to improve performance of police forces and
build partner capacity to contribute to international peace operations
was an estimated $2.4 billion in 2007, with another $1.42 billion
spent for UN peacekeeping activities.
All but $113 million of=2 0this funding comes in addition to the
$21.8 billion reported as Official Development Assistance disbursed in
2007. The U.S. is also working to integrate considerations of conflict,
instability, and state fragility in the new foreign assistance
framework and to implement reforms for better collaboration among
development, diplomatic, and military partners in complex humanitarian
environments.