Foreign Aid News
The Daily Signal delivers foreign aid news with reporting, analysis, and commentary on international assistance, government oversight, and U.S. policy abroad.
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US Foreign Aid for Removing Land Mines Works Well, but Aid Allocations Need Review
The recent decision by the Biden administration to drop anti-personnel land mines from the U.S. arsenal was a serious mistake. It will not save lives. Indeed, it will likely cost lives—both of U.S. military personnel and of the civilians our military seeks to protect. But there are aspects of U.S. land mine policy that work…Ted Bromund -
How Foreign Aid Has Failed People of Afghanistan
Despite $775 million in humanitarian aid from the U.S. government since President Joe Biden’s disastrous pullout of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan a year ago, half the population—some 20 million people—remains hungry. That’s no change from a year ago when we were also told that half the country required emergency food and other lifesaving assistance…Max Primorac -
Soros-Backed Organization Wanted US Foreign Aid to Go to Anti-American Groups. The Supreme Court Was Right to Say No.
The Supreme Court has upheld the right of the United States government to distribute aid to foreign organizations in accordance with American interests. The June 29 decision in Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International represents a significant win for the protection of American freedoms. The case affirms a vital principle of…Elyssa Koren -
Foreign Aid Should Go to Those in Need, Not Ruling Elites
Wealthy elites pocket more than 7.5% of financial aid coming into their economically struggling countries, according to new research from the World Bank. To reach these disturbing findings, researchers measured the increase in deposits into offshore bank accounts in countries known for high levels of bank secrecy by people in countries receiving disbursements of foreign…Patrick Tyrrell -
Trump Backs Down on Rescinding $4 Billion in Foreign Aid
President Donald Trump has opted against a cost-cutting measure to cancel more than $4 billion in budgeted foreign assistance, much of which he previously deemed as wasteful. Days earlier, the administration had cited U.S. taxpayer dollars going to projects such as border security in Asia, crop diversity in Bangladesh, solar panels in Central Asia, and…Fred Lucas -
Leveraging Foreign Aid to Central America to Fix the Border Crisis
Crisis-level flows of Central American migrants to the U.S. has the White House raising questions about the effectiveness of foreign assistance to the region and potentially suspending foreign aid payments to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The facts and numbers clearly demonstrate that there is an emergency at the southern border. In February, border officials…Ana Quintana -
A Blueprint for Balanced US Foreign Aid
On June 26, The Heritage Foundation will hold an event on “Prospects for Reform of U.S. Foreign Aid,” where leading conservative economic development experts, including Professor William Easterly of New York University, will lay out their visions to improve U.S. foreign assistance programs. Some of the substantive backdrop for the event can be found in…James M. Roberts -
Foreign Aid Is Not the Answer to Global Poverty. Look to Freedom.
The 2018 Index of Economic Freedom, an annual study that ranks 180 countries for their economic freedom using hard data, has now been published by The Heritage Foundation. The results, when combined with poverty data from the World Bank, show that inhabitants of countries who enjoy high levels of economic freedom are far less likely…Patrick Tyrrell -
Panic Over Foreign Aid Budget Could Use Some Perspective
Earlier this week, Foreign Policy published a leaked 15-page State Department internal document detailing the fiscal year 2018 budget numbers for five categories of foreign assistance. The article, breathlessly titled “The End of Foreign Aid as We Know It,” asserted that the document portended the imminent incorporation of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or…Brett Schaefer -
The Troubling Relationship Between Soros and US’ Biggest Foreign Aid Agency
Foreign aid can help advance U.S. national interests, for example, by promoting our values globally or by demonstrating to the world the goodwill of the American people. Calls to eliminate funding outright often fail to weigh this important function. But our lead aid agency has itself been jeopardizing this effort, and risking all-important public support,…Mike Gonzalez -
The US Needs a New Foreign Aid Model
In recent days, Heritage Foundation scholars have reported on the significant cuts said to be included in President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget for the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other foreign policy-related federal agencies funded by the foreign operations appropriation. Those scholars rightly argued that alarmism about Trump’s…James M. Roberts -
Trump Pledges Boost in Military and Infrastructure Spending, Cut in Foreign Aid
President Donald Trump’s first budget will boost military spending by $54 billion and pay for it by scaling back nondiscretionary spending—including cuts to foreign aid—the president and his budget director said. “This defense spending increase will be offset and paid for by finding greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government,” Trump said Monday morning…Fred Lucas -
The Negative Effects on Haiti of Too Much Foreign Aid
In Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, the wheels of economic progress grind forward slowly. In the case of a newly-rehabilitated flour mill in Port-au-Prince, however, those grinding gears can actually be seen and heard. For a nation struggling with hungry citizens the reopening of the Moulins d’Haiti (LMH) flour mill isn’t small…James M. Roberts