U.S. to require that recipients of its foreign aid must be worthy

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | Feb. 22, 2004 | NY Times

[FairOpinion]

WASHINGTON -- The United States is now plunging into a fundamental overhaul of its assistance to developing nations, demanding that applicants for a rich new source of financing prove their worthiness. Already countries from Bolivia to Bangladesh are competing to be among the winners.

This month, the board of the new Millennium Challenge Account met for the first time to lay groundwork for grants that President Bush has said will total $5 billion annually by 2008. In the first year, perhaps just 15 nations will win awards.

The program is ambitious. If it is fully financed, the Millennium Challenge Account would reflect close to a doubling of the U.S. aid that goes primarily to promote development in poor countries, analysts say. It would represent nearly a 9 percent increase in foreign aid overall.

But the new account is already disrupting traditional aid flows. All but five countries in Latin America, for example, are ineligible for the Millennium Challenge because their per capita incomes are too high.

At the same time, because of cuts proposed in overall foreign aid to the region, some of these nations, like El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, could experience cuts of 10 percent in aid in fiscal 2005, which begins Oct. 1.

African countries like Senegal and Ghana that respect civil liberties stand to benefit, according to budget analysts; the war-ravaged nations of Sudan and Somalia, however, do not.

The account, like the president's five-year, $15 billion global effort to fight AIDS, is up against foreign aid spending that is constrained by tight budgets and by unusually heavy outlays on assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Critics are warning that the account may produce inequities, leaving some of the most economically needy countries to compete for much smaller amounts of traditional aid.

Advocates say the two initiatives are prototypes in an administration effort to retool the foreign aid system, which spends nearly $18 billion a year.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., who is chairman of the International Relations Committee and a backer of the new approach, wants to place a performance-driven Republican imprint on such aid, which has been denounced by some of his colleagues as "pouring money down a rathole."

[FairOpinion]

Another major reform, for which Predient Bush deserves credit.

[FairOpinion]

Would you be so kind and correct the title, please?

As I copy-pasted, I must have missed the last few letters.

It should be "worthy", instead of "wo".

Thank you.

[Rodney King]

Well, he certainly deserves credit for the reforms to the way the money is distributed, but I am totally against his having increased the amount of money. It's like the NEA art funding. The position seems to be that as long as government is in the right hands, than government power and intrusion are ok. The problem of course is that government will not always be in the right hands. Additionally, the "right hands" will very quickly become the "wrong hands" if one believes that government power is and of itself corrupting.

[Killborn]

A sound policy. Score one more for Dubya!

[FairOpinion]

The PROCESS Bush is putting into effect of holding countries accountable, instead of throwing money at them, pouring money down a rat hole will endure. But this policy couldn't be seen as a "cut" in foreign aid, or Bush would suffer politically.

Bush knows what he is doing.

[Egon]

Glad to see it-- but, wouldn't this really be a no-brainer?

Why has it not been that way since its inception?

[FairOpinion]

An interesting history of US Foreign Aid:

http://www.bartleby.com/65/fo/foreignai.html

[FairOpinion]

I suspect that the current foreign aid is also connected to the War on Terror -- giving foreign aid to countries, to help them fight the war on terror.

[zerosix]

Sounds like Rush's famous "S&*t List" with a Compasionate Conservative twist.

[getgoing]

"If it is fully financed, the Millennium Challenge Account would reflect close to a doubling of the U.S. aid that goes primarily to promote development in poor countries, analysts say. It would represent nearly a 9 percent increase in foreign aid overall."

Looking for info on total foreign aid (incl mil) spent in recent years...ANYONE??

[FairOpinion]

Here is some info -- but you have to add them up. But it shows that "foreign aid" is not just a simple sum, it depends on the objective, for which it's given.

Bush Foreign Aid Budget Would Aim to Boost Terrorism Fight
http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/texts/04020202.htm

[FairOpinion]

U.S.:
Foreign Aid Budget Takes on Cold War Cast

http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=22232

[getgoing]

Thank you & bookmarked.