Oxfam looks at what foreign aid is and who it helps around the world.
U.S. foreign aid plays a critical role in tackling poverty, hunger, and inequality worldwide, which is why the Trump administration’s proposed freeze on foreign development assistance was met with public outrage and pushback from organizations, including Oxfam.
Despite the Trump administration scrapping its initial order to freeze foreign aid, we know many programs funded by the U.S. will be on the chopping block soon. But what does this mean for the world, what is foreign aid, and how can you help ensure these lifesaving programs are protected and expanded?
What is foreign aid?
Foreign aid programs help people around the world in various ways, providing food, healthcare, education, economic development, and disaster relief. It’s a key part of U.S. foreign policy and has proven to be an important factor in reducing global poverty. This type of assistance—from the United States as well as other governments and international institutions—has changed the lives of a billions people for the better.
The United States typically spends around one percent of the federal budget on foreign aid, which includes both humanitarian assistance and development programs. Continued investment in U.S. foreign aid is essential to protect the world’s most vulnerable people, foster long-term development, and strengthen U.S. leadership on the global stage.
Why is this aid important?
Development and humanitarian assistance around the world is more crucial now than ever. This assistance saves lives, fights diseases, educates millions of children, and reduces poverty. Suspending and ultimately cutting many of these programs could have life or death consequences for children and families who are living through crisis. Suspending this assistance casts uncertainty over all U.S. humanitarian and development programming, which makes aid experts unable to effectively plan or operate.
Ensuring that foreign aid continues to reach people around the world also strengthens U.S. leadership on the global stage. Without its foreign aid impact, the U.S.’s ability to promote stability and support communities in need will be undermined, if not completely diminished.
Freezing foreign aid would have disastrous implications for poor people and regions around the world, as well as for the credibility and alliances the U.S. has globally.
Three ways we can improve foreign aid
Despite all the positive impact that foreign aid has on the world, it still has its issues, such as: rich countries and organizations controlling how aid is used in foreign countries, locally-led organizations being overlooked in the implementation of aid, and financial institutions as well as private lenders putting profits over the best interests of people.
So how can we tackle and improve these issues? There are three ways Oxfam is working to transform foreign aid.
- Prioritizing locally-led aid: Oxfam is ensuring that local organizations have more resources, power, and decision-making authority. When foreign aid supports local solutions to complex problems, it helps more people build critical skills to help themselves and creates a more equal world.
- Maintaining quantity of aid: We fight against any attempt to freeze or end foreign assistance to those in need. The Trump administration’s initial freeze is the most recent example of donor countries pulling funding to poor countries, and Oxfam is working to protect these programs while pushing rich nations to increase foreign assistance funding.
- Helping countries fund their own development: The ultimate goal is to end the need for foreign aid, so that poor countries are able to develop according to their own priorities and local organizations have full authority. The most important piece of this puzzle is creating progressive tax systems, which enable more accountable public investments in health, education, and social safety net programs that are essential to fighting inequality and end poverty.