---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 23:59:13 -0700
From: David Mozer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: WASAN <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [wa-afr] FW: Colin. Powell and the truth about US aid to Africa.
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 12:44 PM
To: Friends of Africa
Subject: Colin. Powell and the truth about US aid to Africa.
LA Times May 27, 2001 - guest editorial page
Powell Can Chide Stinginess to Africa
By JOE DAVIDSON
Colin L. Powell is making history as the first African American
secretary of state to visit Africa. On the way to his initial stop in
Mali, Powell acknowledged the "emotional connection" he feels
with the continent. But as he told reporters aboard his plane, he is
visiting Africa not "as a black man looking at a black problem, but
as a secretary of State of the United States looking at a human
problem."
Unfortunately, when the United States looks at the sick,
malnourished, uneducated and homeless in Africa and other
developing regions, it offers little more than the "conversation of
hope" that Powell said he had with Mali's president. The
"continuing support" Powell offered Mali amounts to little more than
talk when compared to America's wealth and to the amount of
assistance other rich nations provide their poor cousins. When it
comes to foreign aid, the richest country in the world is the
cheapest place on Earth. Of 22 developed nations,
the U.S. ranks last in foreign aid as a percentage of gross
national product. America devotes just 0.1% of its wealth to foreign
assistance, less than half the rich nations' average. Conventional
wisdom says the U.S. gives so little in foreign aid because it does
not generate votes for the politicians who allocate our tax dollars.
Studies, however, indicate there might be more support for
greater generosity than the White House and Congress recognize.
Studies by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the
University of Maryland also found ignorance about the amount the
U.S. gives in foreign aid. Instead of the actual 0.1%, Americans
believe that about 20% of the budget is spent on foreign aid,
according to Steven Kull, the program's director. Voters believe
20% is too much, but Kull's research indicates that they think 10%
would be an appropriate amount.
"overall, I would say that when they get the [correct] information
they are receptive to the amount being greater," Kull said. "It's not
that they demand it be greater, but they are receptive to it."
There might be even greater receptivity if Americans realized that
the greatest portion of their foreign-aid dollars are not spent on poor
places like Mali but right here at home. "The principal beneficiary of
America's foreign assistance programs has always been the United
States," according to the U.S. Agency for International
Development. "Close to 80% of the [USAID] contracts and
grants go directly to American firms. Foreign assistance programs
have helped create major markets for agricultural goods, created
new markets for American industrial exports and meant hundreds of
thousands of jobs for Americans."
Although ignorance of the 80% figure prevents greater voter support
for foreign aid, some people abroad consider the high percentage to
be one of the worst things about U.S. assistance. At a recent U.N.
conference in Brussels, Belgium, Holland's minister for
development cooperation, spoke of "tied aid" as one form of "bad
donor behavior" by the U.S. and other nations. Tied aid requires
recipient countries to purchase goods and services from the donor
and "has been criticized as inefficient and harmful to . . . recipient
nations," the U.N. says. During the conference, USAID
Administrator Andrew S. Natsios announced that
Washington will abide by an agreement to untie the aid by Jan. 1.
Though U.S. foreign-aid funding has been shamefully low for years,
Powell now is in a position to push for a significantly bigger budget.
He has said his tour of four African countries "gives me greater
standing when I go before Congress and ask for additional funds to
support our programs in Africa."
It would take a very big increase, however, for the U.S. to boost its
foreign assistance to 0.7% of GNP,as it and other wealthy nations
have agreed in principle to do. Such an increase doesn't seem
politically realistic now, but do Americans really want to be the
stingiest kid on the block?
=====================
Joe Davidson is a commentator on National Public Radio's
"Morning Edition" [log in to unmask]
=====================
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"Americans on Foreign Aid and World Hunger" cited in this report
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