The U.S. is the world’s largest foreign aid contributor donating more money in development assistance than any other country in nominal terms. In terms of the percentage of ODA of its Gross Domestic Income, the U.S. ranks 24th. Between 2013 and 2018, Washington allocated US$47 billion per year in foreign assistance. How was the money spent?
The range of aid
According to a report from OpenTheBooks.com, a non-profit, non-partisan charitable organization that focuses on American transparency, in 2018 the US spent US$46.9 billion on foreign aid. In 2019, it provided US$11.6 billion in gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 13.0% in real terms from 2018. So far in 2021, the U.S. has spent over US$60 billion in foreign assistance.
Fig.1. Overall U.S. Foreign Aid Spending Obligations
Aid recipients
Three of the largest recipients in 2018 were Afghanistan, Israel, and Jordan respectively. The graph below shows the top beneficiaries.
Fig.2. Top Countries Receiving U.S. Foreign Aid Spending (FY2018)
In terms of regions, the U.S. channeled the most funding to sub-Saharan Africa (27%), the Middle East and North Africa (24%), and South and Central Asia (17%). In 2018, 78% of spending was allocated to bilateral economic development programs (43%) and to military and non-military security assistance (35%).
Aid goals
As far as the global pandemic is concerned, the U.S. spent at least US$14.6 billion in foreign aid to curb its effects in 2020-2021. The US Congress had channeled US$3.8 billion towards foreign COVID-19 relief by the autumn of 2020 and in spring 2021 a further US$10.8 billion was added. However, this amount does not include the funding given within the framework of global vaccine efforts. The US government report indicates that only the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has a budget for COVID-19 relief (US$9.6 billion) in this fiscal year and although USAID had pledged to spend US$1.2 billion by June 2021, it was only able to spend US$643 million.
The report indicates that the US also contributes the most amongst other countries for spending on peacekeeping operations within the UN having spent US$10.26 billion in the last six years. As UN peacekeeping activity costs continue to increase, the US spending on this target has also grown threefold since 1994, as can be seen below.
Fig.3. U.S. Contributions to the UN’s International Peacekeeping Activities
The UN peacekeeping budget for 2020-2021 is US$6.58 billion and the US is the largest contributor to this allocating 27.89% (US$1.84 billion). Data shows that three of the most expensive peacekeeping missions the UN had conducted by February 2021 were in Mali (US$1.18 billion), South Sudan (US$1.17 billion) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (US$1.07 billion).
How is the aid distributed?
The report from OpenTheBooks.com also shows that in 2018 the US mainly distributed its foreign aid through its six agencies USAID (US$20.1 billion), the Department of Defence (US$13.3 billion), the State Department (US$7.4 billion), the US Department of Health and Human Service (US$2.1 billion), the Treasury (US$1.5 billion) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (US$0.6 billion).
In 2019, the US provided US$11 billion of assistance to international organizations with the top five being the World Food Program (US$2.6 billion), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) (US$1.7 billion), The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (US$849 million), UNICEF (US$672.9 million) and NATO (US$624.5 million). All 25 top international organizations that received US foreign aid are listed below.
Fig.4. U.S. Top 25 Funded International Organizations FY2019
The report was prepared basing on data coming from the US governmental institutions.
