Talk:United States Agency for International Development
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[edit] page does need some adjustments, but is a pretty good start!
01 FEB 2005: This page does need some adjustments. In particular, we should refer to the most current Federal budget, not the 2003 one. I will try to find the information on foreign aid and return to update this entry.
Further, there have been recent articles on how the people of the USA contribute to foreign development not only through public organizations like USAID, but also through private contributions to religious (i.e., Catholic Relief Services) and secular (i.e., Save the Children) non-governmental organizations. So this means that the conventional wisdom about US taxpayers being stingy when it comes to foreign aid may not be true. This point is worth mentioning here.
It would be interesting to see some more about how USAID evolved over time, from its heyday in the 1960s with thousands of employees in the Vietnam Bureau alone, to today when we have only about a thousand foreign service officers and we mainly work through contractors and grantees. That is an interesting shift that's worth documenting here.
As for GNP for the USA... USAID deals only with assistance to people of foreign countries, so any discussion of USA national product is tangential to the discussion here; the reader Ashley should refer to the entry on GNP, not USAID, for that info.
R.M.Birkenes (rbirkenes@usaid.gov)
The page is somewhat misleading; the USAID organization is a primary source of U.S. aid but not necessarily even the main anymore. In 2005 the U.S. gave away 27 billion in economic aid; only 10 billion of that came through USAID (Source: US Overseas Loans & Grants [Greenbook] which can be accessed at http://qesdb.cdie.org/gbk/index.html). This amount is dwarfed by the private giving of the U.S. people, which was estimated by "Giving USA" to be 260 billion; 76% of which came from individuals. In fact as Prof. Arthur Brooks points out in his book Americans privately give 1.7% of GDP as compared to .7% for the U.K. The reason for this is simple, most Americans believe charity is a personal responsibility and most put their money where their mouth is. [Of course none of this includes U.S. military aid or the indirect subsidizing of the world free trade by protecting the world's oceans]
At least you had the honesty of declaring your interests. In reference to your point that US taxpayers being stingy may not be true, I'd like to point you to the [OECD web site] which shows that the contribution from the US in 2005, in terms of GNI, was only greater than Portugal and significantly behind that of the rest of the developed nations. So, sorry, it's not a matter of perceptions that the US is 'stingy', it's a matter of fact. 193.133.69.201 10:19, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
I have to agree -- we (the US) agreed to deliver .7% for ODA (a paltry amount by any calculation) and have been making excuses for welching ever since. The amount provided through private donations was never part of the equation, as far as I know.
Regards.
Elrobino 09:47, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
Despite the fact the percentages are less, the economy of the US is so much larger than the aforementioned countries, it is still giving more money, making "stingyness" an arbitrary and utterly ineffective label.
[edit] USAID and CIA
"Most claim that there was in the past, but no longer is, a relationship between the CIA and USAID. Others disagree."
So who exactly disagrees and who doesn't? That last sentence seems like it was added just to make the paragraph more neutral, but there's no argument backing it, and it just looks stupid the way it's put. Has the CIA or USAID said anything about the allegations? If they denied them then we could replace that sentence with their position.
Who does "most" referr to? 194.138.39.53 11:21, 23 February 2007 (UTC)r.w.
- Especially odd considering that the next paragraph confirmed the connection, citing the "Family Jewels". I've corrected the language, therefore, though I cannot speak to the claim's accuracy.Czrisher 12:30, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
References [1] and [2] about CIA connections lead to another WP article rather than to an original source, at it suppose to be per WP:Source. Can anyone provide correct references, please?Biophys 03:16, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] My God!
There has always been, is, and always be a relationship between the Agency and USAID. The apportionment of foreign aid to "particular" foreign groups, political parties, media outlets, labor unions (or their opponents), legal and student groups, etc... are the bread and butter of USAID. And only those groups that support the US agenda (political or economic) receive such aid. And what better cover for Agency operatives in foreign (and often hostile) climes than as the distributors of aid? There are nof "ifs" about it. RM Gillespie (talk) 15:08, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Important criticisms are missing
In my studies of a couple Latin American countries, I found a lot of criticism of USAID programs which is not covered here. Supposedly, USAID often supports the already rich and powerful instead of going to the people who actually need AID. For instance, in the book "Inside Honduras" by Kent Norsworthy and Tom Barry, a former vice president of Honduras "chraged that 30 percent of U.S. economic aid was lost to corruption, and another 50 percent was misdirected, going to the business elite rather than to programs to help the poor" (pg. 167). Thus, USAID's programs "aggravate and accentuate the deep social and economic divisions in Honduras." (pg. 168). USAID itself has acknowledged this, in "Honduras: Country Development Strategy Statement FY1986", May 1984, saying, "...implementation of a stabilization program will probably lower living standards and may well increase unrest among the country's already impoverished people in the short term."
How can we incorporate this into the article to show this viewpoint?
Rawgreenbean 22:12, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
Also, some recent and not-so-recent hystorical research, specially done by latin-american writers, have find evidence that USAID was directly involved in the political overthrows that ocurred in Latin America during the 60-70's. USAID directly gave financial help to groups interested in overthrowing democratictly elected governments as João Goulart in Brazil and Salvador Allende in Chile, and later used as a mean of supporting the dictatorial governments (Pinochet in Argentina, Costa e Silva and following military presidents in Brazil). There are a lot of hystorical evidences documented by brazilian writer Elio Gaspari and others that show, for instance, that USAID money was used to organize the God's march for Family and Property in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, one of the biggest righ-wing manifestations that were supportive to the coming coup.
Andresacram, 19:31 01-07-2008 (GMT -03:00)
[edit] USAID programs & projects?
Is anyone thinking of developing a list of USAID programs and projects (past and present)? There may be a summary list somewhere - the effort would itself be encyclopedic. I ask as I just started a stub on the Leland Initiative which seems too big an "ICT4D" program to have been without an article so long. --A12n 01:48, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
A link to past USAID (and earlier agencies) projects has been added today in the external links section. -- Jpharold (talk) 16:24, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Many important criticisms are missing
Many intellectuals in Africa and, also, some in America (e.g William Robinson) so USAID as a key vehicle for contemporary imperialism. This is not explored on this page. You should site real sourses if you plan to make bold statements like this.
[edit] USAID to Israel?
Do these figures include the military shit, like bombs and stuff, we send to Israel as aid? Or not? Because I can't figure out why else Israel would get so much. 132.161.140.26 (talk) 15:51, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
There are MANY US foreign aid programs outside of USAID. USAID's official mandate does not include military assistance. Programs like arms for Israel fall under DOD -- foreign military sales or aid. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.174.229.23 (talk) 02:08, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Edit Dispute
United States Agency for International Development footnote #3 and preceding paragraph is in dispute. Source in one editor's opinion is legit, in another source is non-neutral (biased) and information is dated. Rather than escalating an edir war, per Wikipedia:Third opinion, seeking 3rd opinion. Mikebar (talk) 17:47, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
- The line in question doesn't belong in the article. The source in the foornote speaks about some incidents in cuba, not all of latin america. Therefore the the sentance Its role in Latin America has often been criticised for being overtly political is too broad. The term often implies mutiple reliable sources, which isn't the caase. Finally, the amounts allegedly given to dissident organizations in Cuba (ie USAID gave US$670,000 to three organizations...) are relatively trivial amounts within the context of the entire USAID program. --Work permit (talk) 08:09, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
