AFRO-NETS> Colin Powell and the truth about US Aid to Africa

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Colin Powell and the truth about US Aid to Africa
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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 sec-
retary 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, malnour-
ished, uneducated and homeless in Africa and other developing re-
gions, 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 allo-
cate our tax dollars. Studies, however, indicate there might be more
support for greater generosity than the White House and Congress rec-
ognize.

Studies by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the Uni-
versity 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 appro-
priate 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 di-
rectly 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 criti-
cized 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 January 1 2001.

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 politi-
cally realistic now, but do Americans really want to be the stingiest
kid on the block?


Joe Davidson
Commentator on National Public Radio's
"Morning Edition"
mailto:joedavidson@hotmail.com


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