As America looks ahead, there should be no doubting the need to turn outward with greater generosity. In the coming years, the United States should dramatically increase the amount of foreign aid it provides to the world’s underdeveloped countries.
Without greater aid, the poorer countries in Africa and in this hemisphere stand at risk of economic and social devastation. That should concern all of us as human beings.
As Americans have already seen, moreover, a political and economic vacuum can be exploited by forces dedicated to hatred and destruction. Abused by the Taliban and al-Qaida, Afghanistan and its misery became the world’s terror.
Following Sept. 11, President Bush spoke strongly of the need to increase foreign aid so that poverty doesn’t breed more terror. More recently, he promised to increase overall foreign aid 50 percent by 2006, from its current $10 billion per year.
There are, of course, considerable grounds for skepticism about foreign aid. It has frequently been misused and even the efforts of donors to assure accountability can be criticized. Some critics suggest that wealthy countries give money to corrupt governments so regularly that the breakdown of law and order in poor countries is quickened by the increasing cynicism of citizens. Those critics, though, don’t argue against aid, but for better controls and more thought about how it is given.
With such controls, though, America and other countries ought to be willing to give considerably more than they have. During the 1990s, the percentage of the world’s aid going to Africa, the neediest continent, actually dropped. At the G-8 economic summit in Canada, developed countries, led by the United States, promised a marked increase in aid to Africa. Importantly, President Bush has devoted particular attention to the AIDS crisis in Africa.
Even so, the G-8 nations have yet to pay much attention to the need for better education in Africa. That’s particularly unfortunate because many African countries have responded seriously to developed countries’ demands that they put forward detailed educational plans to qualify for more aid, which has not yet been forthcoming.
Overall, American aid to poor countries is clearly less than it could be. The $10 billion in annual expenditures represents less than one-tenth of 1 percent of our gross domestic product. Although we are the leading aid giver in total dollars, the rate of assistance is the lowest in the developed world and only about a fourth of that for European nations.
With more help from the United States, people in many countries can find their way toward brighter futures. That would make for a better, more just world — and one likely to be a little bit safer.
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