Americans Send $70-Billion to Poor Countries, Far More Than U.S. Government Spends

By Holly Hall

Americans send more than $70-billion a year to aid people in developing countries, more than three times as much as the federal government provides in overseas aid, according to a new study by the Hudson Institute. That is far more than the aid distributed by any other country, the report said, and is just $10-billion less than the nearly $80-billion donated by all governments around the world.

In 2004, the most recent year for which data are available, the U.S. government contributed $19.7-billion to developing countries, but private sources gave at least $71.2-billion, according to the study by the Center for Global Prosperity at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington.

Foundations, corporations, nonprofit groups, and other private groups provided $24-billion of the total that came from private sources. The rest came from “remittances” — the money that people in the United States send to relatives and friends in their home countries.

New Ranking Approach

The study, which will be repeated annually, is thought to be the first-ever attempt to measure the amount that goes from both government and private sources to developing nations.

Carol C. Adelman, director of the center, said her goal was to give a full picture of what a country gives, both in private and government aid.

She noted that the United Nations and many other institutions rely on government-support figures alone, because few countries have as many nonprofit groups and donors as the United States.

Looking solely at government support, the United States ranks next to last among 22 developed countries in the amount of money the government contributes as a percentage of its gross domestic income.

The government of Norway, which is No. 1, provides 0.87 percent of its gross domestic income, while the United States gives 0.17 percent, the lowest percentage except for that of Italy, which contributes 0.15 percent.

Ms. Adelman said that the majority of federal aid goes to foreign governments, but she hopes her study will trigger a re-examination of how that money is distributed.

“Government aid should be merged with these other private sources,” she said. “If government money is connected with a project that is already under way by a foundation or other private institution, it has a much better chance of being effective.”

The “Index of Global Philanthropy” is available online at http://www.hudson.org.