Foreign Aid

This page is part of Public Opinion on Global Issues. This publication is now archived. Development and Humanitarian Aid The U.S. public, like publics in most other developed nations, expresses support for giving development assistance to poor countries. There is a widespread consensus in the United States that developed countries have a moral responsibility to work to reduce hunger and severe poverty and that helping poor countries develop serves the long-term interests of wealthy countries, including by developing trade partners and enhancing global stability. In addition, Americans perceive development aid as furthering democracy and, for a more modest number of respondents, as a way to fight terrorism. Besides financial aid, large majorities of Americans express a willingness to contribute troops for humanitarian operations, including providing assistance to victims of war and famine.  Aid Levels and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) There is a strong consensus among Americans that wealthy nations are not doing enough to help poorer nations. At the same time, less than a majority of U.S. respondents favored increased government spending on aid, or higher taxes to pay for more foreign aid. However, these attitudes are based on extremely exaggerated estimates of how much aid the U.S. government is giving. In addition, when increased spending is placed in the context of a multilateral effort—specifically the Millennium Development Goal of cutting hunger and severe poverty in half—a large majority of Americans said they would support increasing their spending to the necessary amount to meet the goal, provided other countries do the same. However, public awareness of the MDGs remains low.  Role of Multilateral Institutions and Aid to Developing Countries There is strong U.S. support for multilateral institutions taking the lead in setting aid policies and delivering development assistance, but not in dealing with refugees.  Linking Aid to Recipient Country Behavior Majorities of Americans favor linking the level of aid given to poor countries with a variety of conditions, including the recipient country’s efforts to promote democracy and fight poverty, corruption, and terrorism, though U.S. public support is consistently lower than global support for insisting on these conditions. A large majority also favors giving aid to help poor countries reduce greenhouse gases as part of an agreement wherein they commit to limit the growth of their emissions. 

This page is part of Public Opinion on Global Issues. This publication is now archived. Economic Development and Humanitarian Aid Publics in developed countries express support for giving development assistance to poor countries. Globally, there is a widespread consensus that developed countries have a moral responsibility to work to reduce hunger and severe poverty. There is also a consensus that helping poor countries develop serves the long-term interests of wealthy countries, such as developing trade partners and achieving global stability. In addition, development aid is seen as furthering democracy and, for a more modest number of respondents, as a way to fight terrorism. Besides financial aid, large majorities of European and U.S. respondents express a willingness to contribute troops for humanitarian operations, including providing assistance to victims of war and famine.  Aid Levels and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) There is a strong global consensus that wealthy nations are not doing enough to help poorer nations. Europeans strongly support the view that the European Union should spend more on development aid. At the same time, less than a majority of Europeans favor increasing their taxes to increase aid or say that their own national government should increase its spending. However, when increased spending is placed in the context of a multilateral effort—specifically the Millennium Development Goal of cutting hunger and severe poverty in half —large majorities in the OECD countries say that they would be willing to substantially increase their spending if others did the same. Globally, public awareness of the MDGs remains low. Role of Multilateral Institutions and Aid to Developing Countries There is strong support for multilateral institutions taking the lead in setting aid policies, delivering development assistance, and dealing with refugees.  Linking Aid to Recipient Country Behavior Large majorities of Europeans and Americans favor linking the level of aid given to poor countries to a variety of conditions, including the recipient country’s efforts to fight poverty, corruption, and terrorism, and to promote democracy. Large majorities favor giving aid to help poor countries reduce greenhouse gases as part of an agreement wherein they commit to limit the growth of their emissions. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s seven-nation trip to Africa will highlight U.S. security concerns from Somalia to Nigeria and expand on efforts to engage leading African states on governance and trade issues.

Washington is focusing new military aid to Pakistan on strengthening counterinsurgency capabilities. But distrust between the two countries and Islamabad’s continued focus on an Indian threat pose challenges, say experts.

CFR fellow Peter Navario says the debate over the impact of billions of HIV dollars on developing countries’ health systems misses the point: such aid can address both HIV treatment and improved health systems.