U.S. foreign aid is in the headlines now as almost never before, with massive political upheaval in Egypt, calls by House Republicans to dramatically slash funding for development programs, and a major overhaul of our aid programs announced by the Obama administration last year. The new interactive tool below is designed to accompany our latest report on foreign aid, “U.S. Foreign Aid Reform Meets the Tea Party,” by John Norris, the Executive Director of the Sustainable Security Program here at CAP. It lets you better explore where U.S. foreign aid dollars are spent and how these countries rank in terms of basic indicators such as political rights and civil liberties, corruption, and overall development.
Both Congress and the Obama administration should support a more selective approach to delivering aid that produces lasting economic growth and is designed with the direct input of the people of the developing world themselves. Foreign aid can work wonders in those countries willing to make hard choices, combat corruption, and support reform—and is often starkly ineffective when those conditions do not exist.
This interactive map helps you better explore where U.S. foreign aid dollars are spent and how these countries rank in terms of basic indicators such as political rights and civil liberties, corruption, and overall development.
You can click on any country for a breakdown of assistance and its ranking on key barometers from Freedom House, Transparency International, and the United Nations. You can also screen the entire map for any of these indicators.
All figures come from the administration’s own 2010 spending estimates according to its 2011 Congressional Budget Justification numbers for foreign assistance. In some cases, substantial additional spending occurred as a result of supplemental appropriations, and every effort has been made to include these in respective country totals. Nonetheless, the figures remain estimates, not exact 2010 spending. In addition, some humanitarian assistance and spending on food aid through the Department of Agriculture is not reflected here.
Freedom rankings come from Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World 2010,” the organization’s annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties. Freedom House ranked countries as free, partly free, or not free.
Corruption indicators come from Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perception’s Index. For the purpose of this map, countries were ranked as having high, medium, or low corruption by which third of the corruption index they fell into.
Development rankings come from the United Nations Development Programme’s 2010 Human Development Index. For the purpose of this map, countries were ranked as having high, medium, or low development by which third of the corruption index they fell into.
Read more about foreign aid: