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The Politics of Aid

Gayle Smith discusses the evolution of foreign aid under the Bush administration and before in Human Rights.

The evolution of foreign aid during the Bush administration has been impressively nonpartisan and strikingly political. On the one hand, two new signature programs—the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)—have been funded robustly and with strong support from both republicans and democrats. On the other hand, ideology and politics are shaping PEPFAR to reflect core conservative values and gearing America’s development policies and programs toward the goals of President Bush’s “global war on terror.” Read more here

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