Sustainable Development & Ddevelopment Assistance

Thanks to expanding private sector efforts, aid from Americans to developing nations rose nearly 6 percent during 2006, despite a decline in the amount of official assistance from U.S. government agencies, according to a report by the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity. All told, U.S. public and private sources, including immigrants to the United States sending money back home, provided $130 billion to developing nations -- or more than six times the total support from the next largest donor nation. Private philanthropy and remittances by immigrants totaled $106 billion, up from $95 billion the year before and more than four times the level of official U.S. government aid in 2006, according to the Index of Global Philanthropy.

Responding aggressively to a worsening global food crisis, President Bush has ordered an estimated $200 million in emergency U.S. food assistance for global relief efforts and to help relieve political instability in some regions. "This additional food aid will address the impact of rising commodity prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs, and be used to meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere," the White House said in a statement. Bush directed Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer April 14 to draw the funds from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, which is a food reserve for emergency needs in the developing world, to meet global emergency needs abroad. "With this action, an estimated $200 million in emergency food aid will be made available through the U.S. Agency for International Development," the White House said.

2008: Private Sector Drives Growth in U.S. Assistance to Poor Nations (May 14, 2008) | Bush Orders $200 Million for Emergency Food Relief (Apr 15, 2008)

James Kunder, Acting Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (second from right) participated June 18, 2007, in a dialogue sponsored by the European Policy Centre on Effective Development Aid: American and European Approaches. He was joined at the Brussels event by Danny Leipziger, World Bank Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (far right), Acting European Commission Director in the Directorate General for Development Athanassios Theodorakis (far left), and the EPC moderator.

2007: USAID Administrator Fore Confirmed by U.S. Senate (Nov 14, 2007) | USAID Acting Director Fore Speaks of "A New Consensus in International Development" (Sep 19, 2007) | G8 Leaders Pledge Assistance for Africa, Emerging Economies (Jun 8, 2007) | U.S. Support to Europe for Combating Avian and Pandemic Influenza (Jun 7, 2007)

The United States welcomes the unanimous decision by the board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to redirect its focus to southeast Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to a top Treasury Department official. Addressing the EBRD annual meeting May 22, 2006, in London, Clay Lowery, assistant secretary for international affairs, said the EBRD's new focus can spur investment, trade, and transportation and energy links in Central Asia and promote cleaner, more efficient energy use in Ukraine, Moldova and other places. The bank now also can help promote stability in Kosovo by supporting a private sector that would provide jobs and stimulate economic growth, he said. In shifting its focus, which Lowery described as a "historic turning point," the bank will phase out funding to the European Union 8 (EU8), that is, "graduate" eight central European and Baltic countries. Those countries, which joined the European Union in 2004, are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

2006: EU, U.S. to Continue Climate, Energy and Sustainable Development Dialogue (Oct 25, 2006) (Finnish Presidency webpage) | U.S., EC To Hold First High-Level Dialogue on Energy, Development, Climate (Oct 20, 2006) | U.S. Applauds European Development Bank Shift, Official Says (May 22, 2006) | U.S. To Urge Development Banks To Adjust Focus, Official Says (May 12, 2006) | MCC's Danilovich in Brussels Discusses Using Incentives to Promote Good Governance (Apr 6, 2006) (Transcript of Q&A Session) | U.S. Disagrees with EU's "Cash Only" Food Assistance Policy (Jan 12, 2006)

As the world's primary sources of development assistance, the U.S. and the European Union (EU) have a long tradition of cooperation and coordination on our respective development assistance programs, says a February 2005 fact sheet issued by the State Department. The U.S. and EU combined contributed a total of $53.4 billion, or 78% of all global assistance in 2003. The U.S. is currently the world's largest contributor of official development assistance, providing $16.3 billion in 2003. The EU has pledged or disbursed $1.7 billion in aid since 2003, with the 25 EU Member States providing an additional $35.4 billion. Many U.S. and EU development and humanitarian assistance priorities coincide: in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan/Darfur, and the Palestinian Territories, among others.

2005: Focus on Results in Expanding Energy Access, United States Urges (Dec 15, 2005) | Fact Sheet: U.S., EU Cooperate on Development Assistance (Feb 25, 2005)

2004: Grossman Says U.S., Europe Can Work to Create Better World (Jun 29, 2004)