The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $50 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all U.S. foreign assistance—the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms.
The Department for International Development (DFID) was a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, from 1997 to 2020. It was responsible for administering foreign aid internationally.
Development aid is a type of aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political development of developing countries. It is distinguished from humanitarian aid by aiming at a sustained improvement in the conditions in a developing country, rather than short-term relief. The overarching term is foreign aid. The amount of foreign aid is measured though official development assistance (ODA). This is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid.
DAI Global, LLC is a privately held development company with corporate offices in more than a dozen countries, including in Bethesda, Maryland, in the United States; London and Apsley, Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom; Abuja and Lagos, in Nigeria; and Brussels, Vienna, and other European capitals.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian economist, who has been serving as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization since March 2021. She is the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization as Director-General.
Haiti—an island country 600 miles off the coast of the U.S. state of Florida—shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Haiti has received billions in foreign assistance, yet persists as one of the poorest countries and has the lowest human development index in the Americas. There have been more than 15 natural disasters since 2001 including tropical storms, flooding, earthquakes and hurricanes. The international donor community classifies Haiti as a fragile state. Haiti is also considered a post-conflict state—one emerging from a recent coup d'état and civil war.
International aid has been provided to Palestinians since at least the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Palestinians view the aid as keeping the Israeli–Palestinian peace process going, while Israelis and other foreign policy authorities have raised concerns that it is used to fund terrorism and removes the imperative for Palestinians to negotiate a settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. As a provision of the Oslo Accords, international aid was to be provided to the Palestinians to ensure economic solvency for the Palestinian National Authority (PA). In 2004, it was reported that the PA, within the West Bank and Gaza Strip, receives one of the highest levels of aid in the world. In 2006, economic sanctions and other measures were taken by several countries against the PA, including suspension of international aid following Hamas' victory at the Palestinian Legislative Council election. Aid to the PA resumed in 2008 following the Annapolis Conference, where Hamas was not invited. Aid has been provided to the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian non-governmental organizations (PNGOs) as well as Palestinian political factions by various foreign governments, international organizations, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and charities, besides other sources.
ACDI/VOCA is an international development nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., United States, that fosters broad-based economic growth, increased living standards, and community development. Incorporated in 1965, ACDI/VOCA's mission is to promote economic opportunities for cooperatives, enterprises and communities through the innovative application of sound business practice. ACDI/VOCA has worked in 148 countries since 1963. Total revenues for ACDI/VOCA and its affiliates are approximately $154 million. ACDI/VOCA employs approximately 1,270 people in the US and overseas.
The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., and London that focuses on international development.
Carsten Staur is a Danish diplomat who has been chairing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee since 2023 He previously served as the Permanent Representative of Denmark to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris. Prior to this he was Denmark's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva (2013–2018), and before that Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (2007–2013).
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global campaign to create transparency in the records of how aid money is spent. The initiative hopes to thereby ensure that aid money reaches its intended recipients. The ultimate goal is to improve standards of living worldwide and globally reduce poverty. The IATI also publishes a standard to be used by organizations, allowing different datasets to be combined and shared.
United States aid to Sudan has three key objectives: a definitive end to conflict, gross human rights abuses, and genocide in Darfur; implementation of the north–south Comprehensive Peace Agreement that results in a peaceful post-2011 Sudan, or an orderly path toward two separate and viable states at peace with each other; and ensuring that Sudan does not provide a safe haven for international terrorists. Sudan has experienced two civil wars since 1955, the second of which lasted 22 years. During this time, the U.S. was the largest provider of foreign aid to Sudan, largely focused on humanitarian aid through the U.S. Agency for International Development. Sudan is listed as the U.S. government's highest priority in Africa due to "its importance for counter-terrorism and regional stability, as well as the magnitude of human rights and humanitarian abuses" U.S. foreign aid to Sudan has begun to see some positive indicators of performance although critical reaction has said that aid to Sudan is neither strategic nor focused.
An indirect presidential election was held on 16 April 2012 to choose a new president of the World Bank Group to replace Robert Zoellick, whose term expired in June. Although the organisation has always had presidents from, and nominated by, the United States, this election featured the nomination of two non-United States candidates for the first time, originating, respectively, from Nigeria and Colombia. Though the Colombian José Antonio Ocampo withdrew his candidacy in the final stages, the Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala remained in the race. Eventually, and amid controversy, the US nominee Jim Yong Kim was announced as the new president on 16 April.
Chemonics International, Inc. is a private international development firm based in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1975 by Thurston F. (Tony) Teele as a subsidiary of Erly Industries. The employee-owned company offers a variety of services globally and with more than $1.5 billion in USAID contracts in 2019 is the largest for-profit recipient of U.S. government foreign aid. As of 2019 the company has approximately 5,000 employees in 100 countries.
Jordan has been granted considerate amounts of international aid moneys toward environmental conservation. Foreign aid goes into mitigation projects in the areas of water scarcity, loss of arable land for agriculture, and renewable energy. Moreover, foreign aid goes toward the development of the eco-tourism sector. Jordan receives aid from different kinds of international agents. Principal institutions that donate money toward environmentalism in Jordan are the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and World Bank. Recently, Jordan has had problems to control its budgetary deficit, which directly affects its ability to manage its environmental problems. That has made some point out that Jordan depends on International aid to control environmental-related issues. One of the examples of that is related to the construction of the East Ghor Canal.
Gayle Elizabeth Smith is the former CEO of the One Campaign. Smith was formerly Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security at the U.S. Department of State. and was the former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA), two of five international organizations owned by the World Bank Group. It was established along with the International Monetary Fund at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. After a slow start, its first loan was to France in 1947. In the 1970s, it focused on loans to developing world countries, shifting away from that mission in the 1980s. For the last 30 years, it has included NGOs and environmental groups in its loan portfolio. Its loan strategy is influenced by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, as well as environmental and social safeguards.
Synergy International Systems, Inc. (SIS) is an information technology and consulting company based in Washington, D.C. that provides web-based software to international development agencies, country governments, NGOs and private sector partners. Their key products are focused on monitoring and evaluation (M&E), national development effectiveness, aid management, judicial system modernization, social protection, public financial management, disaster relief and reconstruction, environment, education, and public health. There is a company-maintained global learning center in Yerevan, Armenia. The company's services include software development and customization, IT strategy consulting, systems integration, capacity development and technical support. Synergy has developed management information systems for public and private sector clients in 65 countries.
The Indian government used to receive foreign aid from various nations and international organisations.
The United States is the largest donor of multilateral global health funds. According to the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. government contributes <1% of the federal budget for foreign aid including global health activities. In 2023, the U.S. contributed 12.9 billion USD towards global health activities across several health verticals including HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria and COVID-19.
