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An independent federal agency, it receives overall foreign policy guidance from the US Secretary of State.
It advances US foreign policy objectives by supporting:
USAid provides assistance in four regions of the world:
USAID's origins date back to the Marshall Plan reconstruction of Europe after World War Two and the Truman Administration's Point Four Program . In 1961, President
John F. Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act into law and by executive order established USAID.At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the world's governments adopted a program for action under the auspices of the United Nations–Agenda 21, which included an Official Development Assistance (ODA) aid target of 0.7% of gross national product (GNP) for rich nations, roughly 22 members of the OECD, known as the Development Assistance Committee (DAC).
However, US levels of foreign aid fall far short of this goal; the US currently ranks last among the world's wealthiest countries at about 0.1 percent of GNP. In absolute amounts, the United States is currently the world's top donor of economic aid, although for more than a decade it was second to JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh, which is far smaller and has been beset by economic woes. In 2001, the United States gave $10.9 billionThe word billion , and its equivalents in other languages, refer to one of two different numbers. The obsolete word "milliard" can be used for 109 to avoid ambiguity, though this usage is unfamilar to some speakers of English. See long scale for a more de, Japan $9.7 billion, GermanyThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east $4.9 billion, the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly $4.7 billion, and FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. $4.3 billion. As a percentage of GNP, however, the top donors were DenmarkKongeriget Danmark ( In Detail) Motto of the Queen: Guds hjaelp, Folkets kaerlighed, Danmarks styrke (English: God's help, the love of the people, Denmark's strength) Official language Danish Capital Copenhagen Kobenhavn Monarch Margrethe II Prime Ministe, NorwayThe Kingdom of Norway is a Nordic country west of Sweden on the Scandinavian Peninsula. It has a very elongated form and has an extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean, where Norway's famous fjords are found. In addition to Sweden, it borders R, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden. The tiny Netherlands (pop. 5.3 million) gave $3.2 billion in 2001 — almost a third of what America contributed.
The 2003 budget of President Bush proposed $11.4 billion in foreign aid with an additional $4.3 billion for peacekeeping operations and to finance, train, and educate foreign armed forces.
USAID claims that "U.S. foreign assistance has always had the twofold purpose of furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world," but critics say that the US government more frequently gives aid to reward political and military partners than to advance genuine social or humanitarian causes abroad.