U.S foreign aid dates back to nearly 40 years of assistance in different areas like agriculture, economic planning and food assistance. It is the main areas of U.S foreign aid and also the forms of aid that has led to many problems.

There has been a controversy that although the United States is a country with bountiful resources, instead of pooling its resource together for a better use, it has been said that the USAID overly focuses on the aid it is providing and does not take into interest its implications that is caused by it.

One valid example is the foreign aid program, Food for Peace.

The foreign aid program, Food for Peace was first created in 1954. The U.S wanted to make use of the fertile lands in their country to produce food for the hungry families for all the countries that they were providing aid to. Statistics note that approximately 3 billion people in 150 countries have benefited from this program. It garners the effort of farmers, businessmen, grain elevator operators, truckers, bargemen, freight forwarders, port operations, private voluntary organizations and government officials.

Indeed, the program has been reported to be successful in achieving its aims of feeding the hungry families almost half a world away from the U.S. However, the flipside to this program was that along its way, it has neglected whether the food aid that is provided to the different countries have been put into efficient use.

The main failure in the initial stages of this program in my opinion was due to the poor organization structure and practice. USAID had focused very much on producing crops (food) in order to provide food aid to the hungry families in its beneficiary countries. It constantly provided food aid to the countries causing the agriculture in the country to stop producing. For example, in Haiti, U.S free food is widely sold illegally in the country’s markets next to the Haitian farmers’ own crops. Governments often accept U.S. free food at the same time that they are repressing their own farmers, refusing to pay them what their crops are worth. (http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa065.html) Also, the food aid that is provided by the Food for Peace program for school-food or health programs for mothers and children has also been ineffective. In my opinion, the main problem that USAID has failed to address is the lack of follow-up with the beneficiary country after providing aid to them. Thus, the beneficiary countries tend to misuse the aids that are provided to them and also disregard the policies that USAID has set due to the lack of information. The target beneficiaries of USAID are also too large a scale that it is difficult for the organization to concentrate on the development of each country after providing aid to them.

Recommended solutions

Next, I would discuss some of the solutions that could be suitable for USAID to adopt to improve its foreign aid programs.

Firstly, and the most important and immediate solution to the above mentioned scenario is that USAID should allocate manpower to each country that receives their aid to ensure the appropriate use of the food aid that is provided. The staff that is allocated to the country should be responsible of carrying out the policies set by the USAID as well as to educate the people the actual purpose of the Food for Peace foreign aid program. It is of utmost importance that the staff from USAID conducts this follow-up action instead of only providing assistance to the country on the surface without ensuring that the form of aid provided would sustain the growth of the country and its people.

Secondly, the organization’s focus is too diverse. It is definitely a good thing that the organization focuses on different areas of development for the third world countries. However with a diverse focus, it is harder for the organization to ensure that the foreign aid provided to the countries are exactly what they need. Hence, it is always important that a needs assessment is to be conducted before the organization conducts a foreign aid program in the area.

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Sources
Bovard, J. (n.d.) The Continuing Failure of Foreign Aid. Retrieved on May 31, 2010 from http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa065.html
USAID: About USAID. (n.d.) Retrieved on May 31, 2010 from http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/

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