Foreign Assistance

Almost half the world's six billion people live on less than $2 a day, and 1.2 billion live in abject poverty, on less than $1 a day. Over the last decade, global development assistance has declined. As one of the world's most powerful nations, the U.S. has a responsibility to contribute to the universal common good. Yet, in 2000, U.S. overseas development assistance represented less than .1 percent of its Gross National Product. By comparison, the European Union, with a similarly sized economy, contributed 2.5 times as much as the U.S.

Catholic Relief Services, with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), is giving highest priority in its public policy advocacy efforts to an increase in U.S. foreign assistance, with a particular emphasis this year on Africa and HIV and AIDS. As an overarching objective, CRS and the USCCB are working toward the promotion of a revitalized foreign assistance program to support a comprehensive and effective development agenda.

What is the Millennium Challenge Account?

In the months prior to a major United Nations Conference on development assistance, non-governmental organizations, developing nations and European governments pressed the U.S. to increase levels of foreign assistance. At the conference in March 2002, President Bush announced the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), a new initiative to reduce poverty in developing nations.

President Bush has called to increase development assistance through this account by $5 billion. Funding is to begin incrementally in FY 2004, building to the full $5 billion by 2006. If truly in addition to existing resources, MCA will represent a 50 percent increase over current levels of foreign assistance (about $10 billion).

President Bush linked the new account to performance and laid out three criteria that countries must meet for eligibility:

  1. Good governance
  2. Investment in people
  3. Economic freedom

President Bush also offered the account as a means to approach development assistance differently than in the past, announcing that both public and private sector development experts would be consulted to determine how to set up the new program. Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops work together to influence the Bush Administration's decisions with respect to the MCA on these five key principles:

  1. The MCA should be seen and developed as one tool of a more comprehensive U.S. strategy for foreign assistance.
  2. MCA funding should be in addition to—not a substitute for—current humanitarian and development assistance programs.
  3. Eligibility decisions for the MCA should ensure support to needy and deserving countries that uphold human rights, fight corruption, and have promising programs to fight poverty.
  4. The MCA should target the world's poorest countries rather than better-off lower middle income nations.
  5. The MCA should engage citizens—not just governments—in designing and implementing development programs.