{"id":8829,"date":"2022-09-12T01:47:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T01:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8829"},"modified":"2022-09-12T01:47:34","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T01:47:34","slug":"the-us-spends-billions-on-foreign-aid-but-it-doesnt-know-how-much-good-our-money-is-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8829","title":{"rendered":"The US spends billions on foreign aid. But it doesn\u2019t know how much good our money is doing."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\n&#8220;Over the past two decades, researchers have become much better at determining whether a certain idea actually&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/2019\/12\/11\/20938915\/nobel-prize-economics-banerjee-duflo-kremer-rcts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">achieves intended goals<\/a>. The focus on results \u2014 evaluating whether a program benefits people cost-effectively \u2014 has changed philanthropy and even the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/ostp\/news-updates\/2022\/04\/07\/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-launches-year-of-evidence-for-action-to-fortify-and-expand-evidence-based-policymaking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">US government<\/a>\u2019s domestic programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In theory, USAID&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usaid.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/Strengthening_Evidence-Based_Development_Cover_Update_-_Five_Years_of_Better_Evaluation_Practice_at_USAID-compressed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recognizes the importance<\/a>&nbsp;of making sure their programs work. But in practice, it\u2019s largely failing to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two USAID reviews, one by USAID\u2019s office of the inspector general in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oig.usaid.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2019-09\/9-000-19-006-P.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2019<\/a>&nbsp;and another commissioned by the agency in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pdf.usaid.gov\/pdf_docs\/PA00X78R.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2020<\/a>, reveal two dismal facts: The agency gives out billions to programs that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oig.usaid.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2019-09\/9-000-19-006-P.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">don\u2019t achieve their intended expectations<\/a>, and, worse, it\u2019s not even sure of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pdf.usaid.gov\/pdf_docs\/PA00X78R.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">impact&nbsp;<\/a>of most of the money it gives in aid.Recent agency moves and statements suggest that USAID wants to fix this problem. Whether it can will determine the fate of billions of dollars \u2014 and the health and well-being of many millions around the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/23274306\/usaid-foreign-aid-effectiveness-evidence-grants\">https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/23274306\/usaid-foreign-aid-effectiveness-evidence-grants<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Over the past two decades, researchers have become much better at determining whether a certain idea actually achieves intended goals. The focus on results \u2014 evaluating whether a program benefits people cost-effectively \u2014 has changed philanthropy and even the US government\u2019s domestic programs.<\/p>\n<p>In theory, USAID recognizes the importance of making sure their programs work. But in practice, it\u2019s largely failing to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Two USAID reviews, one by USAID\u2019s office of the inspector general in 2019 and another commissioned by the agency in 2020, reveal two dismal facts: The agency gives out billions to programs that don\u2019t achieve their intended expectations, and, worse, it\u2019s not even sure of the impact of most of the money it gives in aid. Recent agency moves and statements suggest that USAID wants to fix this problem. Whether it can will determine the fate of billions of dollars \u2014 and the health and well-being of many millions around the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[272,1722,355,314,619],"class_list":["post-8829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-foreign-aid","tag-foreign-policy","tag-international-relations","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8830,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8829\/revisions\/8830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}