United States Agency for International Development

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United States Agency for International Development
- USAID -

emblem
State level Federation
position Independent authority
Supervisory authority United States Department of State
founding 3rd November 1961
Headquarters Washington, DC
Authority management Mark Green, administrator
Servants 3,797 (2015)
Web presence www.usaid.gov

The United States Agency for International Development ( USAID to German  , United States Agency for International Development ' ) is an agency of the United States for development cooperation . The independent authority based in Washington, DC ( Ronald Reagan Building ) coordinates all foreign policy activities in the United States in the field of development cooperation . The agency's acronym , which can also be seen on its aircraft, for example, is made up of US for United States and English AID 'help' .

USAID participates in United States foreign policy in the areas of:

USAID operates in four regions of the world:

history

The origin of the organization goes back to the Marshall Plan for Europe after World War II and Truman's four-point plan . In September 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act , and an ordinance made USAID a self-sufficient - if politically-oriented - organization. Unlike most European development cooperation organizations, it is regulated by the United States Department of State .

USAID also officially incorporated the Office of Public Safety (OPS), an organization founded in 1957 under US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for the training of police forces from developing countries, especially in South America and Asia. In fact, however, the Office of Public Safety was run by the CIA and it was accused of being involved in police repressive action against opposition groups in South American countries. The OPS was dissolved in 1974. See Daniel A. Mitrione .

budget

For 2014, the US President has requested a budget of US $ 20.4 billion for USAID, which is only part of the foreign aid controlled by the US State Department, which was estimated at US $ 47 billion in the draft budget for 2012. It should be noted, however, that a large portion of the State Department's foreign aid budget is spent on USAID staff and large representative offices that enjoy diplomatic status. USAID had a budget of $ 27.2 billion for 2016.

President Donald Trump accused USAID of ineffectiveness and threatened to bypass Congress by cutting the budget for 2020 by 2 to 7 billion US dollars, as border security on the Mexican border had priority. $ 2 billion was pre-blocked.

Tied help

The Buy American Act stipulates that American foreign aid should preferably lead to the purchase of goods and services that were produced or provided in the USA (so-called tied aid - which is usually inaccurately translated as 'delivery commitment'). US transport companies are supposed to deliver the aid, and technical help has to be provided by US experts. This policy is strictly followed by the American development agency USAID, in contrast to European development cooperation institutions, which have largely refrained from doing so since the 1990s. The USA also - unlike many other nations - does not publish any information about the degree of its delivery commitment. However, the proportion is estimated at 70%. The delivery link concerns z. T. also the simplest everyday items. But also evangelical US organizations active in missions, such as World Vision, receive funding.

USAID's Role in Foreign Policy

At the environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the world's governments included a program in Agenda 21 that included an aid target of 0.7% of the gross national product for rich nations. The level of US foreign aid falls below this target. Currently about 0.1% of their gross national product goes to development cooperation.

In absolute terms, the United States of America is currently the world's largest donor of economic aid and in 2003 provided the relevant organizations with US $ 16.254 billion for economic cooperation and development.

The country selection for USAID funding follows officially clearly defined macroeconomic criteria, but from the perspective of German foreign policy leads to contradicting results. The Federal Agency for Civic Education noted in 2006 that "despite the formal rigor and methodological rigor of the selection criteria, there is considerable political leeway": The inclusion of the group of countries with low middle incomes enables "the consideration of strategically important partner countries such as Egypt, Jordan and South Africa ”. The projects will "in practice not only follow genuine development policy standards [...] but also the strategic interests of the United States in terms of foreign policy." The selection process is politicized to a "remarkable extent".

Although the US Congress has demanded that USAID should not reside in US embassies, except in countries with high security risks, in order to avoid the appearance of being too intertwined with foreign policy, USAID uses the embassy buildings in many cases (e.g. in the Ukraine). USAID employees with US citizenship are also considered Foreign Service Officers .

Membership in the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance

USAID is a member of the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance (IdEA) and supports numerous organizations of migrants ( expats ) living in the USA in the diaspora , e . B. Organizations of Ukrainian, Albanian and Kosovar migrants, whose members qualified in the USA play an important role in the exchange of elites in the recipient countries of USAID aid (politics of giving back - namely from the diaspora to the home country).

Famine Early Warning Systems Network

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is a USAID-funded early warning system for famine . International, regional and national partners work together in the network. FEWS NET employees are stationed in Africa, Central America, Haiti, Afghanistan and the United States to analyze the data. FEWS NET offers political decision-makers services such as monthly information on food security in 25 countries, forecasts and emergency reports. FEWS NET also prepares studies to support programs and measures. FEWS NET also offers self-help for other early warning systems and networks.

USAID's role in food security has been criticized many times because it unilaterally enforces the interests of American agricultural corporations. In South Africa, USAID prevented the spread of a genetically modified potato variety planned by USAID. In Iraq, USAID was tasked with implementing reforms in agriculture in 2003, which are criticized from an ecological and social point of view. In India in 2010, USAID's attempt to introduce a transgenic eggplant developed by Monsanto met with fierce opposition from smallholders and the Ministry of the Environment.

USAID in Russia

USAID provided financial support to non-governmental organizations in their work in Russia. In September 2012, the Russian State Department announced that the staff of the US Agency for Development Cooperation would be expelled. This was justified with the fact that USAID had interfered in the political process in the country. The organization gave money to various organizations to influence the elections, among other things. USAID had worked in Russia for twenty years.

USAID supported the only independent election observation group in Russia, Golos . Golos had reported numerous cases of fraud in the parliamentary elections in December 2011. More than a third of USAID's funding went to health and environmental programs.

USAID in Ukraine

The USA Agency for International Development USAID has supported Ukraine since 1992 with around 1.8 (according to its own information) up to around 3 billion US dollars (around two thirds of the total US aid that came to Victoria Nuland up to 2013) was over $ 5 billion). The Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), financed by USAID to promote the private economy in Ukraine, has played a key role here since 2001 . The meanwhile z. Some of the lost deposits from USAID and other US institutions in this fund were managed for a fee by a private company ( Horizon Capital ), which was founded in 2006 by the investment banker Natalija Jaresko , an expat who has been working for the US State Department in Ukraine since 1992, was founded and managed. She was appointed Minister of Finance of Ukraine on December 2, 2014 and received Ukrainian citizenship on the same day.

The Washington Post reported in 2004 that USAID and Eurasia Foundation were exerting massive influence on the elections in Ukraine. In 2006 USAid compiled the electoral lists for the general election, sponsored offshoots of the Pora! Party as well as the youth organizations of the nationalist parties and several media critical of the government. However, the recipients of the donations were concealed or disclosed only after a long delay. This included the Foundation Open Ukraine of Arseniy Yatsenyuk .

As part of the FAIR program, which runs until 2016, the professionalism of the Ukrainian judiciary is to be strengthened; USAID also supports the preparation of draft laws and regulations through the private Chemonics International, Inc.

USAID in Georgia

USAID has been planning to develop Georgia into a model country for the region since 2001. This is done through interventions in the judiciary, administration and politics as well as support from civil society and private media. The 2012 elections were supported with $ 14 million, with a record turnout. USAID ensures a “competitive electoral environment”.

USAID in Central Asia

USAID is setting up an Internet infrastructure (“Freenet”) in several Central Asian countries, which is also used to place orders from US companies to local companies. At the same time, state TV monopolies are to be broken up.

USAID in Latin America

From the beginning, USAID's activities focused on Latin America. For a long time, however, observers have accused USAID of being abused for purposes of US foreign policy and in particular the secret services. It is also noted that USAID hardly cooperates with the complex multilateral structures such as the OAS in Latin America . USAID explicitly refuses to cooperate with CELAC . Instead, it relies on a network of its own non-governmental organizations and foundations as local project partners, which, however, have their headquarters in the USA. The Fundación CADAL (Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina) , founded in 2003 and financed by USAID and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , sees itself as a counterweight to CELAC.

In June 2012, the foreign ministers of Bolivia, Cuba , Ecuador , the Dominican Republic , Nicaragua and Venezuela signed a resolution on the expulsion of USAID employees from the ALBA states because USAID was promoting the political opposition, working with and cooperating with the US intelligence services Share opinion in destabilizing elected governments. This picture was confirmed in April 2014 when it became known that USAID had systematically attempted in Cuba to destabilize the political situation by means of a microblogging service it had set up, in fact to initiate a “Cuban spring”. The then head of Usaid, Rajiv Shah, has been criticized since the affair became known. As Cuba and the USA did not want to endanger the rapprochement that had just begun, Shah quietly vacated his post in February 2015.

Bolivia's President Evo Morales expelled USAID from his country on May 2, 2013, referring to a statement by US Secretary of State John Kerry , who described South America as the “backyard” of the US. He continued to accuse the organization of manipulating local groups to destabilize Bolivia.

One focus of the activities in El Salvador (and also in Honduras and Guatemala ) is the fight against youth drug gangs through a mix of repression and prevention in the form of education and training. The gangs are recruiting z. Partly from forcibly repatriated illegal Salvadoran, but also Honduran, Guatemalan, etc. immigrants to the USA and other returnees groups. USAID is also involved in the US government program Partnership for Growth for El Salvador, which includes a number of "security activities" to fight drug crime and gangs.

USAID's health programs profile in El Salvador has come under repeated criticism. From 2003 until this rule was repealed by the US Supreme Court in 2013, USAID was obliged to grant funds for the prevention and control of HIV / AIDS only under an anti-prostitution clause ( anti-prostitution pledge ), which the Called for the "extermination" of prostitution. This contributed to the criminalization, arrest and marginalization of prostitutes.

criticism

USAID has been repeatedly criticized for not only engaging in development aid, but also espionage and political influence. USAID is in the words of its former secretary Andrew S. Natsios (2001-2006) the "most frequently used instrument when the means of diplomacy are no longer sufficient and the use of military force seems too risky." Help the ZunZuneo text messaging project encourage Cubans to resist their communist government. In order to disguise the origin of the project, front companies are said to have been operated in Spain and on the Cayman Islands . Text messages from Cubans were recorded, saved and evaluated. According to a media report, USAID had a Twitter-like short message service developed for Cuba that gained tens of thousands of users. Objective: to destabilize the Castro regime. Matt Taibbi spread the claim that USAID supported the election of Anatoly Chubai .

Web links

Commons : United States Agency for International Development  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Betsy Hartmann: Reproductive Rights and Wrongs. The Global Politics of Population Control. Boston 1995, p. 114 ff.
  2. ↑ So z. B. by supporting the privatization of banks in Egypt (see [1] ) and Bulgaria or the state airline in Lesotho. However, in contrast to the World Bank and the European Union, USAID has rejected the privatization of the drinking water supply in Hungary and tried to develop alternatives in public hands. Western European companies like GDF Suez would have benefited from privatization. The example shows how the funding strategy depends on the respective national industrial policy interests. See Federal Chamber of Labor Vienna, Privatization of the Water Sector in Europe , Informations zur Umweltpolitik 166, 2006, p. 33 ( online ( memento of the original dated February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original - and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / media.arbeiterkammer.at
  3. ↑ a b Martin Petrick, Landwirtschaft in Moldova , Discussion Paper, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe, 2008, online: www.ageconsearch.umn.edu (PDF)
  4. ↑ a b Jason Hickel, Fallacy of 'freedom': USAID and neoliberal policy in Egypt , March 14, 2011, online: www.theafricareport.com
  5. ↑ See e.g. B. the use in Haiti, [2]
  6. ↑ http://www.usaid.gov/where-we-work/latin-american-and-caribbean, accessed April 4, 2014
  7. ↑ http://www.ibtimes.com/growth-interrupted-usaid-tackles-gang-violence-crime-el-salvador-1116252, accessed February 4, 2014
  8. ↑ Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq were the most important recipient countries in 2012 with over two (Afghanistan) and almost one billion US dollars respectively
  9. ↑ http://arka.am/en/news/economy/usaid_to_support_black_sea_silk_road_corridor/
  10. ↑ Ulrike Zeigermann, French Development Cooperation and the Myth of Common Growth , in: Benjamin Laag, Janina-Lorena Obermeyer: Europe in Responsibility , Münster: Waxmann Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3-8309-3005-1 , p. 73.
  11. ^ William Blum: Killing Hope. US Military and CIA Interventions since World War II. Common Courage Press, 2008, Uruguay chapter, ISBN 1-56751-252-6 .
  12. ↑ Mark Ames: The murderous history of USAID, the US Government agency behind Cuba's fake Twitter clone. pandodaily, April 8, 2014
  13. ↑ Gerard Colby, Charlotte Dennet: Thy Will be Done. The Conquest of The Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil. HarperPerennial, 1996, p. 398.
  14. ↑ http://www.usaid.gov/results-and-data/budget-spending, accessed February 3, 2014
  15. ↑ http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/156763.pdf, accessed February 8, 2014
  16. ↑ http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/155.pdf
  17. ↑ http://www.usdiplomacy.org/state/abroad/usaid.php, accessed February 4, 2014
  18. ↑ AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT FISCAL YEAR 2016. (PDF) USAID, accessed on May 2, 2017 (English).
  19. ^ Robby Gramer, Trump's Plan to Slash Foreign Aid Puts Humanitarian Programs in Jeopardy , in: foreignpolicy, com , August 16, 2019.
  20. ↑ Klaus Wardenbach, development aid must forego delivery ties. In: The overview. 3/2004, p. 24, online access February 4, 2014.
  21. ↑ USAID's obligation to purchase American condoms in connection with AIDS aid for Africa is characteristic; see Written question E-3099/02 by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE / NGL) to the Commission. AIDS deaths in poor countries and an obligation to buy American condoms according to Bush's will , including the answer of the EU Commission.
  22. ↑ Registration of World Vision Inc. as a Private Voluntary Organization with USAID ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pvo.usaid.gov
  23. ↑ http://www.bpb.de/apuz/29823/das-millennium-projekt?p=all
  24. ↑ USAID careers page
  25. ^ For example, the National Albanian American Council (NAAC); - ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usaid.gov
  26. ↑ FEWS NET website ( memento of the original from October 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fews.net
  27. ↑ So z. B. in Nepal, where indigenous seed varieties are to be displaced by products from Monsanto ; see [3]
  28. ↑ Interview with Maryam Mayet, African Center for Biosafety (ACB) in Neues Deutschland
  29. ^ [4] Environmental Institute Munich
  30. ↑ [5] Nature, February 10, 2010 (online)
  31. ↑ dapd: Russia: Russia accuses USAID of meddling in elections. In: welt.de . September 20, 2012, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Interview by Uwe Krüger with Mária Huber: Democratization is more of a collateral benefit, Telepolis, July 31, 2014 online
  33. ^ Foreign technocrats given Ukrainian citizenship beofre cabinet vote . Reuters, December 2, 2014 [uk.mobile.reuters.com/email/Article/topNews/idUKKCN0JG1ER20141202 Reuters]
  34. ↑ Michael McFaul: 'Meddling' In Ukraine , December 21, 2004, online: [6]
  35. ↑ Paul Blumenthal, US Obscures Foreign Aid To Ukraine, But Here's Where Some Goes , Huffington Post , March 7, 2014
  36. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed November 25, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usaid.gov
  37. ↑ USAID's Georgia Program
  38. ↑ E.g. in Kyrgyzstan: http://www.freenet.kg/
  39. ↑ In Kazakhstan, the number of private television programs almost doubled with the help of USAID support, see http://www.usaid.gov/kazakhstan/democracy-human-rights-and-governance , accessed April 16, 2014
  40. ↑ See last Tobias Buyer: Cuba throws American AIDS workers out of the country. In: Die Welt, August 5, 2014, online: [7]
  41. ↑ For example, Carana , which is largely funded by USAID; see carana.com
  42. ↑ cadal.org: About CADAL
  43. ↑ Gobierno: Usaid no informó del manejo de cooperación y tiene como dependientes a exfuncionarios de la CIA y la DEA , La Razón digital, May 2, 2013, online: larazon.com
  44. ↑ USA wanted to stir up unrest in Cuba with its own Twitter , April 3, 2014, online: zeit.de
  45. ↑ Jonathan Fischer: America of all places. How to deal with a youth revolt: The Cuban hip-hop scene lived from criticism of the aged Castro regime. Then it was infiltrated by US authorities . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 16, 2016, p. 9.
  46. ↑ Bolivia Expels USAID , Ria Novosti, May 2, 2013, online: en.ria.ru , accessed May 2, 2013
  47. ↑ Central America and Mexico Gangs Assessment , USAID, Washington, DC 2006, online: usaid.gov (PDF)
  48. ↑ offnews.info (PDF) , p. 8 and fas.org (PDF) p. 19 f.
  49. ↑ http://www.usaid.gov/el-salvador
  50. ↑ Ryan Villareal, Growth Interrupted: USAID Tackles Gang Violence And Crime In El Salvador , International Business Times, March 7, 2013, online: [8]
  51. ↑ usaid.gov (PDF)
  52. ^ LA Aviles, Epidemiology as discourse: The politics of development institutions in the epidemiological profile of El Salvador. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (JECH) 55 (3): 164-171, 2001.
  53. ↑ [9] Accessed April 9, 2015
  54. ↑ Janette Habel, Command of the South , Le Monde diplomatique, December 14, 2007, online: monde-diplomatique.de
  55. ↑ USA attacked Cuban government. Daily newspaper, April 3, 2014, online: [10] , accessed November 29, 2014.
  56. ↑ Cuba: USA wanted to destabilize the Castro regime with a Twitter clone . In: Spiegel Online . April 3, 2014 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 24, 2018]).
  57. ↑ http://exiledonline.com/feature-story-usaid-jerks-perks-and-propaganda/