US Aid To Ethiopia

The blog for the Center for Global Development in Washington ran a commentary on 27 August 2012 by Jane Staats and Casey Dunning titled "Rethinking US Foreign Assistance." It noted that Ethiopia is the largest US aid recipient in Africa and suggested that countries like Ethiopia with long serving leaders such as Meles Zenawi should not receive so much US aid in a rethinking of US aid policy.

It is true that Ethiopia is the largest recipient of US aid in Africa, but this argument has several flaws. I am a strong advocate of president/prime minister term limits, but the blog posting misses some important facts. The overwhelming majority of US aid to Ethiopia is emergency food aid or used to combat HIV/AIDS and malaria. Only a small percentage qualifies as development assistance and an insignificant amount goes to military training. Ethiopia has never been eligible for Millennium Challenge Account assistance.

By all means, the US should reward term limits everything else being equal but it is also important to look at the kind of aid being provided.

To read the blog posting, click here.