Background
Since 2002, the US national security strategy has considered development to be one of three "pillars" of national security, along with defense and diplomacy. To strengthen this pillar, in recent years the US government has formed a host of new agencies and initiatives. Overall, US funding for aid has increased significantly in the past five years.
Despite new resources and renewed attention, the US foreign aid system remains fragmented, cumbersome, and outdated—lowering returns to poor people throughout the world and thwarting potential good will toward the US.
Oxfam America is an agency dedicated to fighting poverty because in a world of plenty, poverty is morally untenable. We have watched as the US' fight against global poverty has become increasingly driven by strategic concerns and single-issue initiatives. Whether the US fights global poverty for moral reasons or to improve its own security, Oxfam believes that truly effective foreign aid will only happen when a major part of our aid portfolio is designed to fight poverty for its own sake. This poverty-focused aid saves lives and helps people overcome poverty, which is vital for the nearly half of the world that is surviving on less than $2 a day. And this reinvigorated, effective aid also happens to be exactly the kind of smart tool that's needed to regain US leadership in the world. Simply put, when the US fights poverty, everyone wins.
