Do national foreign aid programs significantly help poor countries?
Many nations in Europe and some in the Middle East and East Asia have significant aid programs. In 2006, the United States was the largest donor although much of the assistance was directed at Iraq. But even with the massive amount of development assistancein the wake of the Iraq war, the U.S. fell significantly short of the U.N. goal set for donor nations at .07% of the GNI. Instead, only five smaller European Nations presently exceed this standard. The nations who receive aid are primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America are recipients. Overall, as a percentage of the global GDP, the level development assistance has actually decreased. In the United States economic development aid is provided increasingly as loans through the Agency for International Development and the Export-Import Bank, which finances the export of U.S. capital goods and agricultural products. In 2006, the two largest recipients of aid were Afghanistan and Iraq. Th
