There is a move afoot to “Make Aid Transparent.”
No, not invisible. That’s actually a different problem. The problem being addressed by the organization linked to above — called, appropriately enough, Make Aid Transparent — is that governments (including our own) don’t always reveal in much detail about what they are, or are not, doing in foreign aid and where the money goes.
The different problem of aid invisibility is that many people, in the U.S. anyway, appear to be largely unaware of what foreign aid accomplishes and how little we actually spend — only about one percent of the federal budget.
But that’s another story. Here’s a good article in the Guardian on Britain’s development chief, Andrew Mitchell, explaining why foreign aid is in the national interest. Same argument goes for the U.S.
Maybe more people would have better appreciation of the potential value of foreign aid (yes, like anything, it’s debatable) if governments were more open and transparent about aid.
Here’s an animation from Make Aid Transparent asking to you sign their petition:
