Selected Trends In U.S. Food Aid, Fiscal Years 2002 through 2006 (gao.gov, May 24, 2007)
Summary: This graph, published in Various Challenges Limit the Efficiency and Effectiveness of U.S. Food Aid by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), depicts how much money has been spent on the food aid program from 2002-2006 compared the tonnage of food aid actually delivered; the discrepancies are significantly discouraging.
Topic: Should the state department of the Obama Administration double foreign aid for Africa?
Category: Government (image)
What Is It? Image of a graph
Title: Selected Trends In U.S. Food Aid, Fiscal Years 2002 through 2006
Publication Information: gao.gov, May 24, 2007
Author: Thomas Melito
Location: Originally a .pdf file, but a link to it can be found at http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/locate?searched=1&o=0&order_by=rel&search_type=publications&keyword=GAO-07-905T&Submit=Search
Accessed: March 1, 2009
Support:
• GAO analysis
• USAID data
• USDA data
The GAO used data collected by USAID and USDA to put together a graph of how much money is going into the U.S. Food Aid program compared with how much food aid is being delivered. It starts off with the delivered aid being slightly lower than the amount of money funding the program, but while the amount of money more or less stays the same over time, the amount of food aid delivered decreases dramatically.
Audience and Agenda: This graph was published in a testimonial written by Thomas Melito of the GAO. Melito is the Director of International Affairs and Trade for the GAO and this testimony was before the Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. This is a very specialized, narrow audience, who already know a great deal of background on the information being presented. The GAO is the congressional watchdog; it is non-partisan, independent and is funded by the government. It is in place to enhance transparency and make sure that the federal government is acting constitutionally and efficiently with the taxpayers’ dollars.
Usefulness: This graph is useful because it allows the public to see exactly how much money is being lost “in transit” when it comes to foreign aid. This case is specifically concerning food aid, but if this much waste is happening exclusively with food aid, then there must be more dollars wasted in the other foreign aid efforts as well. Whether they be developmental, humanitarian, or any number of other types of aid. This supports the argument that the current aid program needs to be reformed before the state department goes about doubling foreign aid for Africa.
Works Cited
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