​Topic: Global Rationales, Global Citizenship, and Global Equity: Understanding and

unpacking ‘aims, ambitions and architecture’ of development aid

What's Global citizenship to me? Global citizenship is a philosophy, a way of living that is

guided by the motto produced at the first earth day in 1970 “think globally, act locally” (Gough,

pg 16). It’s the understanding within oneself that all life is interconnected. We as humans do and

must recognize that our actions ricochet around the world and affect others. According to

Oxfam (2022) , an organization of peoples around the world working to end poverty, global

citizenship “It is about how decisions in one part of the planet can affect people living in a

different part of it. And about how we all share a common humanity and are of equal worth.”

(para.1). Fairness, equity, equality, and the recognition that these ideals are everyone’s duty to

work towards. It is a burden that does not lie solely with the community being marginalized. In

the reading titled “Global Citizenship: What is it, and what are our ethical obligations as global

citizens,” a global citizen must also engage and empower people to participate in political,

economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects of their community (pg 1).

Global citizenship has a manifestation in government as well, coined under the term

“foreign aid.” In the reading “Foreign Aid: Positive and Negative Impact in Developing

Countries,” by Ishwor Thapa (2020) foreign aid is defined as the “voluntary transfer of

resources from one country to another” (pg 2). Aid can be different forms of loans, grants,

humanitarian aid, technologies, and more (pg2).

 According to USAID From the American People , The United States government under

President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have set a “2023 Budget Request for the State

Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is $60.4

billion, which includes $29.4 billion for USAID fully and partially managed accounts, $1.7

billion (6 percent) above the FY 2022 Request'' (para.1). Among the issues this budget is meant

to address is the reduction of corruption and promotion of democracy, humanitarian aid,

women's rights, equity, and equality, increasing the workforce, enforcing U.S. climate

leadership, addressing the issues of migration, and revitalizing the United States leadership

regarding health (para 2). Some of these goals listed in the United States foreign aid budget

request for 2023 directly coincide with some United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

For example the promotion of women's rights is explicitly stated in UN SDG goal five. Listed

on both the USAID From the American People website and the UN website for SDG both state

the need to “empower women and equality for women '' (United Nations, USAID website).

Specifically, the United States foregin aid budget for 2023 has requested $2.6 billion to maintain

the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund. According to the Carnegie Endowment For

International Peace, the $2.6 billion requested to address gender inequality is double the amount

that was requested in 2022 (Brechenmacher & Salgame, 2022). This is a clear alignment and

focus of the United States to promote women’s rights. In fact, $2.6 billion is the largest appeal

for gender equality aid ever in the United States. As a measurement of success, the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) uses the Development Assistance

Committee (DAC) gender equality policy marker which is a qualitative tool to measure how

much foregin aid either has gender equality as the forefront or secondary objective According to

this statistical measurement the United States ranked highly in prioritizing women's rights, and

in 2019 was third behind EU institutions and Germany (Brechenmacher & Salgame, 2022).

However, this high ranking must be understood in regards to the fact that the United States is

one of, if not the world’s strongest economies. It is no surprise that in a quantitative amount, the

world’s largest economy contributed the most foreign aid. However, in 2019 in regards to total

Official Development Assistance (OAD) or foreign aid, the United States ranked almost at the

button of donors in regards to assistance for gender equality. As stated by Brechenmacher and

Salgame (2022)

“In other words, most other donor governments have done more to ensure that a focus

on gender equality is integrated or mainstreamed across their foreign assistance, in

addition to dedicating a larger share of their total foreign assistance to targeted gender

equality programs. In contrast, the majority of U.S. foreign assistance does not target

gender equality at all, even as a secondary objective.”

In regards to over GDP in 2019, foreign aid was less than 1% of the federal budget (US Agency

for International Development). Personally, I think back to the administration that was in power

during 2019 and it is perfectly clear that with racism, homophobia, and misogyny rampant in
Trump’s administration that gender equality was not a priority. Nonetheless, fastforward from

2019 to 2023 and the United States is asking for more funds than it ever has in $2.6 billion to

directly contribute to gender equality.

Foreign aid in itself is a debated concept. As explained in the reading Foreign Aid:

Positive and Negative Impact in Developing Countries, some people view foreign aid as a

positive because it can promote long-term economic growth in developing countries, which in

turn leads to a better quality of life for low income citizens. Others believe that foreign aid

increases the disparity between the rich and poor classes and leads to neocolonialism, or the loss

of economic sovereignty for those countries that receive aid (pg 3-5).

Question for consideration: Is it common for countries with socialist policies to

contribute more to foreign then capitalist and right wing governments?

sources

Brechenmacher, S., & Salgame, N. (2022, March 22). How the U.S. gender equality funding

increase can actually be effective. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Gough, A. (n.d.). Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education: Challenging

Imperatives.

OECD. (n.d.). Official Development Assistance (ODA).

https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-stan

dards/official-development-assistance.htm
Oxfam. (2022). What is global citizenship? Oxfam GB.

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/who-we-are/what-is-global-citizenship/ Fiscal year

(FY) 2023 president's budget request for the United States agency for international

development (USAID) | Fact sheet | U.S. agency for international development. (2022,

May 18).

Thapa, I. (2020). Foreign Aid: Positive and Negative Impact in Developing Countries. Research

Gate.

United Nations. (n.d.). Goal 5 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Sustainable

Development. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal5

U.S. Agency for International Development.

https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/fact-sheets/fiscal-year-2023-presidents-budget-

request-usaid