When Republican Rep. Ted Yoho from Florida arrived in Washington, D.C., in 2013, he was committed to cutting government spending, including on foreign aid. But he told Devex in a recent interview that he quickly learned slashing assistance wasn’t a viable solution. Instead, he decided to work to reform it.
Yoho is now planning to introduce new legislation to that end in March. The Economic Growth and Development Act would propose reforming foreign aid to bring in more private sector actors and enhance accountability, by funneling more funds to agencies such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
The U.S. needs “to redirect our foreign aid and move from a position of giving money out expecting people to do something” and shift the paradigm to “a philosophy of going to trade not aid,” he said.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
