The U.S. Agency for International Development is taking a harder look at how its programs can avoid perpetuating corrupt regimes.
Aid is disproportionately going to conflict-affected and resource-cursed countries, and with the agency’s increased emphasis on directly supporting local governments and institutions, the risks of corruption are higher, agency officials said at a panel on the issue last week.
“We recognize working on the local push, but aid is going to poorly governed places, and this is going to bring difficult trade-offs and complicated issues,” Neil Levine, director of USAID’s Center of Excellence for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance, said at the panel.