Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Foreign aid
development aid and humanitarian aid
Foreign aid, international aid or development assistance is when one country helps another country through some form of donation. Usually this refers to helping out a country that has a special need caused by poverty, underdevelopment, natural disasters, armed conflicts, etc.
The main receivers of foreign aid are developing nations (third world countries), and the main contributors are the industrialized countries.
The United States is the world's largest contributor of foreign aid in absolute terms ($15.7 billion, 2003), but the smallest among developed countries as a percentage of its GDP (0.14% in 2003). However, private foreign aid donations in the United States (the majority of which consists of remittances sent home by foreign workers) are on the order of $35 billion a year (2003), dwarfing the governmental aid of not only the US but many other countries.
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