Opinion: The US Needs to Invest Foreign Aid Dollars in Smaller NGOs

Last month, U.S. Republican congressional House members released a budget that proposes a gradual reduction in spending on domestic programs and foreign aid from $511 billion to $424 billion through 2027. This is marginally better for global health programs that aid poor countries compared to President Donald Trump’s 2018 proposed budget, which calls for cutting about 32 percent from foreign aid budgets, or nearly $19 billion in total.

However, I believe the real tangible overhaul opportunity presented in this proposal lays in the opportunity to make important and necessary reforms to U.S. foreign assistance — reforms that could not only have a significant impact on budget savings, but also a significant impact on the world’s most vulnerable populations.

As President Trump stated, “Poverty, unemployment and hunger around the world have a destabilizing effect that threaten international peace and security.” Poor countries are more vulnerable to disease outbreaks, famine and war. Helping poor nations fight poverty keeps the effects of this poverty from visiting American shores...