Foreign Aid and Humanitarian Assistance

Abstract

Together the US and EU provide two-thirds of global humanitarian assistance for the alleviation of emergencies arising from natural and man-made disasters and 80% of global foreign aid for longer-term development assistance programs. It is therefore vital that they continue their close partnership to ensure their dollars and euros are spent as effectively as possible in an era of increasingly tight budgetary constraints. The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2014 is a good example of how the US and the EU successfully addressed (albeit belatedly) a major health crisis that could have turned into a global pandemic. In many areas in Africa, they are collaborating closely on the foundation of shared priorities, including on food security, resilience, and electrification. They are also among the largest donors to the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria and to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.