Foreign Aid: Understanding Data Used to Compare Donors

There are various views on how to total U.S. spending on foreign aid and how U.S. transfers compare with those from other major donors. For the United States, the size of the foreign aid budget is frequently measured in terms of annual appropriations approved for international assistance programs, using either the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill total, or a slightly modified calculation that includes foreign aid funds enacted in appropriation measures other than Foreign Operations. In comparing the United States with other international aid donors, the most common source of information is the Development Assistance Committee DAC of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD. There are significant scope and methodological differences, however, between U.S. appropriations figures and those used by the DAC. This report explains those differences and discusses other issues related to the debate over how much wealthy countries contribute to international development and what share U.S. resources represent.