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The Trump administration says it's giving $2 billion to faith-based groups for health and humanitarian work around the world. It's part of a new foreign assistance strategy. Last year, the administration dismantled the 60-year-old U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID. NPR's Fatma Tanis reports.
FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: Most of the money is going to large Christian organizations, including World Vision, Samaritan's Purse and Compassion International. The State Department said last week that the funds would support 2,500 faith-based hospitals and clinics in 17 countries as well as emergency assistance for humanitarian crises and disaster response. Dean Karlan is the former chief economist of USAID. Bottom line, he says, this announcement is a good thing.
DEAN KARLAN: I prefer to see this money get spent than not spent, and I do think World Vision will create some good.
TANIS: The administration calls it the largest allocation of foreign assistance to faith-based groups in 20 years. As part of its new America First global health strategy, it has favored American businesses and faith-based groups for global health funding over most other nongovernmental organizations.
In a statement to NPR, the State Department said, quote, "these awards reflect the administration's shift toward more efficient, results-driven foreign assistance," and that the award process did not prioritize religious affiliation. But Karlan says faith-based groups are not inherently more efficient than other groups who have lost billions of dollars in funding in the last year.
KARLAN: Is it the best we could've done? I doubt it because there's no sign that they used evidence in any way to guide this decision.
TANIS: Jeremy Konyndyk was a top humanitarian official at USAID under Presidents Obama and Biden. He also welcomes the global health spending, but has some reservations.
JEREMY KONYNDYK: Is the U.S. government putting a lot of eggs in these baskets? And I think there are real drawbacks to that approach to disaster response.
TANIS: Konyndyk says the old system of foreign aid seemed more efficient and agile.
KONYNDYK: When a new disaster struck, we looked at who was on the ground. We looked at who was most capable. And we worked with them rather than having a sort of preset roster that may or may not be in place and relevant to the crisis.
TANIS: For example, Konyndyk says, in the recent relief for the earthquakes in Venezuela, the U.S. had funded Samaritan's Purse over other aid groups that already had a presence in the country, which he says slowed down the response.
Fatma Tanis, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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