How does the US spend its aid budget?

How much money does the U.S. government spend on building up the military might of its foreign allies versus fighting global poverty and enhancing human rights?

You might be surprised by the numbers.

A new website launched this week by Security Assistance Monitor allows you to track spending by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Defense, which together account for the bulk of economic and military aid.

It shows that U.S. humanitarian and development aid has risen more than three fold over the past 15 years to reach $23.44 billion this year, up from $6.7 billion in 2000.

In contrast, U.S. spending on foreign military and police has fallen steadily to $8.09 billion from a peak of $22.75 billion at the height of the Iraq and Afghan wars in 2007.

Spending on humanitarian and development aid, also known as “soft power”, is almost triple that of hard power today, whereas a decade ago they were roughly matched. That’s a remarkable shift in how the United States exercises its muscle.

Africa is the greatest beneficiary of this increase in U.S. economic largesse, receiving $7.53 billion in humanitarian and development assistance today, more than any other region in the world and a 420 percent boost from 2000 levels. Military and police aid however has risen only a little over the period to $1.85 billion.

Asia comes second, receiving $5.79 billion in economic aid, twice the amount from 15 years ago. Its security assistance has grown less rapidly to $4.83 billlion from $3.25 billion over the same period.

The shift in the war on drugs and strengthening democracies in Latin America and the Caribbean are reflected in the data. U.S. police and military assistance halved to $553 million over the period, the only region of the world where security funding declined, while economic aid grew slightly to $1.22 billion.

The website, funded in part by the Open Society Foundations and run by the Center for International Policy, can be a useful tool for anyone tracking human rights abuses by military and police.

The Leahy Law, first adopted in 1997 and strengthened in 2011, prohibits the United States from providing security assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity. The site allows you to drill down country by country to find out what types of training programmes and what types of military equipment have been sent.

Transparency is a powerful tool for holding those in power to account. The Center for International Policy has done a valuable service in pulling together hundreds of disparate public documents on U.S. foreign assistance.

The stories the data reveal can challenge assumptions.

This article is published in collaboration with The Thomson Reuters Foundation trust.org. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Stella uses her 20 years of experience reporting on international economic policy and finance to unravel the corruption underworld and weak governance structures that pervert the course of justice, development and human rights.

Image: A person counts out dollar bills. REUTERS/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus.