Most Americans believe the United States spends far more than it does on international assistance. Actually less than one percent of the federal budget is devoted to international assistance — and less than half of that goes to humanitarian assistance programs that help millions of the world's poorest people.

U.S. assistance works to protect children and improve lives. U.S. assistance is largely credited with fully immunizing 80 percent of all children in developing countries, eradicating smallpox worldwide, and virtually eliminating polio in the Western Hemisphere. Since 1960, development assistance has helped reduce infant mortality rates in developing countries by 50 percent, increase life expectancy from 46 years to 63 years, and increase primary school enrollment from 48 percent to 79 percent.

U.S. assistance works to advance women's status. Programs are increasing women's and girls' access to education, health care, and economic opportunities. Small microenterprise loans to poor women constitute one of the greatest success stories in the developing world.

U.S. assistance works to improve reproductive health. More than 60 million couples in the developing world use family planning as a direct result of U.S. assistance to voluntary family planning programs. Over the past 35 years, the average number of children per family in the developing world has been reduced by one-third — from six children to four. These families are better able to feed, clothe, and educate their children.

Despite these and other breakthroughs, and at a time when the well-being of the developing world is increasingly linked to U.S. interests, the U.S. Congress has cut these programs by 20 percent or more over the past five years, shrinking U.S. foreign assistance to a 50-year low. International family planning programs have been cut by more than one-third. The United States now spends less of its national wealth on helping the poor overseas than any industrialized nation.

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