The international community set global development goals for a 15-year period as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) within the UN framework in 2000. At the same time, developing countries were asked to develop national strategies to achieve these goals, while developed countries were called upon to significantly increase international aid.
US as the main aid donor
The target value of official development assistance, first named back in 1970 – 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) or gross national income (GNI) – was specified for developed countries.
The actions of the US as the world’s largest donor have resulted in a significant increase in official aid. Thus, its total volume over the ten-year period 2006-2015 totalled $329 billion, an increase of about 1.8 times compared to the period 1996-2005 (in comparable 2019 prices).
At the same time, its value relative to GNI has never approached the target value, averaging about 0.18 per cent over 2006-2015.
Based on the current dynamics of addressing the global development challenges and realising the MDGs, in 2015, the UN General Assembly approved the final document “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
The new global goals retained continuity with earlier decisions, but significantly expanded and detailed them, being called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In total, 17 goals and 169 targets were approved for their realisation, and more than 230 quantitative indicators were defined.
From MDGs to SDGs
Compared to the MDGs, the SDG package has been expanded. Among the previously unspecified areas, water resources and energy supply, as well as the promotion of peaceful and open societies for sustainable development and a number of others were included.
An important feature of the SDGs is that they focus on the means of implementation, namely financial resource mobilisation, capacity building and technology. It is also intended to develop monitoring and data collection on the process of their implementation. As stated on the UN website, the Sustainable Development Goals are a call to action from all countries – poor, rich and middle-developed.
States recognise that poverty eradication must go hand in hand with efforts to increase economic growth and address education, health, social protection and employment, as well as climate change and environmental protection.
US during Obama’s presidency and Trump’s first term
The endorsement of the goals and the start of work on their implementation came at the end of Barack Obama’s second term and was actively supported by him. Thus, speaking at the UN Summit on Sustainable Development on September 27, 2015, Obama expressed his commitment to the new goals in this area and confirmed that support for development is not charity, but one of the smartest investments one can make in one’s own future.
Donald Trump, who succeeded Obama as the US President in 2017, had spoken negatively about international aid even during the election campaign. After taking office, Trump set a goal of drastically reducing aid and refocusing on using it to incentivise loyal states.
Distrusting international organisations and following the ideology of pursuing American interests, i.e. “economic nationalism,” Trump initiated the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, in October 2017. The US withdrew from UNESCO, and in June 2018 ceased participation in the UN Human Rights Council. Already at the end of Trump’s presidency in 2021, the intention to withdraw from the World Health Organisation (WHO) was announced.
What Biden pulled off
Joe Biden, immediately after assuming the presidency, took action to intensify engagement in international affairs on the basis of what was claimed to be American leadership on many fronts. The procedure of re-accession to the Paris Climate Agreement was initiated, a return to membership in the WHO and, in the new conditions of the unfolding pandemic COVID-19, participation in the programme of global access to vaccines (COVAX) was declared. In general, we can speak about an unconditional turn of the Biden administration to the active participation of the US in solving international issues. At the same time, the current problems associated with the pandemic of a new virus have pushed back the SDGs agenda.
President Biden, who proclaimed the return and leadership of the US in the international agenda, needed to backtrack as quickly as possible, to disavow the strategic documents of his predecessor.
In March 2021, for the first time in the history of strategic national security documents, the Interim Strategic National Security Guidance was published, which addressed the topic of international assistance in a rather detailed manner.
It states that through development agencies and financing instruments, the US has provided foreign assistance to promote global stability and offer an alternative to predatory development models.
Investments were made in food, water security and sustainable agriculture, disease prevention, and improving public health and nutrition. Support was expected to ensure quality and equitable education and opportunities for children and youth, promote gender equality and women’s empowerment within a broad commitment to inclusive economic growth and social cohesion.
Overall, these foreign aid programmes for global development are one of the best vehicles for embodying American values while ensuring national security foundations. In addition, two priority areas for international co-operation are noted: the global climate change and emissions reduction agenda, and combating the continuing threat posed by COVID-19 and other infectious diseases with pandemic potential. The stated areas of aid and assistance to developing countries cannot be said to contradict the SDGs. However, an analysis of the directions of assistance allows us to say that they are primarily oriented towards the national interests and national security interests of the US.
Trump’s second term
Meanwhile, the US voted against the “International Day for Peaceful Coexistence” resolution, which reaffirmed Agenda 2030, an ambitious plan adopted by all UN member states in 2015.
“The United States rejects and denounces the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, and it will no longer reaffirm them as a matter of course,” US Representative Edward Hartney told the UN General Assembly meeting.
Hartney also explained that Americans in the November elections voted for a national-interest oriented government.
“Simply put, globalist endeavours such as Agenda 2030 and the SDGs lost at the ballot box,” he also said.
The US also expressed opposition to language on “diversity, equity and inclusion,” which it said contradicted the country’s policies. The Trump administration is known to have opposed SDG programmes, considering them an illegal promotion of discrimination.
Current Washington policy shows that the US and its allies only promote SDGs when it suits their economic or geopolitical interests. In particular, support for green energy in developing countries is often accompanied by contracts that oblige them to buy equipment from Western companies, even if the alternatives are cheaper or more environmentally friendly.
THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.
Albert Martin for Head-Post.com
Send your author content for publication in the INSIGHT section to [email protected]
