In this Global Health Magazine opinion piece, Aaron Emmel, senior policy advisor at PATH, examines a momentum for reform in foreign aid that “has been mounting in both Congress and the Administration,” writing, “Now we face one of the most austere budget environments in our nation’s history, making the need for an efficient, accountable, transparent, effective, and strategic foreign assistance policy all the more important. Clearly, foreign aid needs to be reformed so that it can do the job it was originally intended for: assisting the people who need it most in the most efficient and effective way possible.”

He concludes, “We spend a tiny amount of money on foreign assistance — only about one percent of the federal budget — yet it has been one of our most effective investments, whether the metric is U.S. economic growth, national security, or moral leadership” (10/9).