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$50 Billion Later, Taking Stock of U.S. Aid to Egypt

(Christian Science Monitor) Charles Levinson - Egypt has received over $50 billion in U.S. aid since 1975. Rather than helping, American aid is "depressing the need for reform," according to former U.S. ambassador to Egypt Edward Walker. USAID has been ineffective at changing economic policy because Cairo knows that it will get the U.S. money regardless of its economic policy, according to Walker. "[USAID] is distributed by the Egyptian government in an anarchic way, through personal contacts and political influence," says Ismail Sabry Abdallah, a former Egyptian minister of development. Each year USAID gives $200 million to the Egyptian government in cash handouts to do with as it pleases.
2004-04-22 00:00:00
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