Don't Rebuild USAID. Build Something Better

One year after the United States Agency for International Development ceased operations and its remaining responsibilities were folded into the State Department, many in Washington are asking how to restore what was lost. They are asking the wrong question. The real challenge is not whether to rebuild USAID. It is whether America will replace it with a foreign assistance system that delivers measurable results instead of funding ideology, bureaucracy, and programs that too often failed both taxpayers and the people they were meant to serve. The old system did not collapse because Americans stopped believing in generosity. It collapsed because Americans finally saw where many of their foreign aid dollars were going. Taxpayers who thought they were funding safe childbirth and lifesaving medi