Tiny Aid Shares, Huge Life Gains

Foreign aid at fractions of national income has yielded large, measurable benefits: Gavi’s child vaccinations and USAID programs are credited with tens of millions of lives saved. The article argues inefficiencies warrant reform, not retrenchment. — It grounds aid debates in outcome magnitudes versus budget shares, informing how rich countries justify and structure ODA.

Sources

Foreign aid from the United States saved millions of lives each year

Hannah Ritchie 2025.09.29 85% relevant

The article quantifies that U.S. foreign aid (about 0.24% of GNI) saves roughly 3 million lives per year, echoing the broader claim that small fiscal shares can deliver very large, measurable health benefits (e.g., vaccines, HIV, malaria).

Global inequality is huge — but so is the opportunity for people in high-income countries to support poor people

Joe Hasell 2025.08.25 100% relevant

Citations to Gavi’s impact and a Lancet estimate that USAID (2001–2021) helped avert ~91 million deaths.