3D Security Initiative

U.S. development assistance plays a direct role in addressing the root causes of insecurity. Several national polls show that the public thinks the U.S. should spend 10%--the percentage many religions recommend that their members give to others in need--of the federal budget on development work abroad. In reality, the U.S. spends far less than 1% of the federal budget on this type of foreign assistance even though it plays an essential role in building a more secure world.

What is Development?
Development programs help communities have better access to basic education, healthcare, employment, and democratic institutions. Development provides the resources that people need to help themselves.

Development works with people; it does not do things for them. When people are supported at the grassroots level to help them improve their own communities, the change is lasting. There are thousands of development organizations around the world working with local communities to improve their quality of life. U.S. foreign assistance programs help to fund some of these development efforts. Giving people an opportunity to improve their lives is an American tradition.

Development Strengthens Homeland Security
Hurricane Katrina revealed to many that desperate poverty exists right here in the U.S. Whole communities throughout the U.S. struggle with high unemployment, lack of affordable healthcare, and a lack of hopeful opportunities to better their lives. Communities that face these chronic threats are perpetually insecure. When a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina comes along, communities like these don't have the capacity to help themselves in these times of crisis.

Building strong, healthy communities strengthens overall U.S. security. Development programs that help people out of poverty have a proven track record; studies prove that communities with adequate opportunities and resources really can move themselves out of poverty. Preventing the spread of diseases, preparing for natural disasters, and creating the kinds of neighborhoods where people watch out for each other contributes to greater security for everyone.

Development Builds Global Security
In an interdependent world, helping others ultimately ends up helping ourselves. Working to build peace and improve security for people throughout the world is a significant contribution to U.S. security. Historically, U.S. self-interest helped to stop the slave trade, support countries in their quest to become independent after colonialism, and prompt humanitarian assistance when disasters or wars threatened the migration of large numbers of people. Development efforts in the U.S. and abroad contribute to security in a variety of ways.

The U.S. National Security Strategy states that "A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day, is neither just nor stable. Including all of the world's poor in an expanding circle of development- and opportunity is a moral imperative and one of the top priorities of U.S. international policy."

Development Prevents Terrorism
Preventing terrorism requires an understanding of the places where extremism thrives. Extremists are a tiny minority in any society, but they are more likely to find a sympathetic audience when the majority shares some of their anger, resentment, and fatalism. They exploit frustration and indignity, no matter what the cause -- be it chronic poverty, political oppression, or systematic exclusion from the benefits, privileges, and respect that other societies enjoy.

Working in partnership with people in other countries to build schools, hospitals, and democratic governments, is an investment in U.S. security. Threats to our security -- like terrorism -- can take root and grow in fragile states where hopelessness and lawlessness prevail. Programs and policies that help such countries become more stable by meeting their citizens' needs are not only investments in a better future for millions of vulnerable men, women, and children. They are also investments in our own future, because the U.S. depends on responsible, capable partners in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to work alongside us to address terrorism and other global security threats.

Helping responsible governments get stronger, offering their people hope for a better future, is a smart investment in our own security. Direct threats to U.S. security (e.g., terrorism) and social threats (e.g., illegal drugs, dangerous new diseases, and tainted foodstuffs) take root and grow in countries where lawlessness prevails. We stop terrorism by stopping its training camps; we prevent diseases like SARS and Avian flu by catching and treating epidemics abroad before they reach our shores. So far, the U.S. has stopped SARS and Avian flu from causing U.S. epidemics by working with well-established governments in Southeast Asia. When we invest in training health care workers or in rebuilding government and civil society institutions after a civil war, we are investing in our own future as well.

Development is Good for the Economy
Investing in a healthy global economy means investing in people. With trade supporting almost a fourth of U.S. national income and one in nine jobs, our economic prospects are more intertwined than ever with those of other countries.

Development programs help people who are living in poverty to seize the opportunity to improve their own lives. Global economic health requires economic rules that balance market forces with people's needs. Citizens of poor countries, much like people everywhere, would rather earn money than depend on handouts. Fair trade rules let poor countries compete in the global economy on an equal footing with industrial countries like the U.S. Fair trade would generate more income than all the development assistance programs of all the world's governments combined.

Development Reduces Poverty
Good development programs have a proven track record of helping people and countries lift themselves out of poverty. Families and communities do best when they have the right mix of tools and resources available to them -- when people have access to jobs and economic opportunity, basic healthcare and education, the ability to participate in decisions that affect them, and the basic rights and dignity valued by people everywhere.

What works is to offer local people a little extra help and remove impediments so that people can use their own energy, innovation, and determination to change their lives. The right combination of approaches -- applied in countries like China and India, and in now-prosperous countries like Ireland and South Korea that were poor just a generation ago -- has allowed millions of people to lift themselves out of poverty, and has more than doubled the number of democracies worldwide.

People with jobs and investment have a stake in their societies, a chance to invest in their own country's future, and a real opportunity to achieve what people everywhere want -- better lives for themselves and their children.

Many poor countries spend more paying interest on old loans to foreign governments than on health and education for their own people. Canceling loans for countries that are committed to good policies and clean government can make a huge difference. For example, $3 billion in debt relief is helping Tanzania send 1.6 million children to school. Its neighbor, Uganda, used its debt relief to make primary education free for every child, something it couldn't afford before.

Micro-Credit -- i.e., offering small loans to start-up entrepreneurs -- is another way to ensure that aid money goes straight to those who need it, and to encourage entrepreneurs and self sufficiency. In India, it takes just three years of micro-credit for one in three loan recipients to move out of poverty. Global repayment rates for these loans, which can be as little as $50, are over 90 percent -- a rate commercial banks everywhere would love to match.

Development is part of the American Dream
Success doesn't come overnight -- the U.S. took more than a decade after declaring independence to write its Constitution. But the right kind of outside help has made a real difference. When the U.S. has worked with other countries and agencies and followed the lead of people who are striving to mend their own societies, U.S. government and nonprofit civil society organizations that focus on overseas development have made a difference. We're not perfect, and we can always learn from the local people themselves how we can work as better partners in the development process. But we can't walk away, any more than we can walk away from imperfect institutions in our own communities and nation.

Mozambique has moved during the past 10 years from being a war-torn disaster area to being one of the world's five fastest-growing economies, even after two catastrophic floods. It remains one of the world's poorest countries; but with help from the U.N., Europe, the U.S., and many private organizations, its people are fighting corruption and building hospitals, schools, and -- most important -- hope.

Almost 50 years ago, South Korea was a war-torn, poverty-stricken new country. It accepted significant help from the U.S. and others while setting its own priorities and sticking to them. Today South Korea doesn't need anyone's help. In fact it helps other countries.

Non-profit civil society organizations like World Vision, Mercy Corp and Mennonite Central Committee work in war torn regions around the world delivering food aid in times of crisis, and building schools and health centers in partnership with local people as long term investments in building secure and peaceful communities around the world.

Development is helping local communities to become strong enough to manage threats of violence, crime, and disease. It lets local people rebuild so threats don't worsen to the point of instability and insecurity. It's smart to help local communities rebuild and fight those threats. And it's morally right to let local people know that the U.S. shares their aspirations for a secure future.

Development Funding Could Bring Results
The U.S. spends far less than 1% of our Federal Budget on development. That is less than what most other industrial nations spend. If the U.S. spent just $50 more per American each year -- about what it costs to take your family to a couple of movies -- we could cut world hunger in half. Relatively modest investments like this would improve the lives of millions of men, women, and children -- and pay off many times over in the form of a more peaceful, prosperous world.

While many U.S. political leaders recognize that global poverty threatens security everywhere, the U.S. has not yet invested enough money to get results in addressing the problems. The U.N.'s Millenium Development Goals requests developed countries to annually commit 0.7% of their national budgets. The U.S. gives far less than this. And the development aid we do give to other countries is spent mostly on U.S. products and experts who offer technical assistance rather than the long-term investments needed to build infrastructure, like roads, schools, or health centers.

Increased development funding could bring real results that reduce poverty and increase security. The One Campaign promotes allocating an additional ONE percent of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food to transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world's poorest countries. ONE also calls for debt cancellation, trade reform and anti-corruption measures in a comprehensive package to help Africa and the poorest nations beat AIDS and extreme poverty.

» click to read about Overview of 3D Security

» click to read about Diplomacy as a Security Strategy

» click to read about Defense as a Security Strategy

The 3D Security Initiative offers thanks to www.USintheWorld.org for insights into talking with the US public on global issues.