ABSTRACT
The US government is involved in foreign disaster relief, somewhere, every year. It also provides several billions of dollars of development assistance to Third World countries every year. The first official US foreign Agency for International Development (AID) shipment, paid for by tax funds, arrived on the coast of South America in 1812, when Yankee sailing vessels delivered several thousand barrels of flour and other supplies to earthquake victims in Venezuela. American missionaries working in remote places found themselves constantly drawn into efforts to provide medical care, basic education, and practical training for agricultural and industrial modernization. The private voluntary organizations (PVOs) working on international issues and needs are legion. Churches, private foundations, universities and research institutes, multinational corporations, and thousands of PVOs are the distinct but interacting segments of that network. PVOs and US government agencies work together in many lands, and "co-financing" of foreign aid by government and private agencies is more and more taken for granted.
