Percentage of population undernourished

Food aid sent, thousands of pounds

In 1993, the U.S. pledged $700 million in aid to Russia under the Food for Progress program, which sends commodities to be monetized (resold) for the promotion of agricultural development and trade.

In 1999, the U.S. responded to a request for aid from Russia, which was facing a severe financial crisis and one of the worst grain harvests in history. This is one of the largest U.S. food aid programs to a single nation in history.

USAID has been assisting Ethiopia since its inception in 1961. Over the decades, aid goals have shifted from emergency drought relief to development programming throughout the region.

In late 2005, the government of Eritrea expelled aid organizations, claiming that a policy of self-reliance was better for the country and its people. The country stopped receiving aid the follwing year.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many post-Soviet states received aid as a means to promote democracy and stabilize the
new countries. Of the 24 initial recipient countries,
11 have now graduated from U.S. assistance.

The U.S. contributes approximately 23 percent of the 44,000 metric tons of food aid that World Food Program distributes in Burundi. The country has long been plagued by drought, poverty and conflict, which contribute to high levels of malnourishment in a rapidly growing population.