Tittle-Tuttle

Robert Tuttle, US Ambassador to the UK, wrote a great letter to the Guardian a while back; this is the most important bit:

In 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, net private resource flows to the developing world from US citizens and companies exceeded $130bn, more than the sum of ODA from all OECD members combined. These flows included capital investments and credits of $62bn, remittances of $41bn, and private charitable giving of $30bn. When added to US ODA of $21.75bn in 2007, these resources represent more than 1% of US GDP.

There is therefore a huge imperative to harness that private giving for the good. But as he says "the effectiveness of aid is as important as its volume".