Israel gets the lion's share of American aid largely for historical reasons, and millions of American voters support it. Egypt gets the next biggest slice for recognising Israel. Russia and Ukraine receive billions to ensure that they do not sell their surplus nuclear warheads. Even where development has been the goal of aid, foul-ups have been frequent. Big donors like to finance big, conspicuous projects such as dams, and sometimes fail to notice the multitudes whose homes are flooded.
Aid faces further hurdles in recipient countries.
War scuppers the best-laid plans. A shipment of vaccines was destroyed in Congo when rebels cut the power supply to the capital, shutting down the refrigerators where the medicines were stored. In Afghanistan, Taliban zealots have closed aid-financed hospitals for employing female doctors. Less spectacularly but more pervasively, corruption, incompetence and foolish economic policies can often be relied on to squander any amount of donor cash. One example, Zambia, speaks for many.