Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for Global Citizen, Joe McCarthy explains that Emanuela C. Del Re, deputy foreign ministry of Italy, is stepping up foreign aid investments because every dollar invested generates much more in return. 

· How does the US interact with foreign aid investments? How do foreign aid investments affect the economy? How do they affect global development?

· Here's how foreign aid investments actually help America's economy


The first item Emanuela C. Del Re hung up in her office as deputy foreign ministry of Italy was a poster of Nelson Mandela, which she got when she was working as an election monitor in South Africa as apartheid was coming to an end.

After a lifetime of book-writing, academia, and on-the-ground humanitarian work, Del Re is bringing an expert’s and insider’s knowledge to Italy’s international development after assuming the role last year.

“I think that after so many years of endless engagement and great passion and vocation, if a country like Italy calls you and asks you to take responsibility at a national level, I think you have to accept,” she told a crowd of Global Citizens at the organization’s New York City headquarters on Monday.

Foreign aid is often described as a form of transnational charity — a way to prevent starvation and other calamities — but that narrow framing ignores the enormous benefits donor nations receive from the countries they invest in, Del Re said.

Read the full article about foreign aid investments by Joe McCarthy at Global Citizen.