Our Issues

Foreign Assistance Budget

CARE Action! is focused on the refugee crisis and gender equality.
1
%
The amount of the federal budget which goes to foreign assistance

Lifesaving foreign assistance funding represents one percent of the U.S. budget; just one penny on the federal dollar. And yet this penny is incredibly powerful.  It saves millions of lives every year, addresses the root causes of poverty, decreases dependency, and builds stronger, more resilient societies.

This one percent helps combat deadly diseases, provides access to basic education to millions of girls around the world, helps ensure nursing mothers have access to clean drinking water, and provides small-holder farmers with the knowledge they need to grow healthy sustainable crops. This one percent enables families and communities to work their way out of extreme poverty and build financial independence. It’s a hand-up, not a handout.

What’s more, foreign assistance benefits our own nation’s security by alleviating suffering and decreasing poverty to create a more prosperous and safer world for everyone.

Read CARE Action's 2018 advocacy brief on U.S. foreign assistance. 

CARE Action:

Supports a strong international affairs budget of at least $60 billion

Opposes any dramatic and disproportionate cuts to critical, lifesaving foreign assistance programs

  • lubin India
  • Photo credit: GEOFFREY KAYIJUKA MUNYANEZA/CARE
  • Photo credit: MASSRESHA TADESSE
Waves and a storm

Health

Access to family planning services could prevent up to 30 percent of maternal deaths per year.
Every
90
Seconds
A WOMAN DIES
from complications during pregnancy or childbirth.

More than 200 million women in developing countries want the ability to choose the timing of their pregnancies but lack access to the right tools. Due to the dangerously low accessibility of contraceptives, information, and women’s medical services, pregnancy can put these women in life-threatening situations. 

CARE Action! recognizes that access to maternal and reproductive health services, including the healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies, is a key component of preventing maternal and child mortality. We advocate for the U.S. Government’s adoption of a comprehensive approach to sexual, reproductive, and maternal health through policies that increase the quality, access, and availability of reproductive and maternal health services.

Read CARE Action's 2018 advocacy brief on maternal health.

CARE Action! supports:

  • More robust funding for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health programs and International Family Planning in the International Affairs Budget.
  • The Reach Every Mother and Child Act, bipartisan legislation on Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health that would strengthen the U.S. commitment to ending preventable maternal and child deaths and through support for proven health interventions.
  • Despite the decline in maternal and child deaths over the past several decades, mortality for women and children in the developing world still remains tragically high.
  • Access to family planning could provide hundreds of millions of women the option and ability to get an education, invest resources into other children, improve family economic security and to live life to its fullest potential.
  • Access to family planning services could prevent up to 30 percent of maternal deaths per year.
Daisies

Food

El Niño has caused the worst drought on record for decades.
Over
795
Million
PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY
Every day, a child dies in the arms of her mother from malnourishment.

We face a greater challenge than ever before: ending hunger and malnutrition in the face of environmental degradation and phenomena like El Nino. Almost 800 million people are chronically hungry and over 161 million children stunted. At the same time, every year, we use 1.5 times the planet’s resources, depleting them faster than they are naturally regenerated. Agricultural productivity has already been reduced and threatens to plummet further – and drastically in some areas.

As a partner in the fight against hunger, CARE Action! advocates for U.S. government support and funding for comprehensive food and nutrition security policies and programs that feed more people in a more sustainable, equitable, and flexible way. We also advocate for sustainable resource management because the livelihoods of small-scale food producers, most of whom are women, are directly dependent on healthy natural resources.

Read CARE Action's 2018 advocacy brief on food and nutrition security.

CARE Action!:

  • Calls for reforms to the International Food Aid program to reach more people faster by making it more efficient and flexible.
  • Supports bipartisan, comprehensive food and nutrition security legislation that improves and codifies Feed the Future into law and ensures sustainable programs that build resilience and address the underlying drivers of vulnerability.
  • More than 815 million people around the world do not have enough food to eat.
  • In 2016, the Global Food Security Act (GFSA) was signed into law – a historic step toward reducing malnutrition around the world.
  • Research shows that if women had the same access to resources and information as men, we could reduce the number of hungry people by up to 150 million.
Fruits and vegetables in a market.

Emergencies

Top emergencies in 2018 included escalating crises in the DRC, Bangladesh/Myanmar, and Afghanistan.
In 2014
59.5
Million
PEOPLE WERE FORCIBLY DISPLACED
by conflict or natural disaster.

The world continues to witness an unprecedented rise in the scale and number of humanitarian crises unfolding around the globe. CARE is currently responding to 41 emergencies around worldwide with a focus on the needs of women and children.

CARE Action! advocates for the incorporation of the protection of women and children in global emergency responses, building linkages between short-term emergency response and longterm development, and ensuring humanitarian access to vulnerable communities.

Read CARE Action's 2018 advocacy agenda on humanitarian assistance.

CARE Action!:

  • Calls for the U.S. Government to uphold commitments made to responding to humanitarian emergencies, specifically addressing the unique needs of women and girls, and to protecting civilians from gender-based violence in emergency settings.
  • Advocates for the U.S. Government to ensure the International Affairs Budget includes adequate funding for the response to humanitarian emergencies, including building resilience and building links between short-term emergency response and long-term development.
  • CARE and USAID workers
  • CARE’s humanitarian staff around the globe work in tough conditions to bring lifesaving assistance to the most vulnerable populations.
  • An estimated 136 million people around the world are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

Gender & Empowerment

Globally, 1.2 billion people live in absolute poverty and most of them are women and girls.
1/3
OF WOMEN GLOBALLY WILL BE BEATEN
coerced, or otherwise abused in their lifetimes.

It is estimated that at least 1 out of 3 women globally will be beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime, bringing Gender-Based Violence (GBV) to epidemic proportions in countries around the world. While women and girls are the primary victims of GBV, men and boys are also victimized and face similar difficulties in obtaining treatment and post-assault recovery.

CARE Action! is promoting the integration of gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment throughout U.S. foreign assistance programs. We support efforts that incorporate strong policies and robust resources in an effort to prevent and address child marriage and to combat gender-based violence.

Read CARE Action's 2018 advocacy brief on women and girls.

Read CARE Action's 2018 advocacy brief on women's economic empowerment.

CARE Action! advocates for:

  • The bipartisan International Violence Against Women Act, which builds on existing efforts to integrate a coordinated strategy for responding to gender-based violence throughout all development and foreign policy initiatives.
  • The Administration’s formulation and implementation of a comprehensive, interagency strategy that will address the challenges of child marriage, and calls on Congress to adequately fund efforts to respond to child marriage globally.
  • At least one out of three women globally has experienced gender-based violence in her lifetime.
  • Girls who marry young are more likely to face domestic violence and negative health consequences resulting from early pregnancy and childbirth.
  • Child marriage affects 15 million girls annually, impeding their education, livelihoods and choice of when, if and whom to marry.
Waves and a storm

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