Describe the main characteristics of direct foreign aid from IACs to DVCs.

The United States and other IACs have assisted DVCs directly through a variety of programs designed to stimulate economic development. Over the past 10 years, U.S. loans and grants to the DVCs totaled $21 billion to $36 billion per year. The U.S. Agency for International Development administers most of this aid, some of which consists of surplus food under the Food for Peace program. A large portion of foreign aid is distributed on the basis of political and military considerations rather than strictly economic reasons. Some of the recent direct assistance by the IACs to the DVCs has been in the form of loan forgiveness. In 2017, foreign aid from the IACs to the developing nations totaled $146.6 billion.