Does Foreign Aid help?

I have always wondered if the Foreign Aid that the United States and other rich countries dole out each year have any effect on the lives of the people in those countries which is getting the aid and the result can be mostly in the negative. This thought came to my mind as the budget battle in the United States is going on now and on the chopping block is the reduction in foreign aid, which the Secretary of the State has said will jeopardize our interests abroad if aid is reduced. But if we see some of the example of U.S. aid to different countries, I don’t see any improvement in the lives of the people or the positive image that the United States wants to project through aid.

Take the example of Egypt, throughout the peace treaty with Israel, Egypt has been getting more than a billion dollars a year from the United States, but mostly the effect of it is not accounted for and the lives of the people in Egypt have not improved much. The recent events lay bare to this fact that despite all this aid sent to that country, the people still got fed up with their rulers and through them out. If foreign aid was utilized effectively this would not have been the case, but all this aid does not reach the common folks who struggle in their daily lives.