From Democracy Digest:

The U.S. Congress funds efforts to bolster democracy abroad as a way to promote American values, national security, and economic opportunity, including efforts aimed at strengthening human rights, independent media, and the rule of law, notes a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development allocated over $8.8 billion for democracy assistance in fiscal years 2015-2018, coordinating efforts and seeking to avoid duplication, it adds. But State should “do a better job sharing information on its democracy assistance projects internally,” the GAO recommends. following a survey of projects in the DRC, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Ukraine, countries selected because they receive relatively high amounts of democracy assistance funding, among other factors.

Since 2015, Congress has made available to agencies at least $2 billion annually for democracy assistance programs abroad, but relevant embassy officials in each of the four selected countries did not have ready access to information about such projects, the report observes:…

Read the full perspective here.