Probably just because the politically-correct answer to poverty is "rich people should give their money to poor people, then they won't be poor any more". (This is, coincidentally, the same solution that most seven-year-olds come up with. It doesn't work in practice.)
Yes, way to buck the system and advocate neoliberal ideas from political outsiders like Reagan, Thatcher, Bush, Clinton, Blair, W & Obama.
Seeding land to foreign entities is always a touchy subject.
That poor countries can not help themselves, and that they need to cede authority to western civilization.