Last week, MFAN Co-Chair George Ingram published an op-ed praising House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman’s (D-CA) new draft legislation authorizing U.S. foreign assistance. Ingram applauds Berman and his staff for putting together a draft that tackles some of the tough questions left unanswered by the current reform debate. For example, the draft legislation streamlines authority to the Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – answering the “who’s in charge” question. Ingram also lists elements of the draft that align with reform principles and the overall notion of aid effectiveness. He concludes that as the development community works through its recommendations, everyone should remember the commendable effort Chairman Berman and his staff have done. See excerpts from the op-ed after the jump:
Archive for the ‘House’ Category
MFAN Co-Chair Ingram’s New Op-Ed Praises Berman’s Draft Legislation
Monday, July 26th, 2010
New GMF Paper Creates a Model for a Global Development Strategy
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
MFAN Partner the German Marshall Fund of the United States this week hosted a discussion on a new paper that offers a model for a U.S. Global Development Strategy. The paper was written by MFAN Principal and GMF Senior Resident Fellow Jim Kunder and MFAN member Jonathan White, senior program officer at GMF. The paper, titled “The Roadmap for a Grand Bargain: Comments on a U.S. Global Development Strategy,” draws from existing foreign assistance approaches and recent support from the Obama Administration and Congress for the notion of formulating the United States’ first-ever global development strategy for the 21st century. The major distinction in the new model is that it fundamentally changes the way the U.S. approaches development – moving from a focus on inputs to a focus on outcomes.
CQ Article Quotes MFAN Co-Chairs, Highlights Hill Aid Reform Leadership
Monday, July 19th, 2010
A CQ article (full text below) published today, which quotes MFAN Co-Chairs David Beckmann and George Ingram, gives a rundown of how the leadership of Congressional leaders Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Dick Lugar (R-IN) has helped drive unprecedented progress on foreign assistance reform. The missing ingredient that could push reform efforts over the top, according to the article? Presidential leadership.
To join MFAN’s effort to urge President Obama to show leadership on foreign assistance reform and strengthen the U.S. commitment to development, please sign our Open Letter to the President, which has already been endorsed by more than 70 organizations and prominent individuals.
CQ WEEKLY – IN FOCUS
July 19, 2010
Backers Say Time Is Ripe For Foreign Aid Overhaul
By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
The earthquake that slammed Haiti in January also rocked the U.S. Agency for International Development and its brand-new administrator, Rajiv Shah, who were promptly assigned to head up the civilian U.S. response to the disaster. The experience of the next several months afterward was eye-opening and “helped me shape my agenda for reform for the agency writ large,” Shah said in a speech last month.
MFAN Partners React to $4 billion Cuts to President’s Development Budget
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
MFAN’s members have been out in force reacting to the House of Representatives decision to cut $4 billion from President Obama’s request for the International Affairs Budget, which funds the civilian instruments of U.S. global engagement, particularly foreign aid. See below for some key reactions from MFAN’s Partners:
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition – “USGLC Disappointed with House Cuts to International Affairs Budget” (Andy Amsler): USGLC released the following statement from Executive Director and MFAN Principal Liz Schrayer saying, “The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) is greatly disappointed that House Appropriators have cut funding for the International Affairs Budget and is concerned about the impact this will have on our national and economic security. Now is not the time to shortchange our non-military tools of development and diplomacy given today’s global challenges.”
Center For Global Development – “House Cuts President’s FY2011 Development Budget” (Sarah Jane Staats): “House appropriators marked up the FY2011 foreign affairs spending bill at $52.656 billion yesterday. The subcommittee mark up is roughly $4 billion above last year’s enacted levels, but also $4 billion below the president’s request for FY2011. My takeaway: this budget looks like more of the same and is a long way from a new approach to global development.”
ONE – “Taking a Step Back on America’s Commitments” (Sheila Nix): “Congress has decided to step back on America’s commitments to a global food security initiative — a decision that will have a ripple effect on budgets to come… ONE hopes that Congress will continue America’s world leadership in difficult times, restore the International Affairs budget, and keep its commitments to the most vulnerable people in the world.”
What do you think about the House decision to cut the International Affairs Budget? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
MFAN Statement: Praise for President Obama’s Development Leadership at the G8 Summit
Monday, June 28th, 2010
June 28, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann and George Ingram:
MFAN commends President Obama for showing leadership on development with his statement at the G8 Summit in Muskoko. We continue to strongly support the Administration’s efforts to elevate and institutionalize the idea, most recently articulated in the National Security Strategy, that fighting global poverty is a “moral, strategic, and economic imperative for the United States,” as well as a key component of our “comprehensive, integrated” foreign policy in a world of complex challenges.
We eagerly await the impending release of the development policy directive highlighted in the G8 statement, and we support the general themes of growth, innovation, partnership, and accountability that were affirmed in the document. We are particularly hopeful that the directive will answer a critical question that has not yet been addressed by the Administration: How will the U.S. foreign assistance system be modernized to institutionalize the importance of development, make U.S. assistance more responsive to local priorities, and deliver transformative results for the poor people we are trying to help?
In conjunction with the release of the directive, we call on the Administration to take three important steps to catalyze and strengthen the reform process:
- Fill the senior leadership void at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which currently lacks the full complement of Deputy Administrators and Assistant Administrators needed to effectively execute the Administration’s new approach;
- Prepare America’s first-ever Global Development Strategy ahead of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit in September, in order to set a strategic foundation for U.S. development efforts and deliver on the President’s pledge to announce “a plan” for how the U.S. will contribute to eradicating extreme poverty by the MDG deadline in 2015; and
- Announce now that the Administration will work with Congress to modernize foreign assistance in a durable way, including by rewriting the antiquated Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
We look forward to continuing to work with the Administration and Congress to make U.S. foreign assistance more effective in support of global development and poverty reduction.
