The following is a guest post from AidData researchers Alena Stern and Josh Powell. This post, which first appears on AidData’s First Tranche blog, looks at the Mapping for Results Initiative – a partnership between AidData and the World Bank that analyzes the level of coordination between donors and recipients of aid. The post specifically explores data from Kenya and Mozambique. Using geo-referencing technology to examine coordination and distribution levels, the authors argue the data can ultimately be leveraged to facilitate country ownership, or at the very least, open a dialogue between donors and country governments or civil society. Read the full post after the jump:
Posts Tagged ‘Africa’
Rieff: Clinton’s “Muddled” Approach to Development
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Yesterday, The New Republic foreign policy blog, “Entanglements,” posted a piece by David Rieff examining Secretary Clinton’s recent speech on the Global Health Initiative (GHI) at Johns Hopkins’ SAIS. Rieff discusses Clinton’s speech in terms of the Obama administration’s approach to development – questioning whether there is enough funding and bureaucratic support to realize the numerous goals Clinton laid out. Rieff offers a critical review of GHI and other development efforts: the decision to have three agencies in charge of GHI’s day-to-day operations; policymakers’ claims of development assistance as a tool of “public diplomacy” and a way to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and the continued priority funding for military programs. Despite the critical tone, Rieff raises some interesting points about the overall direction of the Obama administration’s approach to development. Read full text of the post here and see key excerpts below:
CGD Defends Untied Aid
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
On Monday, MFAN member Sarah Jane Staats – director of policy outreach at the Center for Global Development – outlined three reasons why Senator Jim Webb’s (D-VA) calls for putting a stop to Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funding to non-U.S. companies in Africa will not solve any of our economic or development problems. Staats argues:
1. It’s bad development. Restricting overseas development contracts to domestic bidders – so-called “tied aid” – buys political support at home, but often costs more and is less effective.
2. Taxpayers pay more, but get less…Requiring the MCC to use only U.S. companies in regions where they could be more expensive, less effective, or may not exist, unduly constrains our aid dollars and ends up costing American taxpayers more money.
3. The MCC is not ExIm or OPIC. The U.S. Export-Import Bank (ExIm) and theOverseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) are designed specifically to help U.S. businesses invest overseas.
Staats reminds us that tying development assistance to U.S. companies is not only bad development, but it goes against the principle of ownership of aid that has popped up in the Obama Administration’s initiatives like Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative. Read the full piece here.
MFAN Co-Chair Beckmann: “Rhetorical Rubber Meets the Road” on Aid Reform
Friday, August 6th, 2010
MFAN Co-Chair David Beckmann, World Food Prize laureate and President of Bread for the World, has a new piece on foreign assistance reform, offering two steps President Obama should take now to put the U.S. on a path to more efficient, effective aid — the same two action steps listed in MFAN’s Open Letter, published yesterday. The op-ed first appeared in The Huffington Post, but find full text of the piece after the jump:
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.
