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:
Posts Tagged ‘Food Security Initiative’
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.
Action Alert: Reform Within Reach Campaign Launches Today
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Today, MFAN is proud to announce the launch of its Reform Within Reach campaign aimed at getting President Obama to show leadership on foreign assistance reform and strengthen America’s commitment to development.
To serve as the rallying cry for the campaign, MFAN created the “Open Letter to President Obama on the U.S. Commitment to Global Development.” This letter, which has already been signed by 50 organizations, calls for President Obama to create America’s first-ever Global Development Strategy and partner with Congress to rewrite the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
We need your help in getting the message out and letting President Obama know that his leadership on reform is critical to achieving U.S. foreign policy goals. This issue is even more important with the Millennium Development Goals Summit fast approaching in New York in September, when the eyes of the world will be on the fight against global poverty and the U.S. role in that fight. As you’ll remember, one year ago, President Obama made a promise at the UN General Assembly to return to the MDGs Summit with a plan for how the U.S. will strengthen its contribution on development. We must hold him accountable to that pledge.
Action is needed now. You can take the following steps to join us in this important call to action:
- Join individuals from across the country and sign the Open Letter
- Download a badge for your Facebook, MySpace, or other profile page to show you support more effective foreign aid
- Read about how reform will make even more U.S. aid success stories possible
- Tweet: “I signed a letter urging Pres Obama to increase U.S. foreign aid’s impact. YOUR TURN! http://bit.ly/12FBms #ReformWithinReach” and follow us @ModernizeAid to see how momentum for reform is building
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 Member Grapples with Delayed Reviews
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Sarah Jane Staats, director of policy outreach at the Center for Global Development and MFAN member, recently posted a piece on CGD’s Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance blog drawing an uncomfortable comparison to the delayed reviews and the muddled bureaucratic process these reviews are trying to streamline and simplify. Both the Presidential Study Directive and the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review were set to deliver findings by now, and the clock is running out for the administration to implement any durable reforms. See excerpts from Staats blog below:
“Two major reviews on U.S. development policy—the Presidential Study Directive on U.S. Global Development Policy (PSD) and the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR)—intend to make sense out of the confusing array of agencies and actors involved in U.S. global development policy; both appear to be suffering delays rooted in the very bureaucratic confusion they aim to resolve.”
“Nearly one year out, it’s hard to see whether we’re any closer to agreement. Eighteen months into this administration, the delay means President Obama and his team are running out of time not just to issue strategies, but to implement any reforms. The less time there is for the reforms to get traction, the less likely they’ll create any lasting legacy.”
