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.
Posts Tagged ‘Presidential Study Directive on Global Development Policy’
MFAN Partner CGD Reviews New FAA Draft, Questions Sec. Clinton’s Rationale for Elevating Development
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
In a new post on the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Blog, MFAN member Sarah Jane Staats, director of policy outreach at CGD, offers a reaction to the recently released discussion draft of the development portions of the “Global Partnerships Act of 2010,” which is the proposed title of House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman’s (D-CA) much-anticipated initial rewrite of the antiquated Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
Staats applauds three aspects of the working draft:
1) it appropriately defines the scope of “development” as being far broader than foreign assistance, to include debt relief, trade, agriculture, migration, environmental protection, arms sales, and all other U.S. policies that affect development;
2) it restores authority to the administrator of the U.S. Government’s lead development agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and calls for the administrator to serve at a minimum as vice-chair of a new interagency Development Policy Committee (the chair is left at the President’s discretion); and
GMF Transatlantic Blog Series Explores Relationship among Three Ds
Monday, July 19th, 2010
MFAN Partner The German Marshall Fund, in cooperation with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, created the Transatlantic Taskforce on Development. The mission for the taskforce — made up of 24 members from the U.S., Canada, and Europe — is as follows:
- To provide strategic recommendations to strengthen transatlantic cooperation in development
- To support the creation of conditions for reform.
The taskforce recently launched a blog series to explore what it identifies as a major challenge to development: coordination among the three Ds. The series is jointly written by former USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios and former chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Richard Manning.
In a new post, Natsios notes the “policy paralysis” in the development debate and argues for what will need to happen in Washington in order for development to be elevated alongside diplomacy and defense in a blog titled, “Development and Security: Can the United States overcome beltway disputes and elevate Development alongside Defense and Diplomacy?” He lists three decisions made by the Obama Administration that have weakened USAID, as well as Secretary Clinton’s decision to build on the architecture put in place by Secretary Rice at the State Department during the Bush Administration. Most importantly, Natsios echoes MFAN’s Reform Within Reach call to action when he specifically urges the President to show leadership and create a strategy for U.S. development that will ensure the U.S. is an effective partner and leader in foreign assistance. See excerpts from Natsios’ post below:
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.
20 Days and Counting
Friday, July 16th, 2010
It has been 20 days since President Obama released a statement saying he would issue a “new policy directive” for U.S. development, and the pressure is on. Following Al Kamen’s column last week, development advocates – including MFAN Co-Chair George Ingram – have come out in full force urging President Obama to show leadership and take action immediately. Ingram, executive director of the Academy for Educational Development (AED), published an op-ed in The Huffington Post in which he argues for clear presidential leadership to break the logjam that has prevented significant foreign assistance reform. He cites MFAN’s Reform Within Reach campaign and the Open Letter to ultimately recommend three steps for the President to take:
- Create America’s first-ever development strategy
- Signal a willingness to work with Congress on a new Foreign Assistance Act
- Empower USAID with clear authority
A significant part of Ingram’s argument is based on weighing the policy successes against the lack of bureaucratic and systematic reform. Ingram writes:
“At a policy level, the administration should be commended for its approach to development…Progress on actual nuts and bolts of turning policy into action has been less forthcoming. It is time to act on the broad recognition that multiple agencies carrying out similar or inconsistent programs is not good practice; that assistance programs need greater transparency and accountability; and that the legislative foundation for our foreign assistance system, a 500-page Cold War-era statute, lacks clear goals and objectives and is bursting at the seams with outdated, overlapping, and duplicative and conflicting provisions.”
Nancy Birdsall, president of MFAN Partner the Center for Global Development, put this argument in more stark terms – grading the Obama administration on its development efforts thus far: “When it comes to global development, I’d give President Obama and his top advisors an A for strategic vision and a big fat F for failure to get on with it.” Birdsall’s blog post, which takes the form of a letter addressed to Secretary Clinton, National Security Advisor Gen. Jim Jones, and National Economic Council director Larry Summers, offers a five-step process that focuses on empowering USAID.
Media outside of MFAN’s network is also abuzz with updates on the debate. Foreign Policy blogger Josh Rogin reported yesterday on the stalled development reviews, including a quote from MFAN Co-Chair and World Food Prize Laureate Rev. David Beckmann: “The Obama administration is doing smart and creative things to help hungry and poor people around the world. But they are hung up by organizational confusion, and the president needs to make it clear that USAID, not the State Department, has the lead responsibility for development.”
With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit in September – where last year President Obama promised to return with a plan – serving as a deadline, we need action now. Learn about the ways you can contribute to this strong push for reform and join the 70 organizations who have already signed our Open Letter by clicking here.
