MFAN Hosts Foreign Assistance Modernization Briefing with
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA)

Following the release of the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 2139), which calls for the Obama Administration to create a National Strategy for Global Development (NSGD), MFAN hosted a standing-room only briefing on Capitol Hill with the bill’s principal author, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA). In his opening remarks, Chairman Berman spoke of the importance of the NSGD to overall efforts to modernize the U.S. foreign assistance system, particularly by rewriting the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 which he said the committee hopes to take on later this year. The Obama Administration was represented at the briefing by National Security Council Senior Director and former MFAN Co-Chair Gayle Smith, who reiterated the White House’s support for global development.

In a statement about the bill’s release, Chairman Berman summed up the stakes of the overall : “…overhauling our foreign assistance apparatus is critical to safeguarding America’s long-term national security, confronting transnational threats, stimulating global economic growth and ensuring that U.S. foreign assistance reflects the values and priorities of the American people. This legislation is a critical first step in achieving these objectives, and I look forward to working with my House and Senate colleagues and the Obama Administration on the broader U.S. foreign assistance reform effort.”

The briefing also featured a panel on the NSGD moderated by MFAN Co-Chair Steve Radelet and including: Claire Moran, development advisor at the British Embassy in Washington, DC; Ray Offenheiser, MFAN principal and president of Oxfam America; Carol Peasley, President & CEO at The Centre for Development and Population Activities; and Nancy Lindborg, President of Mercy Corps.

To view MFAN’s statement on Chairman Berman’s legislation, click here.