Pressroom

Press Releases from MFAN:

• Global Development is Critical Foreign Policy Tool that Can be Enhanced for Taxpayer Savings, Long-Term Impact • October 2, 2008

• Global Development Community Statement on the Oxford, Ms Presidential Debate • September 26, 2008

News & Headlines:

• MFAN to Host Poll Briefing & Panel Discussion on Foreign Assistance

  
  MFAN to Host Poll Briefing & Panel Discussion on Foreign Assistance MFAN will be hosting an off-the-record poll briefing and panel discussion on U.S. foreign assistance on Thursday, December 11 from 10:00-11:30 A.M. in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Panelists include: Robin Roizman, Professional Staff Member, House Foreign Affairs Committee; Mark Gage, Republican Senior Policy Advisor and Director of European Affairs, House Foreign Affairs Committee; Mark Lopes, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ); and Connie Veillette, Senior Professional Staff Member, Office of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), Ranking Member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
  
  The discussion will be moderated by MFAN Co-Chair and Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, Steve Radelet. RSVP to Didier Trinh at (202) 464-8189 or: dtrinh@modernizingforeignassistance.org
  
  
  Click here for event details.

• MFAN Releases Transition Recommendations for Obama White House

  
  In a letter announcing MFAN’s recommendations for President-elect Obama’s transition team, MFAN gathered support for foreign assistance modernization from some of the country’s leading authorities on global development and foreign policy, including three former USAID Administrators, other former senior government officials and executives from the world’s most influential academic and research institutions, humanitarian aid groups and advocacy organizations.
  
  MFAN's transition recommendations focused on immediate steps the Obama White House can take on modernizing foreign assistance, and included the following excerpt: “Now more than ever, we must press forward with critical investments in America’s capabilities to fight poverty and create economic opportunities, and we must make these investments – which will need to increase over time – more efficient and effective. There is now broad bipartisan consensus that efforts to elevate development and modernize foreign assistance will be one of the best investments we can make over the long term to restore global stability, security and prosperity.”
  Click here to read the
  transmission letter
  Click here to read the
  transition recommendations strategy paper

• Defense Secretary Gates Headlines US Institute of Peace’s Inaugural Acheson Lecture

  • October 27, 2008
  

• Dean Acheson Lecture Transcript

  • October 15, 2008
  “We must be prepared to change old ways of doing business and create new institutions—both nationally and internationally—to deal with the long-term challenges we face abroad, and our own national security toolbox must be equipped with more than just hammers,” Gates said. “The security of the American people will depend increasingly on our ability to head off the next insurgency or arrest the collapse of another failing state.” To read Secretary Gates’ full remarks, click here.

• Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) Lays out Foreign Policy Agenda for Next President

  
  October 15, 2008
  Excerpt: If the United States is to remain secure and prosperous it must seek to shape the diplomatic and economic conditions in the world. We should be asking how do we change the rules of the game in ways that benefit a stable global order based on commerce, open borders, secure sea and air routes, adequate food and energy supplies, and the free flow of information?

• Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) Delivers Remarks at Center for Global Development Event

• America must adjust foreign aid to a new world order

  • The Seattle Times • October 8, 2008
  In a complex, changing world, we have little money to throw about. We need to move about more purposefully and with less of the clumsiness of the past.

• OBAMA: "Subsidising Big Oil Makes No Sense"

  • IPS • October 3, 2008
  Bankole Thompson interviews BARACK OBAMA

• Senator Barack Obama on global development at Clinton Global Initiative

  
  johnmccain.com • September 25, 2008
  

• Senator John McCain on global development at Clinton Global Initiative

  
  barackobama.com • September 25, 2008
  

• Charlie Wilson’s Peace

  • The Washington Post • August 28, 2008
  Op-ed in the Washington post by Center advisor & Congressman Charlie Wilson

• The White House & the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President

  • Center for Global Development • August 22, 2008
  

• DEVELOPMENT: Gender Focus Urged for U.S. Aid

  • IPS • July 23, 2008
  Women's groups weighed in Tuesday on the growing debate over new goals and strategies for U.S. foreign aid, arguing that to work effectively, foreign aid should target women.

• Major Makeover Proposed for U.S. Foreign Aid

  • OneWorld.net • June 13, 2008
  

• Coalition Calls on U.S. Government to Streamline Foreign Antipoverty Efforts

  • The Chronicle of Philanthropy • June 10, 2008
  

• Coalition seeks cabinet-level foreign aid

  • Politico • June 10, 2008
  

• A Smarter Weapon

  • USA Today • March 27, 2008
  Why two retired military officers believe it’s essential that the next president use outreach, good deeds and a strong military to make the United States safer.