The release of initial findings from the State Department’s landmark Quadrennial Diplomacy & Development Review (QDDR), which will for the first time provide a strategic blueprint for U.S. development and foreign assistance efforts, is expected soon. Because this is such a key moment in the long push for foreign assistance reform, MFAN is launching a blog series to ensure lively debate about the goals and impacts of the QDDR. Beginning with the piece below from MFAN Co-Chair George Ingram, development experts from across the MFAN community will post blogs on the QDDR and the importance of transparency, civil society engagement, gender, ownership, and legislation to making U.S. foreign assistance more effective and accountable. Check back here and on www.Twitter.com/ModernizeAid for regular updates!
It’s Time for Hard Questions on the QDDR
By George Ingram
The initial findings from the State Department’s landmark Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) are set to be released any day now. The impact of the QDDR on U.S. foreign policy could be significant – optimists might even say transformative – and its effects could be felt widely from the halls of Congress to the villages in developing countries where U.S. foreign assistance programs aim to save lives and help build more prosperous futures.
At a time when complex global challenges demand that we get the structures and policies of government right, the development community must be prepared to respond to the QDDR findings in order to create a more effective approach to our foreign policy objectives.
