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MFAN Statement: Agencies Report Progress on Obama Development Policy

Thursday, April 5th, 2012
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April 5, 2012 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann, George Ingram and Jim Kolbe:

Six months ago, MFAN challenged the U.S. government agencies involved in development to provide public information about how they were implementing President Obama’s Global Development Policy (PPD), which in September 2010 called for accelerating foreign assistance reform. The answers we received – which have been posted on MFAN’s new “Policy to Action” webpage – suggest that key agencies have made concrete changes in line with the PPD’s focus on economic growth, coordination, country ownership and accountability. (Click here to read MFAN’s full policy analysis of the PPD)

We applaud the Obama Administration for its transparency in these reports, as well as its recent commitment to join the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and its acknowledgement of Congress’ clear interest in open government, as outlined in the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2011 introduced by Representatives Ted Poe (R-TX) and Howard Berman (D-CA).

The highlights of the agency reports:

  • USAID is now making long-term program decisions based on Country Development Cooperation Strategies (CDCS), five-year frameworks that prioritize local needs and local accountability;
  • MCC has new Threshold Program policies that help countries make smart reforms to bolster their eligibility for grants from the agency. This new policy was used to support Tunisia with its democratic and economic transition following the Arab Spring;
  • More than 3,000 Peace Corps volunteers helped to implement the Stomping out Malaria campaign in Africa, done in collaboration with the President’s Malaria Initiative, by assisting communities and distributing bed nets; and
  • Through the recently launched African Competitiveness and Trade Enhancement initiative, USTR is helping to provide technical assistance to sub-Saharan African countries to enhance regional and global trade, while growing exports to the U.S. under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

We now have initial evidence that reform is beginning to make our development assistance more strategic and effective. We urge Members of Congress to take note of this progress, particularly with budget negotiations underway. We believe that reforming development policy and foreign assistance is critical in this age of tight budgets, because it will allow us to get more out of every dollar in our efforts to maintain U.S. leadership on development, capitalize on the unprecedented gains made against poverty and disease over the last decade, and help developing countries achieve self-sufficiency.

 

 

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MFAN Statement: President Obama’s FY13 Budget Reaffirms Importance of Foreign Assistance Reform

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
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February 14, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann and George Ingram:

President Obama’s FY13 budget request for international affairs manages to hits three critically important notes against a challenging geopolitical and economic backdrop:

  • Funding: It maintains and in some places provides new funding for development and diplomacy programs that are taking on increased importance in post-conflict areas and other hotspots (e.g. the post-Arab Spring Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan), while also providing the resources necessary to protect the last decade’s unprecedented gains against poverty and disease in developing countries.
  • Reform: It focuses on the importance of making U.S. foreign assistance more effective and accountable by: Calling for continued support of reform-oriented Presidential initiatives (i.e. Feed the Future, Global Health Initiative); Highlighting programs like the Partnership for Growth, a unique and potentially powerful new effort to drive broad-based economic growth through better coordination of U.S. agencies in recipient countries; and, Ensuring the continuation of reform and innovation initiatives underway that will strengthen the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), including USAID FORWARD, with its focus on procurement reform, and Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), which provides incubation support for promising new approaches to development around the world. These reforms are maintained, in part, by providing funding for the agency’s critical operating expense (OE) account. The Administration also rightly calls for the establishment of a “Working Capital Fund,” which would be used to cover the costs of implementing cross-agency reforms.
  • Prioritization: It reflects a strategic shifting of resources away from places (e.g. Europe, Asia) where assistance is no longer as critical, while also making very difficult choices to reduce money in accounts where increasing efficiencies and burden sharing with partners and recipient countries can bolster the impact of every dollar spent. We look forward to hearing more about how the Administration will maintain the effectiveness of these programs even with declining resources.

While no budget is perfect, we believe the President’s FY13 international affairs request is balanced and constructive. Most importantly, it seems to us to be a reaffirmation of the Administration’s focus on reforming U.S. foreign assistance. We remain committed to working with both the Administration and Congress to see that these reforms have lasting impact.

 

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MFAN Statement: Agency Consolidation Must Be Done Carefully

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
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January 13, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann, George Ingram and Jim Kolbe:

The Obama Administration’s efforts to consolidate U.S. Government trade agencies into a more streamlined, efficient single entity are commendable. The goal of consolidation should be to increase coherence, effectiveness and accountability, and we have long argued that similar activities could strengthen the U.S. development system.

But any actions of this type must be done carefully and deliberately, and we are concerned that elements of the trade agency consolidation plan may hinder progress towards these goals. Two of the agencies in the plan – the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) – are explicitly committed to advancing economic development and opportunity in emerging economies, as a way of promoting U.S. foreign policy. In contrast, the mission of larger agencies such as the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the Department of Commerce are to promote exports from the United States, to open markets overseas, to negotiate trade agreements and to enforce existing trade laws and regulations.

We believe it is critical that agencies involved in consolidation share fundamental missions. Taking this into account, it would be more appropriate for OPIC and USTDA to be included in a discussion of reorganizing and consolidating the development system, within which their unique expertise as facilitators with the U.S. private sector is enormously important to the future of our global engagement. We hope to have the opportunity to work with the Administration and Congress on these important issues.

 

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MFAN Statement: Congress Avoids Catastrophic Aid Cuts, Advances Reform in FY12 Budget

Monday, December 19th, 2011
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December 19, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann and George Ingram:

We are pleased that Congress avoided making catastrophic cuts to foreign assistance in the Fiscal Year 2012 State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.  We appreciate the efforts of the policymakers who fought to protect these critical programs, and we commend them for using the bill to advance some key foreign assistance reform priorities that will lead to better results for U.S. taxpayers and people in developing countries.

The $42.1 billion base funding level represents a continued and troubling downward trend, which remains a major concern as Congress and the Administration turn to the Fiscal  Year 2013 budget in February.  However, when the core budget is taken together with increased funding for Overseas Contingency Operations, our development-focused programs weathered what could have been a disastrous and irreversibly damaging budget cycle. We hope Members of Congress will maintain their support for these critical programs in the difficult budget negotiations in coming years.

Certain elements of the bill advance key foreign assistance reform priorities, including increasing transparency and accountability, strengthening country ownership, empowering a 21st-century U.S. development agency and encouraging more strategic and effective program design in the field:

  • The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Operating Expenses, which largely fund the landmark internal reform agenda underway at the Agency, only suffered a small reduction, far less than what had originally been proposed in the House Committee-passed version of the bill.
  • Per the Obama Administration’s pledge to restore USAID’s standing as the premier global development agency, the bill draws explicit attention to the need to undertake a transparent process of transitioning full responsibility for the marquee Global Health Initiative (GHI) to USAID, as called for in the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR).
  • In an effort to make U.S. development efforts more sustainable on the ground, we applaud the bill’s support for a pilot program to reform procurement practices by increasing opportunities for indigenous organizations to compete for grants.
  • We support the bill’s language promoting gender equality and the meaningful participation of women in all development efforts.
  • We also commend the provision of assistance to improve fiscal transparency standards for developing country budgets and contracts, including support for civil society organizations to promote transparency.

We look forward to working with the Administration and the Congress to strengthen these and other reforms, including through specific reform legislation next year, building on leadership efforts by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) this year.

 

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MFAN Statement: Sec. Clinton Speech in Busan Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Aid Effectiveness

Thursday, December 1st, 2011
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November 30, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann, George Ingram and Jim Kolbe:

MFAN commends Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration for announcing at the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea that the United States will sign on to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).  The U.S. will join 25 other bilateral and multilateral donors from around the world in committing to publish up-to-date data on foreign assistance in a common, open format that is accessible and comparable.

The announcement builds on the launch last December of the Foreign Assistance Dashboard, which begins to show where and how much the U.S. Government is spending on assistance.  We applaud the addition last week of the Millennium Challenge Corporation to the Dashboard, and look forward to the eventual inclusion and participation of all U.S. agencies engaged in overseas development.

We also hope the Administration will honor its pledge to incorporate comprehensive  and standardized reporting on budget, financial, program, and performance data from all U.S. agencies, as called for in the bipartisan Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2012 (H.R. 3159) sponsored by Representatives Ted Poe (R-TX) and Howard Berman (D-CA).

Taken together, these steps would allow both American citizens and those in partner countries to see where U.S. tax funds are going and how these dollars are helping to facilitate economic growth, alleviate poverty, and stymie disease. As Secretary Clinton noted, greater transparency will make assistance more effective, by allowing donors and developing country governments to plan for and manage limited aid resources. Only with more and better information can developing-partner countries assume increased ownership of, and responsibility for, their own development.

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