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.
Archive for the ‘USAID’ Category
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.
Aid Reform that Works: How Ownership, Partnership, Coordination, and Innovation Should be the Core of America’s New Approach to Development
Monday, July 12th, 2010
New approaches to aid over the last decade have transformed the lives of countless individuals struggling with poverty, battling disease, and seeking opportunities to build a better life. The onset of these new approaches has sparked a debate on reform and how the U.S. can build on them to make foreign assistance more accountable and effective for the people we are trying to help and the U.S. taxpayers who generously support it. To demonstrate principles of effective aid – and communicate what still needs to be done – MFAN canvassed its Partners to share cases in which a new, innovative way of thinking led to improving the livelihood of an individual, a community or a country. The following success stories articulate some of the core principles – Ownership, Partnership, Coordination, and Innovation – that MFAN believes should provide the underpinnings of foreign assistance reform.
Ownership
The most effective way of ensuring long-term development is to allow recipients of aid to take the lead in designing and implementing their own development programs. Country ownership is about donors being transparent and consultative, helping to build capacity over the long term, and supporting local efforts to take control of their own development. This principle of aid effectiveness has become the cornerstone of reform efforts, but is also the most difficult to put into practice because it is dramatically different than the current U.S. model for the delivery of aid. The success stories that follow demonstrate ownership in action and prove that country ownership is essential for development.
- Ethiopia halved malaria deaths in just three years (The Global Fund to AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria) – In 2005, the Ethiopian government, with support from the Global Fund, unveiled a strategy to deliver two mosquito nets to every family at risk for malaria. By 2008, 20.5 million bed nets had been delivered, and 30,000 young women – two high school graduates per village – had been trained and mobilized to act as health advisors and to carry out on-the-spot malaria tests, made possible thanks to a new lightweight disposable kit. The program shows strong roots of local initiative, leadership, and ground-up action.
- Read more about Ethiopia’s grassroots health care initiative here.
