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Posts Tagged ‘USAID’

MFAN Statement: Aid Reform Community Looks Forward to Full Detail on QDDR

Thursday, November 18th, 2010
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November 18, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann and George Ingram:

The leaked summary of Secretary Clinton’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) shows positive movement towards a more streamlined, coherent, and coordinated approach to development by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  Taken together with the recent Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development (PPD) and internal reforms being led by USAID Administrator Raj Shah, the QDDR is another sign that the Obama Administration is committed to getting better results out of U.S. foreign assistance.  However, the summary leaves some issues unresolved.

The most important positive elements of the summary include:

  • Supporting the PPD: Key principles of reform, which were recently laid out in the PPD, are reiterated in the summary.
  • Elevating and Strengthening USAID: The Agency will assume immediate control of the Feed the Future, the Obama Administration’s economic growth-focused food security initiative.  USAID development professionals, particularly Mission Directors, will be given a leadership role in creating country-specific development strategies that strengthen overall U.S. diplomatic and defense efforts.  USAID’s staffing and capacity will be bolstered at both the headquarters and country level.

The concerns:

  • Durability of Reforms: The summary does not include a strong call for collaboration between the Administration and Congress – key leaders of which have been instrumental in advocating for elevating development, including Representative Howard Berman and Senators John Kerry and Dick Lugar – to turn the suggested reforms into legislation that will have lasting impact.
  • Vagueness: There are still contradictions between the Administration’s goal of making USAID the world’s “premier development agency” and the lines of authority for policy development and budgeting (although progress seems to have been made).  The QDDR focuses only on State and USAID, so the White House still has work to do to clarify how development programs and activities will be managed across the entire government.

We applaud the hard work that has been done by committed professionals at the State Department and USAID on the QDDR thus far.  We look forward to the release of the review’s full findings soon.

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Posted in State Department | 1 Comment »

CQ Article Reports on the Future of Foreign Aid Reform

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
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In an article out today, CQ reporter Emily Cadei writes about the fading opportunity for an overhaul of US foreign assistance given the Republican takeover of the House in Congress. Cadei notes that legislative efforts – particularly House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman’s Foreign Assistance Act rewrite – will face the most resistance from Republicans looking to use the fragmented system as a means to cut foreign aid funding altogether. Two MFAN members, Sarah Jane Staats of the Center for Global Development, and Greg Adams of Oxfam America were quoted in the piece. See key excerpts after the jump:

At the request of the Obama administration, Berman held off trying to move a bill while the White House and State Department conducted their own development policy reviews. The former was concluded in September, while State’s review still awaits release. Berman’s plan was to introduce a bill next year.

“Berman was very patient,” said Sarah Jane Staats, director of policy outreach at the Center for Global Development, which largely supported the chairman’s legislation. “Now we see maybe too patient.”

However, supporters of a foreign aid overhaul in the development community remain hopeful that with the completion of the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review in the coming weeks, the administration will step up its engagement with Capitol Hill.

Staats said the shift in control of the House could force the White House to be more proactive. It “will require the White House to work much more closely and negotiate . . . if they want to move forward on development,” she said.

Gregory Adams, director of aid effectiveness for Oxfam America, said Congress can respond to the administration’s new proposals — outlined in the president’s policy directive on development and the forthcoming quadrennial review — in fiscal 2012 appropriations.

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Posted in Community, House, Pressroom | No Comments »

Poll: Top Vacancies at USAID

Monday, November 15th, 2010
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Below is a guest post from MFAN member Alex Denny, Research Assistant of the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Assistance Reform Project, taking a closer look at the remaining vacancies at USAID. To see exactly where things stand with Assistant Administrators, please see the Center for Global Development’s USAID Staff Tracker and be sure to lets us know which vacancy is your top priority based on the tracker below:

Which AA Vacancy Would You Fill Today?

Alex Denny

Almost two years into the administration, USAID still suffers from incomplete staffing in its influential upper ranks.  Of the ten Assistant Administrator positions, only three have been confirmed, and only one other AA has even been nominated. As a matter of coherent and effective leadership, President Obama’s policy intends for USAID to be “the U.S. Government’s lead development agency” and the world’s premier development agency, but these gaps in appointed and Senate-confirmed leadership have real, deleterious effects on the agency’s ability to fulfill that role and to act as a strong pillar of foreign policy.  Can you imagine the reactions if DoD was this understaffed?

The different gaps in USAID’s leadership have different consequences for the Agency’s clout in Washington and for offices in the field. Within our own conversations, we’ve heard reasons for why certain AA positions are more critical to fill than others; the health community, for example, has a valid point when it says that the missing AA for Global Health means that the Agency lacks the ability to coordinate strategy with the President’s new Global Health Initiative. But does that make it the most important AA position to fill? Or should the priority be on a particular regional bureau, on Legislative and Public Affairs or on something else?

While we look forward to all of the positions being filled, we’re curious to know what you think.  If you could pick just one of these vacant positions to be filled today, which would you pick and why?

USAID Staff Tracker 11_15

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Posted in Community, USAID | No Comments »

Cast Your Vote about the QDDR’s Release

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
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Voting in your state may not be the only ballot you cast today, after all. The Stimson Center’s The Will and the Wallet blog features a poll asking when you think the State Department’s inaugural Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) will be released.  The poll offers the following three options:

  • Before Thanksgiving
  • Between December 1st and December 9th
  • December 10th or later

With Secretary Clinton’s new  Foreign Affairs piece explaining the theory behind the QDDR, and recent public statements referring to an end-of-year public release of the document, this poll is a light-hearted way of showing that the community is geared up and ready to respond.  Be sure to cast your vote here!

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Posted in Community, State Department | 1 Comment »

MFAN Principal J. Brian Atwood Elected Chair of OECD’s Development Assistance Committee

Monday, November 1st, 2010
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November 1, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann and George Ingram:

We offer heartfelt congratulations to our fellow MFAN Principal and friend J. Brian Atwood for his unanimous election as Chair of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

As the highest international body coordinating development policy across governments and civil society, the DAC will benefit greatly from the development expertise Brian gained as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Under Secretary of State for Management, President of the National Democratic Institute and Citizens International, and Dean of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.  Brian’s cross-sectoral leadership experience is exactly what is needed to bring public and private entities together to deliver better results for people mired in poverty, hunger, and disease.

The foreign assistance reform community is particularly pleased that Brian will bring his deep commitment to aid effectiveness to his new position.  He has been a leading advocate for more strategic, effective foreign assistance for decades.  His leadership as a founding principal of MFAN helped shape the network’s reform agenda, and his voice has helped drive that agenda forward, culminating in President Obama’s landmark new development policy that included several of MFAN’s priorities.

We thank Brian for his deep commitment to helping the world’s most vulnerable people realize a better future and for his leadership with MFAN.  We look forward to working with him in his new position.

For additional information, please contact Sam Hiersteiner at 202-295-0171 or shiersteiner@gpgdc.com.

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Posted in Community, MFAN News | No Comments »

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