U.S. Aid Reform
With US aid to Pakistan currently under intense scrutiny, and budget cuts threatening to limit resources, the opportunity is ripe for discussions on improving US foreign assistance and maximizing the impact of development dollars.
Enter last week’s launch of the first Congressional Caucus for Effective Foreign Assistance in the House of Representatives. Reps. Ander Crenshaw and Adam Smith launched the caucus to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of US foreign assistance and to provide a forum for the discussion and debate around some of the tough questions involved in reform. In their letter to Congress, Crenshaw and Smith noted:
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Gregory Adams from Oxfam America encourages Congress to “keep an eye” on reforms to the US aid system as they consider the budget.
Women farmers work in Malawi, a country affected by the MCC, Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative. Credit: Abbie Trayler-Smith, Oxfam GB/International.
This week, President Obama sent his budget blueprint to Congress for Fiscal Year 2012. There are two ways to measure this budget: how brawny is it, and how brainy is it?
On brawn, the budget clearly falls short. Obama proposes spending about $27 billion on development and humanitarian assistance — less than the amount Americans spent on candy in 2009. Right now, more than forty percent of the world’s population – 2.7 billion people – live in poverty, struggling to survive on less than $2 per day. That $27 billion essentially adds up to $10 for every poor person around the world; this clearly falls short of a “game-changing” investment.
But of course the question isn’t just about how much we’re spending. The most important question is about how and where we’re investing that money. And here—on the test of brains—Obama’s budget holds much more promise.
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Nearly 50,000 of you took action a few weeks back to encourage your Senators to sign on as cosponsors of S.1524. The bill, titled The Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009 (S.1524), was introduced at the end of July with three Democratic (Kerry, Menendez and Cardin) and three Republican (Lugar, Corker and Risch) co-sponsors. That list has grown considerably since then (check out the list below). And, it has now gained three new supporters. Republican Senators, Kit Bond of Missouri, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, and Olympia Snowe of Maine.
Though we can all tell from the news that the Senate has a lot on its plate (i.e. health care reform), hopefully the addition of these key Senators to the list of cosponsors will add some momentum to the bill. Currently we are asking you to push the White House to develop a global development strategy. Please sign on today to continue building momentum to make our foreign aid system even more effective!
Here’s the full list of co-sponsors:
1. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
2. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)
3. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
4. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)
5. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
6. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID)
7. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
8. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA)
9. Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE)
10. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
11. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)
12. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
13. Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD)
14. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
15. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
16. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)
17. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
18. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
19. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
20. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
21. Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)
22. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE)
12/17/09 UPDATE: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has now signed on as well.
On Tuesday, Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL) introduced the ‘Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform’ Act of 2009 (HR 2139). The bipartisan bill represents a remarkable step forward in the effort to better organize and coordinate US foreign assistance programs. What is particularly striking about this important bill is new language requiring increased transparency in American aid programs for developing countries.
As a key member of the group who launched Publish What You Fund (PWYF), ONE has been actively involved in the debate around increasing aid effectiveness and is very proud of the advisory role PWYF played during the drafting process of a new bipartisan bill designed to increase accountability and improve the effectiveness of U.S. foreign aid.
Section 4 of the bill addresses how US aid will become more transparent, stating that “the American taxpayers and recipients of United States foreign assistance should, to the maximum extent practicable, have full access to information on United States foreign assistance.” Departments and agencies responsible for directing foreign aid will be instructed to post information on the internet about the amount of money disbursed as well as information about contract agreements and monitoring reports for specific programs on a country-by-country basis. Additionally, the bill instructs that information should be posted in a timely way. In addition, the bill states that because of the importance of understanding the role of foreign assistance from the United States relative to funding from other donors, the US should participate in the International Aid Transparency Initiative, established on September 4, 2008, at the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.
Aid effectiveness is critically important, especially in these tough budgetary times. We’re excited to see a bipartisan team of congressional leaders introduce this bill and looks forward to working with the powerful group of unlikely allies, like William Easterly, to increase aid effectiveness, accountability and transparency. Keep an eye on the ONE Blog for updates on how we can help move this bill through Congress.
-Lisa Fleisher
In late January, you heard from us about a group of global development-focused NGOs across the United States who have been advocating for the U.S. to update the way it administers its development programs. This group of organizations—collectively called the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network—has gone public once again, and together with other development organizations and interested individuals, has issued an open letter to President Obama and Congress asking for quick action to make U.S. global development efforts more effective. This letter urges our President and Congress to make modernizing foreign assistance a top U.S. foreign policy priority, along with diplomacy and defense .
Your voice can add strength to this letter. Please click here to read and sign this request.
-Chandler Smith
For the last several months, a number of global development-focused NGOs across the United States have been advocating to update the way the U.S. administers its development programs. ONE is asking Congress and the Obama Administration to elevate development as a national priority and update the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (the legislation that governs how foreign assistance works). By streamlining and updating the channels through which US contributions are distributed, we can ensure that U.S dollars are put to use more quickly and more expansively.
For an overview of why modernizing foreign assistance is necessary, check out this Reuters article. The authors draw from the perspectives of Howard Berman, a senior Democrat who heads the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Steve Radelet, a senior fellow at Washington’s Center for Global Development, and the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN – of which ONE is a member).
For more information on MFAN, please see www.modernizingforeignassistance.net.
-Sara Rogge
Sarah Jane Staats from the Center for Global Development wrote this piece about Tuesday big foreign aid hearing on the Hill.
A proposal calling for what amounts to a complete makeover of U.S. foreign assistance was launched Tuesday at a packed event on Capitol Hill featuring remarks from Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA), Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY). As Porter McConnell & Erin Erlenborn flagged in previous ONE blog posts, New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century Assistance for the 21st Century is an urgent call for reform from members of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, a group of the prominent nonprofit leaders, think-tank experts, and academics co-chaired by CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet and Gayle Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
New Day, New Way argues that foreign assistance is a key element of U.S. foreign policy and the national interest but needs a dramatic overhaul to meet today’s global challenges. It urges the next president, Congress, policymakers and the American people to take specific steps to bring U.S. foreign assistance up to date. All three legislators attending expressed similar views.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) said he was energized and “flabbergasted” at the large turnout for the event – more than 250 people packed into the Rayburn Building’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing room. “I will take a very serious review [of this report],” he said. “It is my firm belief that this won’t just be another process of stating how we want the world to be. It will be a pick-up-and-run-with-it report,” he added.
Sen. Hagel (R-NE), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said (more…)
