Blog Contributor:
Erin Thornton
Feb 12th, 2010 7:15 PM UTC
By Erin Thornton
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Today, African governments stepped up to provide more resources for their own development through the African Development Bank. In two weeks, wealthy donor countries like the U.S. will decide if they will follow suit.
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is a key player in fueling Africa’s economic transformation. The Group consists of the African Development Bank which provides “hard” lending to qualified countries and the African Development Fund which provides concessional finance to low income countries. The Group is African led—with the majority of its shareholders coming from the continent. And it responds to Africa’s needs- aligning its assistance with country priorities and concentrating its lending on infrastructure, the private sector and governance.
The needs on the continent as we know are great, especially in light of the recent financial crisis. For that reason last year at the April G20 Summit in London, the global community called upon the AfDB to scale up its assistance to African countries urgently so as to counteract the crisis’s impact on the continent. The Bank heeded the call but now faces a need for new resources two years sooner than originally anticipated.
A general capital increase (GCI) for the African Development Bank is critically important for two reasons. Unlike the regular envelope of resources allocated through its replenishments, the capital increase can be used to fund middle-income countries which can often be regional engines of growth and it’s also critical because private sector entities in any country—low or middle income—can draw upon these resources for critical financing. In fact, more than half of the private sector operations done by the AfDB last year were in low income countries.
Today, African shareholders met and agreed that they would support a 200% general capital increase. This means that all of the African shareholders—including the low income countries—feel that this tool is important enough to put their own resources forward and support an increase. Next up is for the donor nations to do the same—to see that a general capital increase for the Bank is a critical tool for all of Africa and to support African countries in their effort to finance it. Western donors see this as a 2012 issue but Africa sees it differently. Hopefully the leadership shown today will spark action amongst western capitals as well.
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Feb 4th, 2010 3:56 PM UTC
By Erin Thornton
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Over the past few days on the ONE blog, we’ve been offering you our analysis of President Obama’s 2011 budget request. I thought I would add a few thoughts of my own, with a quick look at how some of ONE’s key priorities fared.
- As we mentioned in an earlier post, the International Affairs budget appears to have increased by $6.1 billion from 2010. But on Monday, the Obama Administration also released details for its 2010 supplemental budget request (additional funds needed for projects that were unknown at the time of the original budget process). If we add these numbers to the 2010 budget base, the difference between the 2010 and 2011 budget actually shrinks to $1.6 billion—a huge difference.
It’s an important point to note, particularly since the International Affairs budget escaped President Obama’s budget freeze (for issues of national security). A $6.1 billion increase would have painted a rather large bull’s-eye on our priorities moving forward, but a $1.6 billion increase makes that target a whole lot smaller.
- While the 2011 budget does keep us on a path to double foreign assistance (as President Obama promised earlier), it’s important to keep in mind the fact that that commitment to double was intended to achieve a set of even more important qualitative commitments—such as the commitments made to the global health initiative, enhancing food security, improving access to education, and boosting the capacity of USAID and the Peace Corps. While the total numbers are definitely on the rise, sixty percent of the proposed increases for FY2011 are intended for just three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. ONE did some work when the President first took office that showed that it WOULD be possible to meet those important development goals with the resources made available through a doubling—but as more of the growth goes to strategic states, there’s less of a chance that all of the development goals will be met.
- Agriculture is a big budget winner, with the Administration requesting an additional $750 million for the “Global Hunger and Food Security” initiative. With this new boost, the Administration notes that it’s met its G8 pledge from L’Aquila, Italy ($3.5 billion over 3 years). What’s most important now is to see the detailed policy plans to see how these scaled up resources will be used.
- On Monday, the Administration also released its policy analysis of the Global Health Initiative. ONE has been pleased to see a more comprehensive approach to global health. The budget includes a proposed $351 million increase for maternal and child health and a $108 million increase for Neglected Tropical Diseases and other public threats. But it’s important that the resources are made available to meet ALL of the goals set out in the new strategy. It’s also important that as the strategy takes on new critical areas, that momentum on infectious disease not be lost. In particular, we were disappointed to see a $50 million cut for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) saw only a $12 million increase—far below their actual need. We’ll keep working with our partners to push these funding levels up and we’ll keep you posted on our progress in the days and months ahead.
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Jan 18th, 2010 8:56 AM UTC
By Erin Thornton
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Six days, nine women, one mission: to gain a deeper understanding of the development challenges facing sub-Saharan Africa, through the gender lens.
We’ve led lots of trips to Africa but this one is special both personally and professionally. This time I’m surrounded by an amazing group of women all committing themselves to working with ONE to strengthen the ways in which ONE’s women support the fight against poverty. And this time we’re going to take a fresh view at the continent-by focusing in on the disproportionate challenges women face but more importantly on the critical role African women are playing in finding solutions. When travelling, I’m always reminded of our common humanity but as a mother, sister, daughter and wife myself-the focus on women’s role in the fight against poverty offers yet another thread of connectivity.
We have just arrived in the capital city of Accra in the West African country of Ghana, where we will be spending the next four days before embarking for Sierra Leone. I am surrounded by a delegation of eight prominent women from all walks of life who have come together to learn more about the inspiring work and vast untapped potential that women and girls possess here in Africa.
We are traveling as part of a listening and learning trip to gear up for ONE’s new women’s campaign, Women ONE2ONE, a movement which seeks to promote women’s empowerment – through maternal health, girl’s education and economic opportunity – to fight poverty and preventable disease. The women on this trip exemplify all that this new campaign stands for: women as change-makers, community-builders and peace builders.
ONE’s U.S. Executive Director Sheila Nix and I are accompanied on this trip by a diverse delegation of accomplished, insightful women who know firsthand what impact women can have in their communities and around the world. Some of the women joining us include: Cindy McCain, a humanitarian in her own right and wife of Senator John McCain, who is joining ONE for her second trip to Africa with us; South African musical icon and a leader in the fight against disease and illiteracy Yvonne Chaka Chaka; star of NBC’s television drama Friday Night Lights Connie Britton, who has also dedicated her time to producing a documentary in Ethiopia while also supporting ONE; former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, and the Maureen Orth, an award-winning journalist and Vanity Fair Special Correspondent.
Over the next week, we will visit a wide spectrum of sites and meet with key officials so we can explore how African leadership, civil society and U.S. investments are opening school doors and creating economic opportunity for women and girls. I am eager for our group to further explore how women and girls in developing countries are critical to the health, social and economic well-being of entire communities.
It’s sure to be a fantastic week-with its own challenges, surprises and inspiration. I’m looking forward to meeting women whose stories are sure to stick with me as I and my colleagues think through ways that the U.S. can help empower women to pull their communities out of poverty.
Erin Thornton, ONE’s senior director of policy
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Mar 27th, 2009 8:14 PM UTC
By Erin Thornton
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There’s a new aid critic making a stir in the media this week. Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid, is getting a lot of attention, but her critique of aid is contradicted by the facts and crude to the point of caricature. It’s too bad, because there are points in the book about trade and investment that we think are important. If you want to know more, check out this analysis we did of Dead Aid’s arguments – and why they’re wrong.
-Erin Thornton
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Jan 14th, 2009 12:39 PM UTC
By Erin Thornton
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(As cross-posted on the front page of the Huffington Post today.)
In her highly-anticipated confirmation hearings to be selected as the next Secretary of State yesterday, Senator Hillary Clinton articulated a bold and comprehensive vision of U.S. foreign policy for the Obama Administration. Perhaps none of her ambitions were more striking than the breadth and depth of her commitments to development as a pillar of foreign policy along with defense and diplomacy. Her testimony marks a heightened focus on development not only as an effective means to advance U.S. foreign policy and to improve America’s image in the world, but also as a critical goal in and of itself.
Echoing George Marshall, Clinton spoke of her vision of foreign policy as a tool that can and should do more than address ongoing conflicts such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an ever shrinking world, foreign policy must also confront a new breed of challenges such as global poverty and disease and Clinton’s remarks demonstrate an understanding of what such an engagement would require. First, she highlights the comprehensive and interconnected needs involved in truly addressing development. In echoing Obama’s own agenda, she referenced that development would encompass, amongst other things, “… eliminating the global education deficit; enhancing US leadership in the effort to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB and improving global health infrastructure; providing sustainable debt relief to developing countries; expanding prosperity through training, partnerships and expanded opportunities for small and medium enterprise; supporting developing countries in adapting to the challenges of a changing climate….” In short, she acknowledges that true development requires a multifaceted and balanced approach as articulated in the internationally agreed upon Millennium Development Goals.
Second, she acknowledges that HOW the U.S. achieves these goals is as important as WHAT it focuses on. Her testimony proposes an approach that partners with nations to ensure that the U.S. isn’t just “giving” foreign assistance but rather investing in these countries so that they can sustain their own poverty-alleviation efforts in the long-term. Lastly, she reiterated President-elect Obama’s critical commitment to double foreign assistance. This will allow the U.S. to scale up efforts that are working and invest the time and effort to modernize the whole of U.S. development programs so that all elements of the investment made by the American people are working as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Senator Clinton’s vision and leadership come at a critical time. America’s foreign policy challenges are complicated and cross cutting. The world faces a series of conflicts, challenges to democracy, financial upheaval and humanitarian threats like the food crisis. But America is also at a point where it has tested and proven the potential of development to impact those challenges. Clinton’s goal of making defense, diplomacy, and development the centerpiece of US foreign policy won’t be easy, but if the new Administration follows through on the commitments that Hillary Clinton has made, a focal point for the Obama national security doctrine will be a robust, effective, innovative development program. Of course, ensuring the success of these development priorities will require working vigorously with Congress to enact funding and legislation. The true three pillared approach highlighted yesterday is the right mix to confront these challenging times. Hillary Clinton has shown she shares Obama’s vision to make it a reality. We look forward to taking the first step with her.
-Erin Thornton, ONE Global Policy Director
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Dec 18th, 2008 12:14 PM UTC
By Erin Thornton
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ONE recently prepared a set of transition documents for President-elect Obama’s transition team. These documents essentially represented ONE’s best effort to put in writing a set of recommendations for how the Obama team could put its vision for development into action after taking office. The booklet included issue specific recommendations that could be implemented both in the short and longer term.
All of these recommendations are meant to fit into Obama’s broader vision for fighting poverty and making the Millennium Development Goals America’s own goals for development. In order to do so, President-elect Obama also committed to double U.S. spending on development assistance by $25 billion. In an effort to tie the two together, ONE’s transition document includes a section outlining the annual expenditures necessary to reach this goal over five years. It lists each of Obama’s existing commitments to development and added those priorities that ONE recommended to fulfill the overall vision. All of these things can be accomplished with an increase of $23.96 billion by fiscal year 2013.
While this increase sounds large, it still only represents less than 1% of the U.S. federal budget and can provide significant assistance to countries struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Some of the priorities and commitments we include are:
- Fully funding PEPFAR, tuberculosis and malaria as authorized in the Lantos-Hyde act passed this year
- Create an initiative to build long-term agricultural capacity
- Work toward universal primary education by signing and funding the Education for All Bill
- Create and small and medium enterprise fund to support economic growth in Africa
These are just a few of the ideas mentioned in the briefing.
The scale up acknowledges that the United States is currently facing a difficult economic crisis and that therefore the new Administration will have to strategically choose which priorities to invest in immediately and which will have to be initiated a year or two down the line. Ultimately however, despite the difficult budget environment facing the U.S. in this upcoming year, ONE hopes that the Obama administration will begin the scale up with a total increase of $4 billion over the spending level in fiscal year 2008 so that those most critical initiatives can begin their scale up. Delaying the effort will only make annual increases required in future years more difficult to achieve. You can view the chart showing scale-up here.
-Erin Thornton, Policy Director, ONE
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Dec 2nd, 2008 10:07 AM UTC
By Erin Thornton
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Last week, ONE released its transition briefing to President-elect Obama’s transition team. Our transition briefing builds on the already robust agenda laid out by the President-elect with a series of short- and long-term policy pitches to the transition team along with a detailed sketch of how the Obama Administration can meet its commitment to double foreign assistance.
A transition briefing like this is meant to provide our thoughts on new priorities that could be taken up early on in the Administration and that also fit well with President-elect Obama’s vision. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all the things that ONE will support during the next four years whether they be existing priorities or new ideas that may emerge.
President-elect Obama’s campaign commitment to double foreign assistance provides us a framework for our requests and while it may sound ambitious, it is a critical necessity to the overarching goals. We are not naïve to the financial realities our country is facing, but for far too long development has played a supportive role in our overall foreign policy. It is our hope that President Obama will act on the vision he described as a candidate and raise the profile of development. We believe this briefing provides a roadmap to do that.
We hope that you find this briefing helpful and look forward to working with President Obama, his Administration, Congress, and all of our members to make this vision a reality.
-Erin Thornton, ONE’s Policy Director
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