Development Assistance
Next week, President Obama will release his proposed 2012 budget — and by now, I’m sure you’ve heard that US foreign aid spending is (as a recent headline put it) “on the chopping block.” But a few public officials on both sides of the political aisle are voicing their opinions against these cuts in the mainstream media. Take a look:
Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, the ranking Democrat on the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee, wrote in a recent Politico column:
“Leaders of both parties, including President George W. Bush, have affirmed that U.S. power is a three-legged stool of military might, diplomatic skill and development. The foreign aid bill’s diplomatic and development objectives pay dividends by helping avoid military deployments to protect U.S. interests, which are far more costly in both life and treasure.”
And GOP strategist John Feehery said in the Hill:
“…Cutting foreign aid is not going to balance the budget. It is only going to lessen our influence in the rest of the world. I am all for putting pressure on our foreign assistance programs to make sure we are getting the best bang for the buck. I am not for taking us out of the foreign assistance game entirely, though. Isolationism is not going to make America more secure.”
ONE and our two million members urge Congress to oppose cuts to U.S. foreign assistance funding that supports critical, lifesaving programs.
For decades the United States has led the way in helping the poorest people in the world become healthier, better educated and more economically self-sufficient. While there is still much to be done, great progress has been made.
Using less than one percent of the United States budget we have helped save millions of lives through basic childhood vaccinations, malaria prevention and treatment, and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. It is now possible that, by 2015, no child will be born with HIV. This was unimaginable even 5 years ago. In 2010, 98 million fewer people went hungry compared to 2009, due in part because of our support of agricultural development. Millions more children are in school. More moms are living through childbirth. Since 1990, some 400 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. This is living proof American generosity makes a world of difference.
Cuts to global health and development would achieve only symbolic savings but have a profound impact on human lives and dignity. In these austere times, we must not misplace our priorities. America’s leadership in the world is demonstrated, and assisted, through our assistance to the most vulnerable people.
If you caught the president’s State of the Union address a couple of nights ago, you’d know a big part of his vision for America was focused on innovation and competitiveness. “Our success in this new and changing world,” Obama said, “will require reform, responsibility, and innovation.” He presented a bold plan to create jobs and grow our economy through reformed education, more efficient government and investment in science and technology. It was an inspiring speech that called upon Americans to “do big things.”
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
But this talk isn’t new. Throughout government, we’ve been seeing a lot of these principles put in practice by many agencies and programs, including those working on foreign assistance. The State Department, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have all put a premium on becoming more efficient, effective and transparent in their support for poor nations and are embracing innovative ideas to save money and make a bigger impact.
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Monks head online in Phnom Penh. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Magalie L’Abbé under a Creative Commons license.
Have you checked out foreignassistance.gov yet? It’s kind of a big deal. It may seem like just another government data website to jaded Washington types, but it’s actually a big deal for poor people in aid-dependent countries. The new website is commonly referred to as the “Aid Dashboard.”
It’s the follow-through on a promise made in July when the Obama Administration unveiled its plan to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Aid Dashboard aims to give the public a window into how and where US development dollars are spent. And it’s not just a mash of numbers; the Dashboard uses dynamic graphics to allow stakeholders to picture US foreign assistance investments easily by geography, sector or time period.
So, what gives it the potential to make it a big deal? The point is what it can do. You remember those NBC public service announcements, “The More You Know”? The more people in poor countries who know what donors are up to in their own backyards, the more they can hold their governments responsible for how they use the aid money that comes in. Citizen watchdog groups, journalists and local businesses can use this comprehensive information to blow the whistle on aid dollars that have disappeared or weren’t used to meet their needs. The more citizens know, the more they can fight corruption themselves.
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As you may have read in our news roundup yesterday morning, the World Bank’s International Development Agency (known as IDA) received an historic boost in funding yesterday. Officials meeting in Brussels agreed to contribute $49.3 billion for IDA over the next three years, representing an 18 percent increase over IDA’s last financing round. Although the specific donor contributions have not yet been publicized, we do know that year’s replenishment included unprecedented increases in resources mobilized from within the World Bank and from former IDA borrowers.
This is great news for the world’s poorest countries, where (as my colleague Lauren noted earlier this week) IDA is one of the biggest donors. The World Bank estimates that this increased funding for IDA will help immunize 200 million more children, extend health services to over 30 million people, give access to improved water sources to 80 million more people, help build 80,000 kilometers of roads and train and recruit over two million teachers. For African countries (which make up 39 of 70 IDA countries) this could be a huge help towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
Stay tuned for more details.
Donor governments are meeting in Brussels, Belgium this week to complete the 16th replenishment of the World Bank’s International Development Agency (IDA).
IDA -– known as the World Bank’s “fund for the poorest” -– is one of the largest development financiers in Africa and the world’s least developed countries. Historically, Africa has received more of IDA’s funding than any other region, at around 50 percent. IDA funds are delivered through grants and interest-free, long-term loans.
These meetings will conclude IDA’s last replenishment before 2015 — so, the commitments made to IDA will be critical in helping the world’s poorest countries mobilize the funds needed to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa by 2015. In past decade, IDA immunized 310 million children, provided access to water and sanitation for more than 177 million people and brought better education to more than 100 million children each year. With strong commitments from donor countries, IDA estimates that it can immunize 200 million more children, give access to improved water sources to 80 million more people and train and recruit more than two million more teachers.
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Written with Brooke Riley:
Last Thursday marked the end of a 14-month wait for the release of the State Department and USAID’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), the first-ever comprehensive review of US development and diplomatic policy. The document is a draft and still requires inter-agency review and comment — the final QDDR will be released in December. Nevertheless, with this and the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development (which was outlined by President Obama at the MDG Summit in September ), we are starting to get a much better sense of how the Administration intends to modernize and elevate US development policy in order to maximize results for the world’s poorest people.
Among a number of promising signs in the draft QDDR is a clear effort to strengthen the role of USAID in America’s development efforts around the globe. This includes increasing the agency’s control over its budgeting and policy planning processes and ensuring that USAID plays a leadership role in creating country-specific development strategies and implementing Feed the Future and eventually the Global Health Initiative, the Obama Administration’s two signature development programs. The QDDR also continues recent efforts to build human capacity within USAID, including a new plan to triple the number of mid-career development officer hires, something that will place more experienced USAID development experts in the field to drive better results. The Review proposes changes within the State Department as well, with the establishment of several new offices including an Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights as well as a new Bureau for Crisis and Conflict Operations and a Special Coordinator for Sanctions and Illicit Finance.
The QDDR highlights the need for joint strategic planning between the State Department and USAID and an increased emphasis on the need for diplomacy and development to be mutually reinforcing. Both good goals. However, the draft QDDR opens the door for more questions since it does not address the inherent contradictions that exist between calling for an elevated role for USAID when overall policy planning and budgetary authority remains with the State Department. Let’s hope this is clarified in the final QDDR.
Another inherent shortcoming of the QDDR is that it addresses issues relative only to the State Department and USAID. With so many other government actors and policies that make up the US global development agenda, broad policy coherency will remain a challenge. Hopefully the effort put in place by the PPD will help shape a greater all-of-government approach within which the QDDR will operate.
It is also unclear whether the QDDR will require legislative changes in order to move forward. Engaging Congress as a partner in the broad effort to strengthen and elevate US global development is long overdue and the QDDR would be a great starting point to establish a collaborative relationship between the two branches and to codify some of these important initiatives.
Two other challenges remain. We now begin the implementation stage of the PPD and QDDR, the most important part of the effort. It will be critical over the next two years to ensure that these reforms are firmly in place so that they will endure beyond this Administration and current leadership. We are also arguably entering the most difficult budget environments in decades. Any retrenchment on funding resources, especially those that build capacity of both the State Department and USAID, will jeopardize success.
It has been nearly 50 years – since the early days of the Kennedy Administration – that such bold initiatives related to US global development policy have been put forward. Now the hard work begins, making the policy a reality.
