Just as a refresher for those who haven’t heard much about it since then, we first reported last year that the PPD was an exciting move by the administration to elevate development as a key pillar of America’s foreign policy (along with diplomacy and defense), and that laid out clear goals and objectives for US foreign assistance. These goals were meant to direct all agencies across the US government that implement foreign assistance funding to orient around a common purpose and better coordinate to achieve sustainable development impact.

So what’s changed in the past year?? The State Department and USAID followed up the President’s announcement by releasing the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) in December last year, which conducted a sweeping review of diplomacy development assistance across agencies and suggested specific reforms in order to realize the goals of the PPD. USAID, in anticipation of the PPD and the QDDR, had been already begun the process of implementing a series of reforms called USAID FORWARD that strengthened USAID’s capacity for planning and budgeting. They announced new procurement policies to give more opportunities to local partners in country, and they unveiled a new independent monitoring and evaluation policy to put a stronger focus on achieving results. The new Foreign Assistance Dashboard was a great start to improving transparency and accessibility of foreign aid resources, and will become more useful as other US agencies report and the dashboard expands to include project level information and results. USAID has also made efforts to streamline US development objectives and reduce the number of countries the US is working in, although this will need a lot more progress in the next couple of years to really focus scarce resources. All of these reforms and objectives are embodied in the new USAID Policy Framework: 2011-2015.

Where does that leave us?? Last week our friends at the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network held an event assessing PPD implementation with representatives from the State Department, USAID, Treasury, USTR, and MCC. What was perhaps most obvious from the panel is that all the different agencies of the US government that are active in foreign assistance (there were five of the 20+ agencies actually involved in foreign aid represented at the MFAN event) really are communicating better, working together, and instituting a “whole of government” approach to foreign aid. The new ‘Partnership for Growth’ initiative that has yet to be formally debuted is a great example of the US trying to create a better division of labor across agencies and a true partnership with developing countries, by changing the way development objectives are decided at the country level and how projects are managed. The true test will come however when results are eventually measured in the four pilot countries.
But the work is far from done. A glaring omission from the PPD anniversary discussion last week was how this excellent policy had translated into improved practice and greater results overseas. After all, that’s what it’s all about Good progress is evident, but many of the goals of the PPD have yet to be realized, and to be honest, it’s too soon to expect full implementation. But coordination at the highest levels of government does not necessarily translate to better coordination in the field—it remains to be seen if the reforms have taken root in US engagement in developing countries and what will lead to what’s most important—lifting people out of poverty, saving lives, and strengthening the global economy that will benefit America’s security and economic prosperity. Beyond this, creating a partnership between the executive branch and Congress is sorely needed to better communicate the positive benefits of our foreign aid, forging a politically sustainable foundation for PPD global development principles, and having a real conversation about the tradeoffs that will be necessary in an environment of almost unprecedented fiscal constraint.

What can we hope to accomplish in the next year?? We’ll be watching closely.

As a consequence of the famine in Somalia and the wider crisis in the Horn of Africa, more than 30,000 children have died in just three months — and the lives of more than 13 million men, women and children are at risk. None of us can simply stand on the sidelines and watch, and it is for that reason that at ONE we made a commitment today at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) — an annual meeting in New York that brings together global leaders to implement solutions to the world’s most pressing issues — to launch a multi-year campaign called “Drought is Inevitable, Famine is Not.”

While it was humbling to make that announcement alongside other aid and development leaders at CGI this morning, I also felt a sense of anger. None of us should have been on the stage making our commitments. We know how to stop acts of nature such as droughts leading to needless deaths – but we aren’t doing it. The tragedy unfolding in the Horn of Africa deserves an urgent, global response, but world leaders are falling short of expectations. And approximately $1 billion in emergency aid is still desperately needed for immediate relief.

To address this shortfall, our campaign, “Drought is Inevitable, Famine is Not,” will combine grassroots organizing across our global markets with top-level political engagement to increase awareness of the crisis and effectively press G8, G20 and African governments to respond to both urgent needs in the Horn of Africa and invest in long-term solutions like agriculture to help prevent future famine.

We’ll be using every tool in our toolbox to get people engaged in this campaign. These tools range from debuting a provocative new PSA in the coming weeks to activating our more than 2.5 million ONE members to recruit their friends and family both through social media and offline in their communities.

In the short term, we will ask world leaders to meet their share of the $1 billion gap in emergency funding. And in the long term, we will urge countries to meet the promises they made at the l’Aquila Summit in 2009 to invest in agriculture development programs and help break the cycle of the crisis for good.

Over the past few months, our ONE members have taken real action on the famine in the Horn of Africa. More than 220,000 ONE supporters have urged world leaders to stop hunger and its causes. And a powerful group of 58 musicians and artists — including Bono, Youssou N’dour and K’naan — signed a letter today calling for African and other world leaders to keep their promises on agriculture projects and long-term food security.

Our commitment at CGI will deepen ONE’s current work on the Horn of Africa with the goal of putting sustainable solutions in place while also helping those desperately in need in the coming months. We’ll need your support more than ever. Please stay tuned to ONE.org over the next few weeks to learn more about this campaign and find out how you can get involved.

Today George Stephanopoulos moderated a great panel on “Leadership and Jobs to Overcome Humanitarian Crisis.” The panel featured President René Préval of the Republic of Haiti, Hany El Banna; President of Islamic Relief; Dr. Helen Gayle, President & CEO of CARE USA; George Rupp, President of the International Rescue Committee; and Rhonda Zygochi, VP of Health, Environment and Safety, ChevronTexaco.

While I was unfortunately unable to stay for the entire discussion, what I heard was really fascinating. The discussion primarily focused on shifting from a primary focus on immediate relief efforts, to building long-term infrastructure and capacity in the wake of natural disasters.

President René Préval spoke at length about models of dealing with disaster relief in Haiti. George Rupp talked about some of IRC’s work in Afghanistan and elsewhere and repeatedly made the point that community-driven reconstruction is the key to long-term rehabilitation efforts in traumatized regions. By empowering citizens to reconstruct through their own volition, communities will often feel a sense of “fierce pride and ownership” as Rupp put it, to sustain these efforts. Decentralizing reconstruction work can also reinforce stability over the long-term.

Dr. Helene Gayle reiterated these points, stressing the need to think beyond immediate relief work, which often gets the most press and attention. She also noted that, through her experience, paying equal attention to pre- and post-disaster phases is sometimes the best way to “build back better” after a crisis.

George Stephanopoulos and President René Préval

-Chris Scott

Bono, ONE co-founder, just joined Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan and others in a commitment to 1GOAL: Education for All at the Clinton Global Initiative Meeting. Together with FIFA, 1GOAL is committed to ensuring that the legacy of the 2010 World Cup will be universal access to education for all children. As President Clinton said, “this is a staggering opportunity” to make a big difference for girls and boys around the world.

Read more about 1GOAL Education for All here.

After the announcement, Queen Rania immediately joined a panel moderated by Nicholas Kristof and went on to further make a passionate case for universal education. According to Queen Rania, an educated child is 50% less likely to contract HIV, just one of many ways education affects every other sector. She also pointed out another statistic so incredible that Nicholas Kristof made her repeat it: the developing world needs approximately $11 billion dollars to put every child into primary school– the same amount the US spends every 3 months on their pets. However, because education isn’t particularly “dramatic” it rarely gets the attention it deserves.

Nicholas Kristof, Queen Rania, and Hilda Solis join in a panel on Creating Good Jobs and Strong Communities

US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis addresses the CGI Meeting

-Chris Scott

Two sessions I just attended focused on technology and innovation and in both cases the discussion inevitably led to a question on everybody’s mind here: What’s the next big idea?

Opinions vary, obviously, but there were some common themes I picked up on. The importance of public-private partnerships was one. The UK’s Secretary of State for International Development stressed a need for greater communication between the public and private sectors in tackling a host of issues. He also contended that the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals will be nearly impossible to meet without continued innovation, while identifying three areas where the private sector can play an important role: product development, program delivery, and financing development.

On another panel, Former Vice President Al Gore spoke of sustainable capitalism as they key to addressing the threats of global warming and climate change. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank Group spoke about the need for developing countries to be able to manage crises on their own without waiting for the assistance of other countries.

In two separate panels, the revolutionizing power of cell phones was discussed. Muhammad Yunus, Founder and Managing Director of Grameen Bank said that giving people the power to use cell phones to deal with everything from healthcare to financial concerns will be a potential game-changer. In another discussion, Angela F. Braly, President and CEO of WellPoint, Inc. specifically named “telemedicine”‘s potential to bring increased healthcare information to rural communities. Even though we’ve written before here on the ONE Blog about the opportunities provided by cell phones, it still never ceases to amaze me that something we in the US take for granted still has the potential to facilitate so much good for so many people.

I’ll have more soon.

-Chris Scott

UPDATE: Here’s one of the panels on innovation.

Diane Sawyer just wrapped up moderating a really engaging panel with Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO of Women for Women International; Rex W. Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil Corporation; Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues in the State Department, and Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group; and Edna Adan, Director and Founder, Edna Adan Maternity and Teaching Hospital.

Sawyer framed the discussion as “the river of what is right converging with the river of what is needed” which I think really captures the spirit of what I’ve seen so far at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting. President Clinton, while introducing the panel claimed that in many places in the world, no matter how hard and long women work they rarely get as many opportunities and choices as men do. The panel echoed this sentiment with most, if not all, of the participants agreeing that education is the key to achieving equality for all women. According to Ambassador Verveer– the first such Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues (something that drew a big round of applause from the audience)– framed education as key to confronting extremism.

A lot of the discussion centered around the fact that women account for such a large percentage of the workforce in developing countries yet are rarely compensated to the degree that men are. This, according to Zoellick emphasizes the need to train greater focus specifically on girls and women. As he put it, it’s not an issue of giving special advantages to women, but just helping them achieve a level playing field. Indeed, as was echoed at numerous points in the panel, saving one woman often means saving an entire family. This opportunity has drawn the attention of businesses such as Godman Sachs and ExxonMobil to invest in women and children. At one point, when discussing ExxonMobil’s efforts in developing countries, Tillerson suggested and funding in and of itself is not the whole solution. Salbi quickly retorted that while this may be true in part, girls and women still continue to receive an incredibly small percentage of development funding.

Also touched on during the panel was the role of technology and innovation in empowering women. Ambassador Verveer listed both mobile banking and cell phones as being on the front lines in creating positive change. Zoellick also emphasized the need for basic technology– such as electricity– in many developing countries.

-Chris Scott

UPDATE: Here’s the video of the panel on girls and women.

All members emphasized the importance and necessity for the G20 in the wake of the global financial crisis, with President Kirchner and IMF Director Strauss-Kahn underscoring the need for further support of emerging countries and economies. Strauss-Kahn went so far as to suggest that more countries be brought into the G20 citing a larger problem of “global imbalance.”

According to the Director, “for the G20 to be effective, we need more countries to feel represented” so people around the world can accept the decisions that are made at G20 Summits. As you know, the next G20 Summit in Pittsburgh is just days away.

-Chris Scott

UPDATE: Here’s a video of the panel.

What a difference a year makes. Almost exactly this date one year ago, then Senator Barack Obama– along with Senator McCain– addressed the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. We covered his remarks here.

Tonight President Barack Obama had a chance to address the 5th Annual CGI Meeting. He spoke powerfully about the need for greater public service both in the US and abroad, commending President Clinton’s work to establish such programs as Americorps during his presidency. He also commended President Clinton’s work post-presidency in establishing CGI.

President Obama spoke extensively about being shaped by examples of public service early in his life, most significantly his mother’s work with microloans. He went on to talk about a “transformational moment in world history” when the world is more interconnected than ever. Tools that can help and aid people can also allow people to do harm.

Today’s world, Obama explained, requires “creative collaborations and a renewed spirit of partnership.” He described Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s travels abroad– some of which we’ve covered here on the ONE Blog– as an example of his administrations focus on reaching out to citizens and promoting greater partnership. The military and the government can work to disrupt extremist networks around the globe, Obama said, but we also need to make clear the kind of world we want to build across regions and religions.

He noted the need for historic investments in clean energy and cutting emissions, and the need for businesses and nonprofits to end the threat of climate change. This line particularly stuck out to me: “Foreign assistance is not an end in itself. The purpose of aid is to create conditions where it’s no longer needed.” Development is a key part of a foreign policy strengthened not by lecturing the world but seeking great understanding– what Obama called “standing together, working together, and building together” to leave the world better than we found it.

Keep your eye on the ONE Blog for more updates.

-Chris Scott

Haiti which has suffered several hurricanes recently has had particular trouble bringing clean water to rural communities. Water.org will commit to helping bring water to a minimum of 50,000 people by investing at least 2 million dollars in work with local NGO’s.

We’ll have more on this and President Obama who will be addressing the meeting shortly.

-Chris Scott

UPDATE: Here’s video of the entire opening plenary.

Much of the inspiration for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) members’ work happens at our events, where heads of state, government and business leaders, scholars, and NGO directors work together to analyze, discuss, and debate possible solutions to urgent global issues. Each participant is then asked to take action on one or more issues by making a Commitment to Action. The Annual Meeting, which this year is taking place September 22 – 25, is our largest and most important event.

Expanding on the success of the Annual Meetings held in New York, CGI is now reaching even more leaders in diverse regions, future leaders from college campuses, and global citizens through new meetings and projects—such as CGI University and MyCommitment.org—evolving from CGI’s unique model that focuses on taking action.

At each meeting, CGI helps its members form partnerships, develop innovations, and initiate effective projects.

I’ll be live-blogging the proceedings, including President Obama’s address during the opening plenary session, so be sure to check back on the ONE Blog for further updates and analysis.

-Chris Scott