Obama Transition

Harnessing the Power of Trade for Development

Part of our ongoing Obama Transition series, examining different sectors of US global development policy. Check out the document we delivered to President Obama’s transition team, and be sure to follow the ONE Blog for further updates on the new administration’s work on global development:

One of the key elements of poverty alleviation in poor countries is the ability to earn resources that can be channeled into basic needs. By exporting their products locally, regionally, and globally, African producers, farmers, and entrepreneurs can earn a living, provide for their families, and contribute to economic growth. Currently, Africa has the lowest share of global trade – at approximately two percent. Now is the time for the Obama administration take action to make trade work for Africa by prioritizing trade policy that encourages development and levels the playing field for African producers.

One example of U.S. trade policy for Africa is the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which lowers or eliminates tariffs on African products exported to the U.S. This special access to the U.S. market can help African businesses to take off. In order to better take advantage of AGOA benefits, programs like the four “trade hubs”, created by the African Global Competitiveness Initiative (AGCI), assist African producers in navigating the U.S. business arena including understanding U.S. customs laws, finding buyers, and getting assistance with pricing and marketing. Niche-market exports like flowers, shea butter, and specialized apparel, in particular have benefitted from both access to the U.S. market and technical assistance through the trade hubs. The trade-hubs cost little to operate and since 2005 have generated an additional $60 million in exports to the U.S.

In the short-term, the Obama administration can showcase their commitment to trade by initially providing a total of $65 million in fiscal year 2009 to these programs, an additional $20 million over the 2008 funding levels of $45 million. With an additional funding infusion of $30 million in fiscal year 2010, a total of $95 million will enable USAID to implement the trade hub program in Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, and Botswana, in addition to expanding the model to another three countries.

Trade policy must be well-integrated with development policy in order to fully utilize the power that trade has to unlock the economic potential in poor countries. Tariffs and subsidies hinder access to new markets, and poor countries need better infrastructure facilities, technology, and resources to meet the demands of the global market. We recommend that the Obama administration align trade policy with development goals, and fund a significant new trade and development initiative. More specifically, we are calling for the expansion of AGOA to cover all products and all African countries for another ten years, the creation of a $100 million small and medium enterprises (SME) fund that will ensure access to capital and technical assistance for entrepreneurs and small businesses in the developing world, and commit to a comprehensive aid for trade package that helps Africa meet the challenges of expanding to new markets.

A comprehensive approach to trade and development that will help Africans sell more products on the global market, address Africa’s supply-side challenges, and spur economic growth in the region, can make a significant impact on poverty in the developing world.

-Beth Adler

Improving Health: Ending Malaria and Building Sustainable Systems

President Obama can provide leadership that creates a world where no one has to do die from a mosquito bite. Malaria is the number one killer of young children in Africa – but it doesn’t have to be. Rwanda and Ethiopia have cut deaths due to malaria by 50%, providing positive examples of the potential that exists in Africa and elsewhere to reverse the trajectory of the disease. Ending deaths from malaria in Africa and in other regions is achievable in the short-term and should be acted on now, but the United States should also lead the world in investments for what is needed to ensure the longer term improvement of health. ONE’s briefing to the presidential transition team makes recommendations for how President Obama can lead the United States in doing its fair share to realize both of these goals.

President Obama can start by fulfilling the commitment he made at the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2008 to end all malaria deaths by 2015. The United States will not be alone in this effort, but in Obama’s own words: “The United States must lead.” ONE recommends that President Obama propose $825 million in total funding in FY09, and $1.55 billion in FY10 for malaria. These numbers were not drawn out of thin air; they are the US share of the total amount needed globally to fund the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) – the roadmap to eliminate deaths from malaria.

The GMAP sets an interim goal of 2010 to reduce the burden of malaria by 50%. This would be achieved by providing “universal access” (reaching 80% of those in need) to prevention and treatment services. If these targets are reached, by 2015 the world will have eliminated deaths from malaria and nearly 100% of those in need of prevention methods and treatment will be covered. This ‘quick win’ will help to lay the groundwork for strengthening health systems in developing countries.

Weak health systems are constraining the potential impact of large amounts of funding for specific diseases – including that of the United States. ONE’s briefing to the transition team recommends that the Administration spur discussions at the Italian G8 Summit of a multilateral initiative that would coordinate health system strengthening efforts. To indicate its intent to support this initiative, ONE recommends that the United States should pledge an initial $250 million in FY11. In addition to funding national health system plans in at least 19 countries by 2010, such an initiative would have several positive spillover effects. It would reduce the reporting burden many countries face, would coordinate donor efforts to ensure they are aligned with country plans and priorities, and would use limited aid dollars more efficiently.

Making an initial investment in malaria would set the foundation for a longer-term health system strengthening effort. In turn, investing in health systems would help to ensure that reductions in malaria deaths and increased access to malaria prevention and treatment last through generations, in addition to maximizing the potential of investments in other key areas to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality in developing countries.

-Lisa Fleisher

President Obama’s First Address

After hours in the cold watching Barack Obama be sworn in and give his first address as president of the United States, I finally made it indoors and to a computer.

As a ONE member, I know I wasn’t the only one thankful and inspired by President Obama’s words on our issues:

“To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.”

And while writing this, I’m discovering this statement on the new White House website under foreign policy:

“Fight Global Poverty: Obama and Biden will embrace the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty and hunger around the world in half by 2015, and they will double our foreign assistance to achieve that goal. This will help the world’s weakest states build healthy and educated communities, reduce poverty, develop markets, and generate wealth.”

Over the last 2 months, more than 101,000 people signed ONE’s petition calling on Mr. Obama to make clear in his speech the importance of fighting poverty and preventable disease worldwide. And he now has on the most prominent of global stages.

I look forward to working with ONE’s millions of members over the next days, months, and years, to keep up the pressure and make sure these powerful words turn into powerful action.

-Virginia Simmons

(photo credit Josh Peck)

Sowing the Seeds of Food Security: How Obama’s Administration Can Step-Up for Agriculture

The global food crisis that made headlines throughout 2008 has been eclipsed in recent months by news of the global financial crisis. Despite the lack of headlines, the food crisis is still in full swing. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently reported that additional 40 million people were pushed into hunger in 2008, increasing the number of hungry people around the world to 963 million, 907 million of whom live in the developing world. In Lesotho, for example, virtually 100% of families responding to a recent food security survey reported being effected by rising food prices, while fifty percent reported borrowing food to get by and more than forty percent have cut down on meals.

The precarious food situation in the developing world, coupled with the fact that approximately one half of people in the developing world rely on agriculture for their livelihood, make this an ideal time for the U.S. to increase support of agriculture in the developing world. We at ONE recently submitted a briefing to the presidential transition team advocating that the Obama administration increase funding levels for agriculture and development as it takes office.

We recommend a quick infusion of an additional $2 million in funding in fiscal year 2009 over the 2008 funding level of $413 million. This funding will provide developing countries that are facing food insecurity now with urgently needed inputs like seeds, fertilizer, food, and micronutrients that will help jumpstart their agricultural sectors and improve agricultural yields, in addition to providing necessary food aid. Secondly, we are calling for an initial investment of $850 million in fiscal year 2010, an increase of $437 million over fiscal year 2008 funding levels, to fund capacity building, access to improved seeds, tools, research, and improved agricultural methods and technology.

We at ONE also advocate that U.S. food aid and other inputs be flexible, allowing goods to be purchased locally rather than being shipped from the U.S., ensuring that local markets can benefit from the production and trade of these goods.

Often, funding for food security in the developing world translates into additional money for emergency food aid. While food aid is vital in emergency or conflict situations, it does not assist the developing world in strengthening their agricultural sectors and providing their own food. Agriculture is a tool that can both address the current food crisis, prevent future shortfalls, and can be the ticket out of poverty for many in the developing world. However, in order to successfully leverage agriculture as a tool for development, we need more than a short-term solution of food, seeds, and fertilizer – we need a global short-, medium-, and long-term plan.

In the long-term, we recommend that the administration develop a long-term funding approach to (more…)

You called, they asked, she answered.

Late last week, hundreds of ONE members called to urge Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee to ask questions about global poverty during Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State confirmation hearing.

Some of those senators didn’t even get a chance, because Secretary-designate Clinton answered their questions before they could be asked. Her opening statement featured a long section on the two billion people worldwide living on less than $2 a day. She emphasized that the plight of the poor is “not marginal to our foreign policy but integral to accomplishing our goals.”

Opening remarks by Senator John Kerry (Massachusetts) also included a strong statement about the ongoing global hunger crisis. “The United States is uniquely situated to help the world feed itself and has the opportunities to recast its image by making the eradication of hunger a centerpiece of United States foreign policy,” he said.

In the subsequent question-and-answer period, ten out of fifteen of the Foreign Relations Committee Senators raised issues related to ONE issues, including these:

- Senator Bob Corker (Tennessee) asked about reforming and modernizing U.S. foreign aid, referring to the “maze of aid efforts that are underway” and the need for the State Department to examine and streamline these efforts.

- Senator Barbara Boxer (California) stated that “HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis — Africa, Asia, Latin America need our attention,” and went on to describe the persecution of women in the developing world.

Clinton responded with this assurance: “I want to pledge to you that as Secretary of State I view these issues as central to our foreign policy, not as adjunct or auxiliary or in any way lesser than all of the other issues that we have to confront.”

- Senator George Voinovich (Ohio) inquired about how “smart power” — (more…)

Clinton Sees Smart Power in Smart Development

(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

Defense, check. Diplomacy, check. Now what was that other D…?

Investments in schools like this one in Ghana are crucial to fighting poverty and insecurity around the world.

President-elect Barack Obama has announced his picks to lead nearly every cabinet agency, down to his announcement of four deputy or under-secretaries at the Department of Defense. And candidate for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s confirmation hearing – which has been expertly blogged here – began this morning. So what’s missing from this picture?

In an op-ed on foreignpolicy.com today, Oxfam America President Ray Offenheiser calls on Mr. Obama to start backing his words about fighting poverty and disease around the world with deeds.

First, the president-elect should quickly name one of the missing players on his foreign policy team – the administrator of USAID.

Next, Obama must work with national security advisor James L. Jones to give the responsibility for coordinating development policy across the U.S. government to a deputy national security advisor or a senior director at the National Security Council.

Check out foreignpolicy.com to read the full op-ed.

- Porter McConnell, Aid Effectiveness Team, Oxfam America