President Obama signed a Presidential Study Directive (PSD) on Monday calling for a government-wide review of U.S. global development policy. According to White House staff, the president has asked National Security Adviser Jim Jones and National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers to lead the review. The review will include all U.S. government agencies involved in global development as well as Congress and constituents. Findings and recommendations from the review will be provided to the president in January. All of this is welcome news to many in the development community who have been tracking the growing momentum in Congress and the executive branch to strengthen U.S. global development efforts. And the directive signals that the White House is seriously thinking about how the U.S. engages with poor countries and promotes global development, including but not limited to stronger and smarter foreign aid.

While we wait to read the full details of the latest Presidential Study Directive (PSD) on global development (it’s not yet publicly available), we know that PSDs initiate reviews of policy procedures generally pertaining to national security and President Obama’s first PSD, Organizing for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, might serve as a good guide for what we can hope to see in the global development PSD. I’d like to see the global development PSD keep similar language calling for:

1. A full, interagency review of how to reform the White House organization to create an integrated, effective and efficient approach, in this case to strengthen U.S. and global prosperity and security;
2. Full participation from all the U.S. government agencies involved in global development (from State, to USAID, MCC, Treasury, Defense, Centers for Disease Control, Department of Agriculture, and many more) and a commitment to consult important stakeholders in Congress and among outside experts during the course of the review; and
3. Consideration of the recommendations from numerous bipartisan and expert studies on the issues (from the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network’s New Day New Way; the Center for Global Development’s White House and the World: An Global Development Agenda for the Next President; the Brookings/CSIS’s Security by Other Means report; and many others).

Unlike the first PSD on counterterrorism, I hope that the global development PSD will include the USAID administrator among the addressees (even better if we soon have a new USAID administrator appointee—those growing impatient are casting their votes for the next administrator here!). I also hope to see some language encouraging the review to address the full range of U.S. policies—from foreign aid, to trade, climate change, migration and more—that affect how the U.S. engages the rest of the world, including developing countries. I’m also eager to learn how the White House will engage the multilateral development institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the review and potentially other development donors from the UK, Germany, France, Japan, and elsewhere.

The White House call for a presidential study directive on global development comes on the heels of announcements from both the executive and legislative branches aimed at strengthening U.S. global development efforts including:

1. The Department of State has said it will undertake a Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR);
2. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act (H.R.2139) that calls on the administration to develop a national strategy for global development and now has 100 Republican and Democratic co-sponsors;
3. Senate Relations Committee members Kerry (D-MA), Lugar (R-IN), Menendez (D-NJ), Corker (R-TN), Cardin (D-MD) and Risch (R-ID) introduced the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009 (S.1524) that calls for strengthening the U.S. Agency for International Development and monitoring and evaluation of aid programs; and
4. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Berman and his staff have begun the process of rewriting the outdated 1961 Foreign Assistance Act.

Together, these are welcome signals that the executive branch and Congress are committed to strengthening U.S. global development. The trick, as Sheila Herrling at the Center for Global Development points out, is going to be figuring out how to put them all together so that you end up with a smart, coordinated U.S. strategy for confronting poverty, inequality, conflict and disease that threaten prosperity and security globally and at home.

-Sarah Jane Staats

Your senators are coming home for August recess, giving you a great opportunity to meet them at their district offices and help advance the fight against global poverty.

Check out ONE’s August recess meetings in your state, and RSVP for the one nearest you.

Over the coming months, the Senate will make critical decisions about helping the world’s poorest people deal with the impact of climate change, as well as the Water for the World Act, funding for programs including the Global Fund, and other aspects of development policy. Your senators care what their constituents have to say, and a face-to-face meeting is the best way for you to voice your concerns.

This is our chance to demonstrate real grassroots support for proven, affordable solutions to extreme poverty and preventable diseases.

Right now, all you have to do is let us know—through your RSVP—which district office you’d be interested in visiting. We need constituents to make the phone calls to set up the times and dates for these meetings, so we’ll fill you in on that information later.

RSVP here.

See you in August!

-Kim Smith

The White House just released this very well done piece on President Obama’s visit to Ghana, along with a transcript of Obama’s remarks which you can find here.

Check it out:

Also, for those who missed the speech, here’s the video in full:

-Chris Scott

We’ve just posted video of Obama’s speech “A New Moment of Promise,” given this morning in Ghana’s Parliament.

Click on the image of the page or link below to watch and join this afternoon’s live chat, hosted by our policy team:

http://www.one.org/us/ghanaspeech/index.html

Sena Atoklo is a broadcast journalist and resident of Ghana who has worked with the BBC and ITV in the UK, and ETV South Africa. Over the next week, he’ll be sending in posts to the ONE Blog on Obama’s visit to Ghana and how Ghanaians are reacting to it.

Ghanaians are excited and waiting with baited breath for the arrival of U.S President Barack Obama at exactly 20:30GMT when Air force One touches down at the Kotoka International Airport today. The fever did not really grip Ghanaians until this week. A number of them were expectant but when the months and weeks became days, the reality hit them that the U.S President was indeed visiting.

The Ghanaian media is making sure that it is not left out of the whole frenzy of welcoming President Obama. Screaming headlines of President Obama’s visit greets everyone in the mornings. This week has seen a lot of coverage on the Obama visit. The debate in the media is whether it was the current NDC government that lobbied for his visit to the country or if the trip had been planned a while ago and that no matter the party in government he would be visiting Ghana anyway. Remember, Ghana had a closely fought general election last year, and it is not strange to see Ghanaians still divided along political lines. The media plays a part in influencing the thoughts and feelings of the ordinary Ghanaians. And since the big headlines about his visit has given Ghanaians something to talk about, the media at this point are still scrambling for accreditation. Trust me that they will have more than enough news stories to churn out for at least the next four weeks.

-Sena Atoklo

Sena Atoklo is a broadcast journalist and resident of Ghana who has worked with the BBC and ITV in the UK, and ETV South Africa. Over the next week, he’ll be sending in posts to the ONE Blog on Obama’s visit to Ghana and how Ghanaians are reacting to it.

Trust Ghanaians to find business opportunities in even the mundane things of life. That is exactly what the U.S President Barack Obama’s visit to the country (this Friday and Saturday) offers some Ghanaians.

Those who want to take advantage of the visit to make some cash are already in business. Miniature flags of Ghana and the United States of America are being produced, along with ceremonial cloth with the photographs of the two Presidents. People in the Arts and Entertainment sector are not being left out of this. Some musicians have composed songs welcoming the first Black President of the United States to our homeland Ghana. Francis Mensah sells Barack Obama souvenirs along Osu Oxford Street here in the city of Accra. I had a brief conversation with him:

Me: How long have you been in the business of selling paraphernalia and other souvenirs.

FRANCIS: I started selling on this street for the past ten years. I usually sell replica jerseys of Ghanaian football stars in Europe such as Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah

Me: So why have you emptied your stand of these replica Jerseys and are instead selling Obama souvenirs.

FRANCIS: This is a special occasion for Ghanaians and they will want to be part of it and they can feel a part of it by buying such items as the cloth, T-shirts and other souvenirs.

Me: Are people buying these items?

FRANCIS: You won’t believe it. The shelves were well stocked but within a week stock has depleted. A number of them are purchasing the T-Shirts.

Me: Do you have a manufacturer who supplies you with these items?

FRANCIS: Yes. There is a vendor from the Akosombo Textiles who supplies me with the cloth, whilst another person supplies me with the T-shirt.

Me: What can you tell us about sales then?

FRANCIS: As I said earlier, sales are good contrary to what I was dreading that people will not buy but they are buying

In anticipation of his upcoming visit to Ghana, allAfrica.com interviewed President Obama to discuss his trip and why he chose Ghana. President Obama had praise for Ghana’s new president John Atta Mills as someone who’s demonstrated “the kinds of democratic commitments that ensure stability in a country. And we want to highlight that.”

You can read allAfrica.com’s account of the interview here, video in 2 parts below:

-Chris Scott

As you may know, today is National HIV Testing Day in the United States. To commemorate the day, and to encourage all Americans to get tested for HIV/AIDS, the Obama administration compiled this footage of then-Senator Obama being tested during a visit to Kenya back in 2006.

President Obama actually spoke with some New Hampshire ONE members about his visit to Kenya when he was running for president. Check out our account here .

To find a testing site near you visit http://www.hivtest.org.

-Chris Scott

Today President Obama hosted Zimbabwe Prime Minister Tsvangirai at the White House to discuss the countries’ affairs. According to Politico magazine, during the meeting Obama pledged $73 million in assistance and said:

There was a time when Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa and continues to have enormous potential. It has gone through a very dark and difficult period politically… President Mugabe—I think I’ve made my views clear—has often times not acted in the best interests of the Zimbabwean people and has been resistant to the kinds of democratic changes that need to take place. We now have a power-sharing agreement that shows promise.

-Chris Scott

Yesterday President Obama made a visit to Green Bay’s Southwest High School to discuss healthcare. I was part of the ONE volunteers present to thank President Obama for his work on behalf of the world’s poorest people, and encourage him in the fight for the $51.7 billion for the International Affairs Budget.

While we work to improve America’s healthcare system, President Obama understands that we can’t back away from our responsibility to help fight the global health care crisis that sees millions of people dying every year from preventable diseases.

Lieutenant Governor Barb Lawton, Wisconsin’s newest Ambassador for ONE, was also present at the event.

We found new ONE supporters on the spot and excited to “Fan” our facebook page! Join ONE Wisconsin’s grassroots team in Wisconsin by emailing onewisconsin@one.org or on Facebook.

-Jim Weigand, ONE Member, Green Bay, WI