BBC: Poor women ‘bear climate burden’
The United Nations Population Fund warns that women in developing countries will be the most vulnerable to climate change due to the fact that they do most of the agricultural work and are therefore are affected by weather-related natural disasters impacting on food, energy and water. The report also suggested family planning, reproductive healthcare and “gender relations” could influence how the world adapts to rising seas, worsening storms and severe droughts.

Reuters Africa: Africa agrees on secret climate damages demand
Reuters reports that African leaders have agreed on how much cash to demand from the rich world to compensate for the impact of climate change, but kept the figure secret ahead of next month’s Copenhagen talks. Exhaustive preparatory talks since 2007 have failed to solve splits between rich and poor countries or find extra funds to help developing nations to pay for expensive technology to ensure they do not over pollute as their economies grow. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Africa wanted a treaty to be agreed in Copenhagen but could accept a “binding political agreement” as a steppingstone to a treaty being agreed later.

Financial Times: The many roads to food security
The Financial Times argues that despite the UN food summit drawing to a halt “amid a plethora of platitudes about feeding the poor,” translating these discussions into action is what will prove difficult – not least because agriculture, with its concentrated groups of farmers and agribusinesses and diffuse groups of consumers, has proved “susceptible to producer group lobbying.” Argues the Times, “The food-security battle isn’t a question of one big heave: it is fought on hundreds of fronts. Most victories will be slow and technocratic rather than quick and spectacular, but will be all the more enduring for it.”

Reuters India: International health alliance says pushes vaccine costs down
A U.N.-backed health alliance reported Wednesday that the price of a vaccine that helps infants fend off a variety of deadly diseases has been forced down, thanks to a coordinated buying policy to meet the growing demand from developing countries. The five-in-one vaccine is given routinely to children in developed nations but price has kept them out of the reach of some poorer nations. However, higher demand has pushed purchasing costs down.”This price drop is no accident, but…the result of a strategy to leverage the purchasing power of hundreds of millions of people,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Saad Houry said in statement.

As you know, we’re tracking the World Food Summit this week. Check out the articles below to see what major news outlets are saying about the summit, including the link between food security and climate change and child health, as well as how the events are going in Rome. Let us know what you think and keep checking the ONE blog for updates on the Summit, which ends tomorrow.

At UN Food Summit, Ban Ki-Moon Warns of Rise in Child Hunger Deaths (Christian Science Monitor)
To open the World Food Summit in Rome yesterday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon underscored the plight of children suffering from starvation, saying that more than 17,000 children die of starvation every day—six million children each year. Many groups expressed outrage that malnutrition exists to such an extent despite surpluses in world food production. Many were discouraged by the lack of specific financial pledges from the Summit and the lackluster attendance by world leaders: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the only G8 leader present.

UN: Climate Change Deal Key to Fighting Hunger (Voice of America)
At the opening of the summit yesterday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced that a global climate deal is essential to fight global hunger. There can be no food security without climate security, said Mr. Ban, calling the food crisis “a wake-up call.” By 2050, the world may need to grow 70 percent more food to feed an estimated 2 billion additional people, he said, but extreme and unpredictable weather caused by climate change will make it difficult to do so.

World Leaders at UN Summit Vow to Aid Farmers in Bid to Help Starving (The Times Online)
Yesterday, world leaders agreed on a strategy to help the world’s one billion starving people by increasing aid to farmers in developing countries, but failed to pledge the specific funds the UN had hoped for. The FAO had asked for a $44 billion a year commitment for agricultural aid and a 2050 deadline for eradicating world hunger altogether. Instead, summit delegates confirmed the current target of halving the number of chronically hungry people by 2015, a commitment first made nine years ago. The FAO emphasized that the way to help poor farmers is to empower them by supplying agricultural equipment, irrigation technology, fertilizers and better seeds, rather than food aid.

Economic Revival Carries ‘Food Price Surge Risk’ (Financial Times)
Yesterday, Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO warned that food prices may surge again as the global economy recovers. Diouf warned that many of the same structural problems that led to last year’s spike in food prices are present again, including lack of investment, high demand in Asia and the conversion of food commodities into biofuels, adding that “we have all the elements of a crisis.” He encouraged countries to consider investing in technology to raise farmer productivity while other global food companies urged policymakers to boost investment in infrastructure spending.

Some Nations Successful in Global Hunger Fight: FAO (AFP)
Today, the FAO announced that some countries have made significant progress in the fight against hunger. According to the FAO, sixteen countries have already reached the goal of reducing hunger levels by 50 percent by 2015, an accomplishment which FAO chief Jacques Diouf lauded as evidence of “an unflagging commitment on the part of governments of developing countries themselves and energetic support by the international community.” Moving forward, the FAO emphasized the importance of a favorable economic environment, targeted investment, and sensible planning to be successful in the fight against hunger.

If you regularly read the ONE Blog, it’s safe to say you have an certain interest in global health policy and the United States’ role in it. But how does the public as a whole feel? Public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation recently conducted a survey of 1,205 adults to gauge certain areas of global health spending, how aid should be distributed, and how the current Administration and Congress is doing in these efforts.

Below are a couple findings from the poll I found interesting. You can read the full report here.

More of the public prefers an emphasis on health infrastructure rather than fighting specific diseases. While the public continues to support U.S. spending on a variety of specific health-related programs in developing countries, when asked to rank the importance of two different approaches, 58 percent say it is more important to emphasize programs that help countries build their health system infrastructure, under the theory that stronger health systems can better handle a variety of problems. In contrast, 36 percent say it is more important to emphasize efforts to fight specific diseases like AIDS and malaria because efficient methods for treating such diseases already exist and can save large numbers of lives.

Most Americans support current U.S. spending to improve health conditions in poorer nations despite the economic recession. Two thirds of the public supports maintaining (32%) or increasing (34%) spending on global health, while a quarter say the country is spending too much. Also, 55 percent of Americans agree that “U.S. spending to improve health in developing countries helps protect the health of Americans by preventing the spread of epidemics to the U.S.” Four in 10 disagree, saying such spending “helps people in those countries but doesn’t do much to protect Americans’ health.”

Irish Times: Over one billion go hungry every day, summit told
Speaking in Rome last night, the United Nations’ secretary general Ban Ki-Moon expressed his concern that even though the world has “more than enough” food, just over a billion people still go hungry. Mr Ban defended the work done by the summit, arguing that it represented a positive step on the road to next month’s Copenhagen summit on climate change. He also argued that the two summits, in Rome and Copenhagen, were linked and could still “lay the ground for food security for all”. In reference to the UN summit in Copenhagen, Mr Ban refused to be pessimistic, saying that “we still have everything to play for”.

The Globe and Mail: Canada pushes wealthy nations to keep food aid pledges
The Globe and Mail reports that Canada is using the UN food summit to put flesh on its new agricultural-spending commitments in “an effort to embarrass other wealthy countries to do the same as a record one billion people go hungry.” Declaring the world is on the verge of another food “crisis,” the Canadian Minister for International Co-operation and the ranking Canadian delegate at the summit, said the spending details are designed “to encourage people that when you pledge, when you make those commitments, it’s important to fulfill those commitments.”

Reuters: Gaddafi asks food summit to stop Africa “landgrab”
Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi called for an end to the purchase of African farmland by food-importing nations at a U.N. hunger summit on Monday, describing it as “new feudalism.” The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) plans to draw up guidelines to try to safeguard the sometimes conflicting interests of local farmers and investors for the governance of land and other natural resources, and is consulting companies, farmers and independent experts. Argued Gaddafi, “Rich countries are now buying the land in Africa. They are cheating African people out of their rights.

Financial Times: UN links climate with hunger
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon warned that the world cannot achieve food security without first tackling global warming, emphasizing that failure at next month’s international climate change negotiations in Copenhagan would result in a rise in hunger. According to the Financial Times, Mr Ban’s comments at the UN Food Summit in Rome this week signal how leaders are grappling with the need to respond coherently – and simultaneously – to energy, food and climate challenges. Said Mr. Ban, “There cannot be food security without climate security. Today’s event (the food summit) is critical and so is Copenhagen.”

New York Times: Disagreement Over Goals at U.N. Meeting on Hunger
The New York Times reports that the United Nations summit meeting on combating hunger in Rome this week underscored the split between rich and poor countries on the issue. Sixty leaders attended the meeting, but apart from the Prime Minister of Italy, there were no leaders from the wealthiest nations. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization had hoped the meeting would set an agriculture aid target toward helping farmers in poorer countries, however, the Times reports that “richer nations succeeded in removing a goal to end world hunger by 2025 and declined to commit to increasing agricultural aid to nearly 20 percent of all international development aid.

The Times: We can feed the world despite global warming, says Pope Benedict
In a speech to the opening day of the three day World Summit on Food Security, Pope Benedict XVI argued that “the Earth can sufficiently feed all of its inhabitants” despite the “devastation” caused by global warming, and blamed the “greed” of speculators in cereals markets for aggravating world hunger. The Pope also criticized “those forms of aid that do grave damage to the agricultural sector” and approaches to food production that are geared solely towards consumption and lack a wider perspective. And while he insisted that his remarks in no way indicate the church taking a political stance, he also warned against resignation or indifference towards the problem of world hunger.

The Citizen (Tanzania): Hindrances to Africa’s development cited
Founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Dr Mo Ibrahim, said on Saturday at a cultural celebration organized by the Foundation that time has came for Africa to stop blaming the colonial past and take full responsibility for their future. Ibrahim also cited the lack of political governance as the major stumbling block on Africa’s progress and fair sharing of resources. “Africa is a very wonderful and rich continent, but yet we are poor and hungry. The problem with us is political governance. We have abundant natural resources but our resources are not exploited for the benefit of our people,” he said.

Reuters—Some African countries not viable – Mo Ibrahim
African states must integrate immediately or some will not survive, business leader Mo Ibrahim said this weekend at his two-day conference in Tanzania promoting good governance in Africa. He said, “Intra-African trade is 4-5 percent of our international trade. Why? This is unacceptable, unviable, and people need to stand up and say this. Who are we to think that we can have 53 tiny little countries and be ready to compete with China, India, Europe, the Americans? It is a fallacy.”
 
Reuters—UN urges climate deal to fight “devastating” hunger
The United Nations said this morning that a climate change deal in Copenhagen next month is crucial to fighting global hunger, which Brazil’s president described as “the most devastating weapon of mass destruction”. Government leaders and officials met in Rome for a three-day U.N. summit on how to help developing countries feed themselves.

Financial Times—Obama rules out Copenhagen treaty
President Obama conceded on Sunday that next month’s Copenhagen summit would not produce a legally binding agreement to tackle global warming, but left the door open to a substantive deal at the climate change conference. Speaking at a conference of Asian countries, the President confirmed what the United Nations, the European Union and other countries had already admitted – that there would not be time for a fully articulated treaty to be drawn up at the summit. “We should not make the perfect the enemy of the good,” he said.

Voice of America News—Global Fund Approves $2.4 Billion to Fight AIDS, TB, Malaria
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis has approved grants worth $2.4 billion to fight the diseases during the next two years. The amount represents a slight decrease in funding levels. The $2.4 billion figure is $350 million less than last year’s amount, which was set before the full effects of the world economic slump were known.

Associated Press—Kenya harvest example on reversing food shortage>
A government program in Kenya that invests in irrigation and that has revived a rural economy that was in the dumps for years is being trumpeted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as an example of new, effective hunger-fighting strategy for the developing world. The agency says governments need to invest more in agriculture to reduce the number of people who need food aid — currently one in six people on the globe. Kenya’s program, the agency says, could serve as a model for scaled up agricultural investments across the continent, helping Africans feed themselves.

Reuters: Rich nations’ climate cash offers still not clear
Canada’s finance minister warned today that just weeks from a major U.N. climate summit, rich nations have yet to unveil specific amounts to help poor countries fight global warming. Funding to help poorer nations adapt to rising seas and more chaotic weather is a make-or-break issue for talks to try to seal a broader climate pact in Copenhagen next month. According to Reuters, the G20 finance ministers made very little progress during their talks on climate funding in Scotland last week, with heated arguments over who should foot the bill.

Associated Press: UN food summit to back new strategy against hunger
A draft declaration for next week’s U.N. food summit would commit world leaders to a new hunger-fighting strategy by pledging to increase agricultural development aid to help the world’s 1 billion hungry people feed themselves. Under the draft, developed countries would “commit to a crucial, decisive shift” that aims to “substantially increase the share” of aid invested in agriculture to help the world’s poor become less dependent on direct food assistance. Humanitarian groups said, however, that the document was weak, and that the summit could fail if world leaders don’t come up with mechanisms to hold governments to their commitments.

Reuters: Food majors triple investment in ending hunger
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) contended Thursday that while world majors in agriculture and food sectors have tripled their investments in boosting global food security, they need to spend more to help eradicate hunger. With the number of hungry people rising to a record 1.02 billion this year, up 100 million from 2008, the FAO urged private and public investors to pour more funds in developing countries’ farming. Remarked the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome, “Private sector, governments, non-government organizations should work together to solve long-term problems in developing countries and eradicate hunger in the world.”

UPI.com: Drug companies to fight neglected diseases
Officials at U.S. drug companies and non-profit organizations say they plan to develop new drugs for “neglected” diseases. UPI reports that the search for drugs to fight hard-to-treat diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and dengue fever had been largely abandoned a decade ago but concern about rapidly rising rates for the diseases has caused an about-face. A new article published this week describes how public-private partnerships among drug companies, non-profits and philanthropists are attempting to address the problems involved not only in producing drugs to treat the diseases but their distribution.

TIME: In a Malaria Hot Spot, an Ambitious New Plan to Find a Cure
TIME explores the emergence of a rogue strain of malaria on the Thai-Cambodian border that has started to resist the only remaining effective drug against malaria’s most deadly strain. To combat this growing problem, TIME reports that Cambodia has opted to participate in a “controversial two-year program” that will make medication affordable for the first time in the country. However, despite these efforts, researchers fear that time in running out, warning that “it won’t be long until the resistant strain spreads from Cambodia’s precious gem mines to Africa, putting half the world’s population at risk of catching what would be an untreatable, deadly disease.”

The Economist: When patience finally runs out and Hints of a new chapter
The latest edition of The Economist features two relevant stories about Africa this week: First, the latest on the government in Zimbabwe and the power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. The second article takes an interesting look at the fight against corruption—and extremism—in Nigeria.

You’ve heard a little bit from us at ONE about the Copenhagen Climate Change negotiations that will be taking place in December. As policy makers prepare to meet to negotiate a global climate deal next month in Copenhagen, everyone at ONE will be doing their utmost to ensure the best possible deal for the world’s poorest communities, especially in Africa. We want to share what we hope emerges from the Copenhagen negotiations.

In advance of the meeting ONE has released a new policy paper ‘Africa and the Global Climate Deal’ that outlines the key elements of ‘good’ deal for Africa.

On helping developing countries cope with the effects of climate change, we agree that scaling up to the World Bank estimate of $75-100 billion annually is appropriate. This should come from both private and public finance sources, with contributing countries ensuring that the money is truly additional to pledges that have already been made on development assistance.

We also want to see the global community agree to invest in Africa’s potential for clean energy and “carbon sinks.” A carbon sink is a tool that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound and can be used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (for example, forests and soil). You can read more about the technologies involved and the mechanisms used to invest in these types of resources in our policy paper, but in short, Africa possesses great opportunity to contribute to offset some of the existing carbon emissions.

Climate change is not a crisis of Africa’s making, yet it is Africans, especially the poorest, who will suffer the first and the worst. Not only does it add yet another challenge for those struggling to combat extreme poverty and disease by exacerbating the conditions of poverty, but it threatens to erode the gains that have been made in recent years.

We need the negotiators at Copenhagen to simply know that they cannot afford to fail the world’s poorest people.

AFP: Obama in 11th-hour climate bid with China, India
The AFP reports that as the Copenhagen climate summit nears, US President Barack Obama will try to salvage hopes for a deal as he meets this month with the leaders of China and India. The world’s three most populous nations have all vowed action on climate change but are deeply at odds over the shape of a Copenhagen deal, which was “meant to be a new global treaty but now looks set to offer a framework at best.” Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is optimistic about the president’s upcoming meetings, emphasizing that “If we all exert maximum effort and embrace the right blend of pragmatism and principle, I believe we can secure a strong outcome at Copenhagen.”

The Los Angeles Times: Fixing foreign aid (Editorial)
In light of President Obama’s announcement of his nominee to the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the L.A. Times editorializes about the need to reform the aid industry in the United States and their desire for the President to follow through on his promises to do so. According to the Times, our second most important means of self-defense after the military is foreign aid. “The president has a staggering to-do list, but the USAID nomination should have been made months ago, and the defects of the current system are widely known and well documented. Let’s get on with fixing it.”

Reuters India: Food summit waters down hunger, aid targets-draft
A declaration to be made at next week’s world food summit in Rome will not mention a target to eradicate hunger by 2025 nor a commitment to spend $44 billion a year in agricultural aid, according to a final draft seen by Reuters. The two targets were among the most divisive issues at the centre of pre-summit negotiations, according to diplomats. Reuters reports that world leaders and top government officials at the Nov.16-18 summit will simply reaffirm their commitment to the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 — a target that is unlikely to be reached.

Vanguard (Nigeria): Africa: Govts Partner Alliance for Green Revolution on Food Security
Vanguard reports that a groundbreaking partnership that will link African governments’ commitment to agricultural development with concrete programs in seeds, soil health, policy, and markets was launched in Abuja, Nigeria this week between The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The two organizations will work directly with national governments and partners across the agricultural value chain in a comprehensive effort to increase the productivity of small holder farmers growing Africa’s staple food crops, with a particular focus on developing high potential breadbasket areas of African countries.

Reuters: Is Africa Selling Out Its Farmers?
Reuters explores recent efforts by the Ethiopian government to entice foreigners to invest in the nation’s underperforming agriculture sector. Many small Ethiopian farmers do not share their leaders’ enthusiasm for the policy, eyeing the outsiders “with a suspicion that has crept across Africa as millions of hectares have been placed, with varying degrees of transparency, in foreign hands.” The vice president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa contends that African countries should invest in their own farmers, remarking that what is needed “is a small-holder, farmer-based revolution. African land should not be up for garage sale.”

Reuters: Poor nutrition stunts growth of 200 mln children-UN
The U.N. children’s foundation UNICEF reported Wednesday that nearly 200 million children in developing countries suffer from stunted growth and health problems due to poor nutrition in their early years. Despite an overall decline in the rate of the problem, 195 million children in developing countries under 5 years old have stunted growth due to poor nutrition during the critical period between their conception and second birthdays, UNICEF said. According to the new report, when the problem is widespread, it undermines those countries’ ability to improve their economies and eradicate poverty.

New York Times: Administration Names Agriculture Official to Run U.S. Aid Agency, Ending Delays
The Obama administration on Tuesday named Rajiv J. Shah, a medical doctor and health economist at the Agriculture Department, to run its main foreign aid arm, the United States Agency for International Development. Development experts said they were pleased by Dr. Shah’s appointment, but even more pleased that the administration had finally found someone to fill the job. Because Dr. Shah, a former executive with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has already been confirmed by the Senate once before, the administration is hopeful that he will be approved quickly.

Reuters: Over 20 million people need food aid in east Africa: U.N
The United Nations reported Tuesday that drought and war in eastern Africa have left more than 20 million people in desperate need of emergency food aid. In its latest report on food and crop prospects, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said delayed rains and dry spells often followed by floods had hurt crops and pastures in Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda. The U.N. agency is hosting a world food summit in Rome next week, hoping to win broad support for an increase in agricultural investments in poor countries to help them feed themselves.

AllAfrica.com: U.S. Peace Corps to Bring New Focus to Food Security
AllAfrica.com interviews Aaron S. Williams, the new director of the Peace Corps, whom the Obama administration named to the position earlier this year. The Peace Corps, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary, is planning to increase its focus on food security, with a particular effort to establish a broader presence and deeper involvement at the community level. Remarked Williams, “I want to see us having a broad, expanded role in food security, especially because in Africa women play an instrumental role in the agricultural sector. I want to see us reach out to women who are involved in agriculture. I want to see us reach out to young people and introduce them to the importance of agriculture and food security.”

Reuters: Food: Is Monsanto the answer or the problem?
Amid reports of a burgeoning food security crisis, Reuters highlights the efforts of Monsanto, a company which claims to want to lead a second “Green Revolution.” Using biotechnology and genetic transfers, Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, hopes to create a corn variety that could grow well in dry conditions, even in drought-prone Africa, helping to alleviate hunger and poverty. However, the company is generating controversy, as critics continue to question the safety of biotech crops, the possible complications to humanitarian efforts and the difficulties that may come from increasing control of the global food supply by giant corporations.

AIDS Map: Global cost of HIV treatment and prevention could reach $35 billion by 2031
According to the AIDS 2031 project published in the November/December edition of Health Affairs, without a serious change in approach, AIDS will still be a major pandemic and funding required in resource-poor countries could reach an estimated $35 billion annually, three times the current level, by 2031—the fiftieth year of the pandemic. Results support policy choices focusing on investments in high-impact prevention for most-at-risk groups, efficient treatments, new prevention tools together with significant behavior-change efforts, all of which could help cut costs by half as well as help control the pandemic.

The Obama administration today nominated Rajiv Shah, a medical doctor and current under secretary for research, education and economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), to become the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The announcement ends months of speculation and frustration about the still-vacant development post and comes on the heels of a Senate resolution introduced by Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Ben Cardin (D-MD) to empower and strengthen USAID that passed last night by unanimous consent.

Senator Durbin said of the Increasing America’s Global Development Capacity Act (S.355), “Foreign development assistance is as critical to America’s standing in the world as diplomacy and defense.” He added that “as our development assistance grows, so does the need for an influential and transformative administrator at USAID.” Dr. Shah’s nomination helps answer who may at long last lead USAID. Nearly 300 days into the new administration, members of the development community had grown impatient that the White House had yet to appoint an administrator for USAID despite strong campaign commitments from Obama to “elevate, streamline and empower a 21st century U.S. development agency.”

Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Lugar (R-IN), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had also sent a letter to President Obama in September underscoring the need to appoint a USAID administrator expeditiously. Representatives Gary Ackerman (D-NY), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter to the entire House of Representatives calling for the naming of an United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator immediately. Members of the development community had even taken to voting on polls see here on who could fill the vacancy. Dr. Shah’s was confirmed by the Senate in May for his current position at USDA, which should help avoid further vetting or other delays on his way to being confirmed as USAID administrator.

Suffice to say, there is much applause for the long-awaited nomination of a USAID administrator. We are now eager to ensure there is a swift confirmation process so that the new administrator is in place as quickly as possible and able to inform and shape the host of global development and foreign aid policy efforts currently underway at the White House, State Department and in Congress. Senator Dodd, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has said:

If U.S. development policy and, by extension, U.S. foreign policy is to succeed in the long run, USAID must be an independent body that can advocate for what it knows best—how to effectively deliver and implement U.S. foreign assistance. It must have a meaningful seat at the table…It has long been understood that international development is a critically important aspect of our foreign policy. It was high time we matched this reality with a real and meaningful commitment.

Having a USAID administrator in place is obviously a huge step in the right direction. Making sure that he has the tools, authority, and resources to meaningfully engage in the Presidential Study Directive on U.S. Global Development Policy, the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, the bipartisan Senate Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009, and the promised rewrite of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act by House Foreign Affairs Committee becomes the next task at hand.

See ONE’s press release with more reactions to the nomination.