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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Blog
Obama Updates Development Profile: Ag and Private Sector Now FriendsMay 21, 2012By Sarah Jane Staats in Food Security, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Food Security, G-8 Photo: CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture / cc; Inset: White House
President Obama announced $3 billion in new private sector investments in agriculture in three African countries at a packed event in Washington, D.C., last Friday. The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is the cornerstone of the United States’ 2012 G-8 commitments to development led by USAID and administrator Rajiv Shah. There’s a lot to like about the partnership: presidential leadership, a link between public and private investment, and a focus on policy change. But all eyes are on how the relatively modest investments will be implemented and whether they can reach the ambitious poverty reduction targets. Comment »A Fresh Look at CGD’s Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Initiative: Your Ideas WantedMay 16, 2012By Sarah Jane Staats in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance
I’m delighted to be taking over the reins of CGD’s Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Initiative. Many of you know me as CGD’s director of policy outreach and my contributions to CGD’s MCA Monitor and Rethink program. As the incoming director of the Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Initiative—effective June 4th—I’ll be building on the strong foundation of the previous directors, Sheila Herrling and Connie Veillette. And I’m eager to hear your ideas. The goal of the program remains the same: to provide a one-stop shop for timely, relevant analysis on U.S. development assistance. As in the past, the primary focus will be on reporting, analysis and commentary on the mission, mandate and organizational structure of U.S. aid agencies such as USAID and MCC and their interactions with other U.S. development actors, such as the State Department and Pentagon. The program will also track presidential development initiatives like Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative. Comment »How Aid Dependent Is the Man in the Moon?May 15, 2012By Charles Kenny in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance
There’s much excitement in the Twitterverse today that Africa has the same surface area as the moon. According to Wikipedia and NASA, Africa’s landmass is 11.7 million square miles, compared to the moon’s 14.7 million square mile surface area. But take out the seas on the moon and you probably do get to around the same landmass.  Now let’s compare U.S. assistance programs to the two bodies. The CBO estimated that the moon program cost NASA about $170 billion in 2005 dollars. OECD DAC data for U.S. ODA to Africa (North and South) from 1960 to 2010 was worth a cumulative $168 billion in 2010 dollars. So, give or take, the U.S. spent as much sending technical experts (aka astronauts) to the moon as it did on all assistance to Africa over the past fifty years. That would be somewhere over $10,000 per square mile. 2 Comments »Getting Greater Value from Post-Quake Aid to HaitiMay 14, 2012By Vijaya Ramachandran in Aid Effectiveness Tags: Aid Effectiveness, Haiti, USAID
This is a joint post with Julie Walz The January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, killed over 220,000 people, displaced several million, and flattened much of the capital, Port Au Prince, also unleashed a tsunami of outside assistance. In the 28 months since the earthquake official donors have disbursed almost $6 billion in aid to help the people of Haiti, the equivalent of $600 per person for a country where per capita annual income is just $670. Where has all the money gone? On the second anniversary of the quake we set out to answer this question; our new CGD policy paper is the result. The short answer is that the vast majority of the money so-far disbursed has been paid to international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private contractors. And while many of these organizations do excellent work, there is shockingly little information on how they used the funds. 2 Comments »Moving OnMay 14, 2012By Connie Veillette in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance
I came to CGD nearly to two years ago to lead the Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance program, and now it’s time to move on to other pursuits. But not to worry, Rethink will be in good hands. I have been honored to work with such a fine group of people who are doing important research on difficult issues. During just ten years in existence, CGD has had major impacts on how the United States engages with the rest of the world on global development issues. I look forward to watching its next decade of work. 1 Comment »Lesson from Mali’s Debacle: Time to Rethink Counterterrorism CooperationMay 10, 2012By Todd Moss in Africa, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Africa, Department of Defense
Two things struck me at a fascinating panel discussion on the political crisis in the Sahel, hosted yesterday at the Heritage Foundation: The U.S. approach to counter-terrorism cooperation desperately needs revisiting. The Atlantic Council’s Peter Pham noted, in more diplomatic language than I’ll use here, that the total collapse of the Malian security forces (recall that a collection of Tuareg separatists and Jihadist elements took Gao, Kidal, and Timbuktu in just three days following the March 22 coup) suggests that something is very wrong about the U.S. approach to counterterrorism cooperation in the Sahel. Read More… 2 Comments »MCC Averts House Budget CutsMay 10, 2012By Casey Dunning in MCA/MCC, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: MCA/MCC
Amidst the big cuts in the House State, Foreign Operations mark-up yesterday, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is one of the few agencies whose budget request remains intact. The House subcommittee voted to keep MCC’s funding at $898.2 million, level with the President’s FY2013 request. Funding levels for the Development Assistance account and the Peace Corps are also essentially maintained at request levels. When President Obama released his FY2013 request for the MCC, I expressed concern that this low number was only the opening salvo, subject to reduction in congressional mark-up. So it’s good to see the House recognize the importance of the MCC’s mission and model and fulfill the request. Assuming the $898 million request for MCC is appropriated, FY2013 will be the third consecutive year that the MCC has been funded at $898 million. Comment » |
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