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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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 Molly Kinder is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Development, leading the Center’s work on a US development strategy for Pakistan. Full BioShowing posts on the Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance blog. View author posts on: How $500 Million in U.S. Aid Can Help Pakistan’s Flood Victims RebuildNovember 24, 2010By Molly Kinder in Fragile States Tags: Pakistan
This is a joint post with Wren Elhai Last week, the Government of Pakistan hosted officials from the United States and more than 30 donor countries and multilateral agencies in Islamabad for the Pakistan Development Forum. The big news from the two-day event was the announcement that the United States would accelerate disbursement of $500 million in previously committed aid to help Pakistan meet its flood rebuilding needs. (This pledge is above and beyond the more than $500 million the United States had previously committed to the immediate humanitarian needs from the flood.) What officials did not announces is what the US flood aid will be used for. My CGD colleagues Alan Gelb and Caroline Decker have recommended one proposal that the U.S. policymakers are currently considering: directing up to $500 million to finance a housing capitalization fund for flood-affected households. Read More… 3 Comments »Winning Hearts and Minds in Pakistan, One Humanitarian Relief Worker at a TimeOctober 18, 2010By Molly Kinder in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Pakistan, World Bank
This post also appeared in the Guardian’s Development Network blog. Five years ago this week, I arrived in Islamabad with a team of donors. A deadly 7.6 magnitude earthquake had just struck Pakistan, claiming more than 70,000 lives and leaving nearly 2.5 million people homeless. The international response that I witnessed was swift, and impressive. Islamabad’s hotels were quickly filled to capacity, as a veritable “Benetton ad” of relief workers, helicopter pilots, aid officials and journalists from across the globe traveled to the earthquake-affected areas. The United States in particular stepped up in a big way, committing more to the quake relief than any other bilateral donor and earning a temporary boost in popularity as a result. Today, Pakistan is reeling from yet another natural disaster: flooding so catastrophic that the UN has dubbed it the single worst natural disaster in the institution’s history. Once again, the United States has led the international relief efforts. Touting the mantra “the first with the most,” U.S. officials have pointed out that the United States has given more to the flood relief efforts than any other single donor country. Read More… 1 Comment »A Better Education for Pakistan’s Youth: It Takes More than MoneyOctober 1, 2010By Molly Kinder in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Education, Pakistan
This fiscal year alone, the United States has pledged $335 million in aid to strengthen Pakistan’s education system — or more than 1/5 of the total $1.5 billion U.S. aid program in Pakistan. This figure makes USAID’s education program in Pakistan its largest in the world. (As a point of comparison, in 2004, USAID’s total global budget for basic education was $365.5 million, split among some 43 countries.) But as CGD President Nancy Birdsall underscores in a new open letter to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, money alone is not the solution to Pakistan’s underperforming education system. How that money is spent is just as important. A big push on innovation, transparency, and accountability is key. It is little wonder that the United States has prioritized education in its aid program in Pakistan. Pakistan is sitting on a ticking “population bomb,” with a youth population that is unusually large compared to its South Asian neighbors, and growing. Half of Pakistan’s 185 million-strong population is under the age of 17. By 2050, conservative estimates predict that Pakistan’s population will grow to 335 million, which would make Pakistan the world’s fourth largest country. How well Pakistan’s education system prepares its millions of young people for a productive future will profoundly impact the country’s internal stability, security and prosperity. Read More… 5 Comments »Why America Needs to Ramp Up Aid to PakistanAugust 18, 2010By Molly Kinder in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Haiti, Pakistan, UN
This is a joint post with Wren Elhai, and first appeared on Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel. “Heart-wrenching,” said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon Sunday upon surveying Pakistan’s ongoing floods. The U.N. chief called the floods “the worst natural disaster” he said he had ever seen. The numbers explain why. More people have been affected by Pakistan’s catastrophic floods than any other natural disaster on record — over 20 million and counting. That’s more than were affected by the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, the 2004 Asian tsunami, and this year’s earthquake in Haiti combined. As millions of dislocated Pakistanis search for shelter and food and as health conditions deteriorate and disease spreads, the need for an immediate, large-scale humanitarian response is urgent. And this is just the beginning. Once the floodwaters subside from Pakistan’s swollen rivers, the task of rebuilding will be staggering – with a price tag in the billions, and lasting for years to come. The effectiveness of the response to these relief and rebuilding challenges will have serious implications for the wellbeing of the country’s citizens, for the peace and stability of Pakistan and the entire South Asian region, and for U.S. national security. Read More… 8 Comments »Beyond Gestures: A Trade Bill That Will Make a Real Difference in PakistanJuly 16, 2010By Molly Kinder in Fragile States Tags: Pakistan, Trade
This is a joint post with Wren Elhai. A frustrated David Ignatius chided Congress in yesterday’s Washington Post for its dithering in passing legislation that would create “Reconstruction Opportunity Zones” (ROZs) in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Ignatius calls the ROZ initiative a “modest boost for the good guys” and laments that it is caught up in a partisan food fight in the Senate. We share his frustration over the Senate’s inaction, but we are less optimistic about the bill’s potential impact. In the legislation’s current form (details below), ROZs would at best be a token gesture that would be well received in Pakistan; at worst, they risk having little (if any) economic impact and creating expectations that cannot be met. If Senators are serious about promoting U.S. national security interests through economic progress in Pakistan, they should be prepared to go to the mat for something that will actually make a difference. Expanded trade access for all Pakistani exports from all of Pakistan is the best way to ensure a meaningful economic boost to Pakistan’s “good guys.” Comment »Holbrooke Responds to Kerry on Pakistan: More Transparency and Policy Focus, but Development Strategy MissingJuly 7, 2010By Molly Kinder in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Pakistan, Transparency
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke recently sent a letter responding to Senator Kerry’s concerns about U.S. aid in Pakistan. Overall, I was pleased to see Holbrooke’s commitment to share more information on the USAID and embassy websites—something Senator Kerry and CGD president Nancy Birdsall both encouraged – and his focus on policy reforms and learning from past donor experience. However, I wish he would have been more explicit in clarifying the long-term objective of the U.S. aid program. Comment »Enhancing the Transparency of U.S. Aid to Pakistan: It Starts with a ClickJuly 7, 2010By Molly Kinder in MCA/MCC, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Pakistan, Transparency, U.S. Department of State, USAID
This is a joint post with Wren Elhai. Everyone (John Kerry, Richard Lugar, Richard Holbrooke, and, yes, CGD’s own Nancy Birdsall) agrees our aid program in Pakistan needs to be more transparent. Transparent aid can help to counter the widespread mistrust and misinformation about U.S. practices, and could also allow Pakistani civil society to play a role in monitoring how governments and NGOs spend money. On the other hand, the status quo—a dearth of publicly accessible information on program objectives and spending — “creates confusion and unnecessary speculation in Pakistan,” as Senator Kerry put it, “and limits the potential of the policy community and allies at home.” Read More… 1 Comment » |
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