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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
Posts Tagged: USAIDGetting Greater Value from Post-Quake Aid to HaitiMay 14, 2012Posted by 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 »Engagement Amid Austerity – Or How the United States Stays in the Game Despite Budget PressuresMay 8, 2012Posted by Connie Veillette in Aid Effectiveness, Aid Priorities, Budget, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, State Department, USAID Tags: Aid Effectiveness, Aid Priorities, Budget, State Department, USAID
This is a joint post with John Norris of the Center for American Progress. Budget concerns will almost certainly put downward pressure on federal spending across a host of government programs for a number of years. Although some think it is almost heretical to point out the obvious, the international affairs budget will not be immune from this dynamic. In fact, international spending could take a disproportionate hit compared to domestic spending – despite the fact that discretionary international spending is a very small part of the overall budget puzzle. International affairs, and more specifically foreign assistance, have rarely been popular budget items among the public or on Capitol Hill – despite consistently comprising only about 1 percent of the total federal budget. Even so, foreign aid and international engagement make good political targets for elected officials out on the stump. It is far easier to demonize foreign aid than to explain how relatively modest programs to improve living standards in the developing world have consistently proven to be in the national interest over the long-term. 2 Comments »Food Aid Effectiveness Awaits Action on Farm BillApril 24, 2012Posted by Connie Veillette in Aid Effectiveness, Food Security, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, USAID Tags: Aid Effectiveness, Food Security, USAID
Congress last week released a draft farm bill that includes some promising fixes to the notoriously inefficient U.S. food aid system. I have written before about the USG’s poorly managed food aid programs, largely based on work from the Government Accountability Office, aid organizations and a number of academics. In light of last week’s draft, I am pleased to announce that we may finally be getting some traction on this issue amongst policymakers on the Hill. First, a little background. P.L. 480, or Food for Peace, is the largest program funded annually at about $1.5 billion on average. Although it is not well understood outside of budget wonk circles, U.S. food aid is part of the international affairs budget but is authorized and appropriated by the agriculture committees. (The House committees have some shared jurisdiction with the foreign affairs committees.) This structure goes back to a time when the United States used international food aid programs to distribute an abundance of surplus crops. 2 Comments »Civilian Assistance to Pakistan: Time for Tough ChoicesApril 19, 2012Posted by Milan Vaishnav in Aid Effectiveness, Pakistan, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, USAID Tags: Aid Effectiveness, Pakistan, USAID
This is a joint post with Nancy Birdsall. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah stated that the United States will be working to significantly decrease the number of development projects it is currently supporting in Pakistan, from the current 140 to 35 by the end of September 2012. In Dr. Shah’s words, “If we [the U.S.] are trying to do 140 different things, we are unlikely to do things at scale in a way that an entire country of 185 million people can see and value and appreciate. We are just far more effective and we deliver much more value to American taxpayers when we concentrate and focus and deliver results.” Shah goes on to clarify that the United States will not be cutting back on the overall amount of assistance it provides: it plans to adhere to the Kerry-Lugar-Berman framework of $7.5 billion over 5 years. I applaud Administrator Shah’s call for greater focus in the U.S. assistance portfolio and his explicit emphasis on “results.” After all, as my colleague Connie Veillette has pointed out, the Obama Administration’s Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) on global development explicitly called for greater emphasis on “selectivity” and “results” in U.S. development assistance. 2 Comments »Ryan Budget Out of Sync with Foreign Assistance Congressional CommitteesApril 4, 2012Posted by Will McKitterick in Budget, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, USAID Tags: Budget, USAID
This is a joint post with Casey Dunning. Representative Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) Congressional budget alternative was launched last week to the dismay of the development community. The 99-page Path to Prosperity anticipates a very small role for development and diplomacy in America’s foreign policy. Both areas of the budget take heavy cuts – a near 10 percent reduction from fiscal year 2012. The Ryan budget is already taking serious heat with its proposals to eliminate Feed the Future and merge USAID development assistance programs with the Millennium Challenge Corporation. But who didn’t see that level of contention coming? What’s really interesting is comparing the Ryan budget against Congressional reaction to recent USAID hearings with Administrator Raj Shah earlier in March. Congressmen on both sides of the aisle asked nuanced questions that demonstrated an understanding of the role of development as a part of robust U.S. foreign engagement. Moreover, Congressional leaders in both chambers were supportive of administrative efforts to reform and enhance our foreign assistance. Comment »Strategy Tracker Update: USAID Publishes Two New PoliciesMarch 13, 2012Posted by Will McKitterick in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, USAID Tags: Strategy Tracker, USAID
USAID is moving full steam ahead in its efforts to hammer out Agency-wide policy guidelines with two new reports: a Counter-Trafficking in Persons policy and a Gender Equality and Female Empowerment policy. As part of our USAID Monitor Strategy Tracker, I’ve dissected the documents to determine whether the Agency’s Bureau of Policy Planning and Learning (PPL) is living up to its promise to rewire the USAID policymaking process. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, here is a quick overview of the two reports. 1 Comment »Getting It Right: USAID and the President’s Malaria InitiativeMarch 7, 2012Posted by Rachel Silverman in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, USAID Tags: Presidential Malaria Initiative, USAID
This is a joint post with Victoria Fan. While PEPFAR and the Global Health Initiative (GHI) have dominated the global health community’s attention over the past few years, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) has largely flown under the radar. Surprisingly little had been written about the PMI; still the few available materials painted a reasonably positive picture. But just this month, the PMI released the results of an external evaluation which confirms what we’ve long suspected: PMI is doing a remarkably good job and generating “value for money” in U.S. global health efforts. Such results are all the more impressive in light of the common criticisms of USAID past and present – that it is ineffective, incompetent, and hampered by a complex and arcane bureaucracy. The PMI is a USAID success story that helps validate its ongoing efforts to reform and rebuild into the U.S.’s premier development agency. Originally conceived in 2005 as a five-year, $1.2 billion scale-up of America’s malaria control efforts, the PMI was extended and expanded by the 2008 Lantos-Hyde Act, receiving $625 million in funding for FY2011. While its funding pales in comparison to PEPFAR, which received almost $7 billion for the same period, the PMI is among the largest global donors for malaria, aiming to halve the burden of malaria for 70 percent of at-risk populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Led by USAID under a U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator, the PMI is jointly implemented with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 1 Comment » |
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