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September 1, 2009

Obama Launches Whole-of-Government Review of U.S. Global Development Policy

Posted by Sheila Herrling in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: , ,

This blog entry also appeared on The Huffington Post.

President Obama has signed a Presidential Study Directive (PSD) – an order to initiate policy review procedures — authorizing National Security Advisor Jim Jones and Chairman of the National Economic Council Larry Summers to lead a whole-of-government review of U.S. global development policy. White House leadership of the exercise is important given the convening power necessary to secure high-level participation by the more than two dozen government entities currently responsible for portions of U.S. development policy. Although the contents of the PSD are yet to be made public, I suspect it will be much like its predecessor PSD-1 which authorized a review of U.S. policy and organizational capacity to address homeland security and counterterrorism. Read More…

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August 19, 2009

New MCC CEO Ready to Roll?

Posted by Sheila Herrling in MCA/MCC, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: , ,

This blog entry also appeared on the Huffington Post.

Word has it that the Administration’s candidate for MCC CEO has cleared the arduous vetting process. That would certainly be good news for the MCC staff who have been waiting 7 months to find out who is going to lead the institution through the next set of reforms and key decisions necessary to help ensure that the promises of an innovative model actually deliver better results that other programs. While I’m sure the Administration would prefer to hold the formal nomination until it can be announced jointly with a USAID Administrator nominee, I hope they won’t. Ditto for the President of OPIC candidate who is apparently also ready (or very close to ready) to roll. As the disappointing process to find a USAID Administrator drags on, I hope the White House will see the wisdom of energizing each and every development agency it can – as soon as it can – by appointing their leads. Each agency need to get moving quickly on putting its own house in order before deliberations can be held on consolidation. And I trust that USAID employees would not read any unintended political signs into the fact that the MCC CEO or the President of OPIC was appointed before their Administrator. We have got to get development back on track, delivering their good to anxiously awaiting customers. Then we can start debating the order of the train cars.

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June 9, 2009

Precedent-Setting Board Meeting for Team Obama

Posted by Sheila Herrling in MCA/MCC, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags:

On Wednesday, June 9, the MCC Board of Directors will meet for what is shaping up to be a potentially landmark meeting.  Scheduled for 4 hours, at the request of the Secretary of State who chairs the Board, the agenda is teeming with decisions and updates that will, in many ways, send the first real signals of how the Obama Administration will steer the MCC in its own right and within the broader foreign assistance and foreign policy landscape.  Key country-specific decisions, most notably Armenia, will demonstrate the degree to which the Administration will maintain the unique mission and mandate of the MCC – economic growth assistance to countries with demonstrated (not promised) policy and governance performance – or lump it into a traditional geopolitical-dominated assistance platform.  The Board will also be briefed on the compacts for Senegal and Moldova, expected to be presented for written consent in the coming months, and on the performance of the Threshold Program.  In many ways, this meeting will leave the first imprint of Team Obama on the MCC path.  As the Board treks down that path, it should keep in mind that every step off the path makes it harder and more time-consuming to get back on track toward delivering promised development results.  And that the success (or not) of the MCC to deliver on the promise of more flexible, targeted aid has implications well beyond just the MCC. Read More…

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