Those of us who follow global development news know that agriculture is a critical issue in the big picture of global poverty. From drought to hunger, food aid to farm bills, agriculture issues have a major impact on the ground in poor countries.

Of particular interest in the US is the Farm Bill, that big piece of legislation that is renewed every 5 years and gives subsidies for those growing specific crops.

All of these issues are related. How much money gets invested in poor countries in agriculture has a lot to do with the international market for the crops they would grow. The fact that three quarters of the world’s poor live in rural communities makes this issue even more critical.

The World Bank is taking notice. As Celia Dugger reports in the New York Times,

“Foreign aid for agriculture has plunged as support for global health and primary education has surged. The fight against AIDS and other diseases is keeping millions of people alive, and rising elementary school attendance is lifting literacy rates. But most poor Africans make their living in agriculture and need to grow more to feed themselves and earn their way out of destitution, many analysts say.”

The conclusion of the World Bank’s report is clear:

“Increased public investment in scientific research, rural roads, irrigation, credit, fertilizer and seeds — the basics of an agricultural economy — is crucial to helping Africa’s poor farmers grow more sorghum, corn, millet, cassava and rice on their miniature plots.”

Read the NYT article for more on this point.

It’s not too late to take action on the Farm Bill. Contact your senators today and ask them to create a Farm Bill that reduces misguided subsidies and shifts those resources to support the programs that really need the money.

Originally posted on Views from the Center by Sarah Jane Hise.

Reform of our foreign aid organizations and legislation are not just of interest to a handful of congressional staffers and policy wonks, but critical to fulfilling Americans’ hopes for reducing poverty, helping countries grow and improving lives.

Support for global development may be the right thing to do, but getting it right also matters. Center for Global Development Senior Fellow Steve Radelet makes the following recommendations for getting it right:

1. Develop a National Foreign Assistance Strategic Framework. Such a document would outline our principal foreign assistance priorities and how the full range of executive branch agencies (State, USAID, Treasury, Agriculture, MCC, Defense and others) plans to deal with them as part of our broader policies for engaging with the world.
2. Rewrite the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA). The FAA of 1961 is badly out of date, nearly 2,000 pages long and includes a complex web of rules, regulations, multiple objectives and directives. A new FAA is central to clarifying the central objectives and methods of foreign assistance to meet U.S. foreign policy goals in the 21st century.
3. Create a new Department for International Development under the direction of one cabinet official for all U.S. foreign aid programs. This step would streamline the bureaucracy, reduce duplication, and strengthen our ability to align major programs with our key objectives. The United Kingdom took this step several years ago, and its foreign aid programs are now considered among the best of the bilateral donors.
4. Strengthen Monitoring and Evaluation. Monitoring and evaluation of U.S. foreign aid programs generally focuses on ensuring that funds are spent according to plan, rather than on their contribution to development or to achieving other objectives. The U.S. needs a strong monitoring and evaluation processes that measures impact of programs.

Fixing our arcane foreign policy organization and legislation in the U.S. requires interest and support from the American people and the politicians who represent them. Bono learned this long ago when he traded his MacPhisto image to become the “dean of the global poverati” and who now asks the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates what they would do for Africa if they were elected.Perhaps like Bono, the next time we look at ourselves in the mirror we should pause to ask ourselves whether the image staring back is the one we’d like reflected in the rest of the world. Are we doing what we can to ensure that U.S. development policy represents our values of freedom, hope and opportunity? Are we being smart about how we use our power to help prevent 10 million children dying each year of preventable diseases; help 77 million children not in school become providers for their families and perhaps even future leaders; and bring clean water to the more than one billion people currently without it? Are we helping countries grow their economies, draw private sector investment and provide jobs for people looking to earn their way out of poverty? Does it show our own $200 billion dreams for ending global poverty? Does it recognize, as Bill Gates’ mother did, that “from those to whom much is given, much is expected?”

My guess is that many of us will conclude that we don’t look as good as we might. And for this, we need to start the conversations with each other and the politicians who represent us about our hopes for a better world and the need for real foreign aid reform in the U.S. to get us there.