U.S. Foreign Assistance is woefully out of date. It’s crucial to our security and relations with the rest of the world to have a strong foreign assistance program. As CGD Research Fellow Stewart Patrick said in a 2006 speech on foreign assistance, “economic stagnation, authoritarian misrule, and weak institutions are closely linked with political instability, extremism, and violent conflict.” We know by now that global development makes us richer and safer. So how do we modernize U.S. foreign assistance?

CGD Senior Fellow Steve Radelet outlines an updated foreign assistance agenda for the future president in his recently published essay, “Modernizing Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century: An Agenda for the Next U.S. President.” Here are his five to-dos for America:

1. Develop a National Foreign Assistance Strategy that elevates global development as critical to our national interest and lays out the principal missions and mandates for foreign assistance;
2. Reform the organizational structure by merging most foreign assistance programs and related development policy instruments into a new Cabinet-level department, and strengthening the organization by expanding and deepening the professional staff, revamping delivery mechanisms, and building a serious monitoring and evaluation system;
3. Rewrite the outdated and unwieldy 1961 Foreign Assistance Act in order to streamline procurement rules, earmarks, and restrictions, and to reestablish a strong partnership between the Executive Branch and Congress that allows greater flexibility to the former provided there is greater accountability and responsiveness to the latter;
4. Place a higher priority on multilateral channels of assistance; and
5. Increase the quantity and improve the allocation of assistance, since even with recent increases U.S. foreign assistance is not large enough or unencumbered enough to meet our major foreign policy goals.

We here at Global Development Matters urge our future president to use this road map to prepare us for the 21st century and beyond, repairing our global leadership so we can better field environmental and security crises as well as advance our efficacy in helping the billion people that live on less than a dollar a day.

Watch this speech by USAID Administrator and Director of Foreign Assistance Henrietta Fore for a quick overview about why foreign assistance is important and what we can do about it.

Advocates of global development scored a win yesterday—restoring $4 billion to the 2009 International Affairs Budget. Initially, George W. Bush requested $39.8 billion for this budget that covers things like the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Peace Corps–and the Senate considered decreasing it by $4 billion. Thanks to Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Gordon Smith (R-OR)–who quickly responded by introducing an amendment to partially restore the funds–to the rest of the senators who voted “yes,” and to the support of concerned citizens from the One Campaign, the full $4 billion was restored.

Contact the Senators who voted “yes” and thank them at the US Global Leadership Campaign’s website—and also give the “no’s” a call and let them know that this issue is important to you. See the One campaign’s blog for more info contacting the “no’s.”

Learn more about the International Affairs Budget at the US Global Leadership Campaign’s website.

Ending global poverty is an enormous goal. And the ways to go about it are complicated and sometimes contradictory, although many of us agree that it is an effort worth pursuing. In “Practical steps to end poverty,” today’s final installment of the Christian Science Monitor series “An End to Poverty: New Hope for the Last Billion Poor,” Mark Lange gives us some ways that he believes will help us make some significant headway towards this goal.

1. Focus our resources on the countries that need them the most.

2. Provide aid to lawless regimes based upon their completion of certain political, military, and humanitarian goals

3. Build more and improve existing initiatives such as the Global Development Commons, which foster an exchange of ideas in the Global Development community

4. Keep better track of metrics on initiatives and organizations—and support only what works

5. Realize that it isn’t a bad thing to give technical assistance as opposed to cash—and provide even more technical assistance

6. Encourage African countries to employ best practice to advance development

7. Ensure better distribution of wealth from business development by giving more authority to the International Labor Organization

8. Make it easier for international banks to freeze funds should they provide to be unworthy recipients due to corruption

9. Until they get on their feet, remove tariffs on goods made in the nations that are the most in need

10. Use UN military assets sooner instead of waiting until a murderous regime has done their damage

Here’s the rest of this series on extreme global poverty:
Part I: A first step for the global poor – shatter six myths

Part II: Why so much aid for the poor has made so little difference

Part III: What it takes to open a door for the poor

Part IV: The risks of fighting poverty too well

This post originally appeared February 29th, 2008 in Views from the Center, a blog by the Center for Global Development.

It was perhaps inevitable but it is nonetheless disappointing to see the Democratic candidates for president engaged in such energetic trade bashing (see, for example, the Washington Post’s Clinton Tests Out Populist Approach, Obama Cites NAFTA in Questioning Her Criticism of Corporate World). The New York Times, in a sensible editorial on Sunday titled It Must Be Ohio offered both an explanation for this unfortunate trend and some solid advice:

Ohio, which has lost almost a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs since 2000, is feeling the pain of globalization. Yet what the voters deserve to hear (and are unlikely to hear from the Republicans) are honest answers about how government can help them adapt. Instead, both Democratic candidates were sending out mailers last week denouncing each other’s presumed support for the 14-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

Of course the stakes are high in Ohio and Texas (and even in Rhode Island and Vermont, which also vote on March 4). But it is precisely when the stakes are high that we would hope that candidates for president show their mettle. Obama in particular tells voters he prefers truth-telling – pointing out to Detroit automakers the dire need for higher auto-fuel economy standards, for instance. It’s too bad that he and Senator Clinton aren’t giving us similarly plain talk on the challenges of globalization, and what should and shouldn’t be done about it. In recent years global trade has helped to lift 100 million Chinese from poverty—the greatest reduction in poverty in the history of the world—and through cheap imports helped to hold down inflation, too. Would America be better-off if this had not happened?

We care about trade at CGD because we work for shared global prosperity. Expanding trade is generally win-win: countries on both sides of the deal benefit, and most of their people do, too. The real question for American leaders, as the New York Times points out, is not who is best at bashing trade but how to help those people who do lose from trade expansion to adapt. And since I’m dreaming, perhaps the candidates could begin to speak about their ideas for improving U.S. leadership on development.

Not convinced? Check out these accessible CGD resources:

* Global Trade, the United States, and Developing Countries (Rich World, Poor World Brief)
* A Better Way Forward on Trade and Labor Standards, by Kimberly Elliott (Policy Brief)
* Made in China, a provocative video with two workers’ experience of trade expansion, one in China and one in the U.S.

And for the policy adept, two important CGD books:

* Delivering on Doha: Farm Trade and the Poor, by Kimberly Elliott
* Trade Policy and Global Poverty, by William Cline

You may have heard about Obama’s Global Poverty Bill that is setting the Conservative blogging community ablaze. However, it isn’t currently receiving much coverage in the mainstream press.

If it becomes law, it would commit the president to creating and implementing a strategy to help eradicate global poverty. The number of people living on less than a dollar a day would be halved by 2015—which means we would achieve Millennium Development Goal #1.

This bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign relations. Check it out for yourself–you can read the entire bill here. (It isn’t too long).

We here at Global Development Matters hope that all of the candidates make global development a priority.

This post originally appeared yesterday in the Center for Global Development’s blog, Views from the Center.

Yesterday President George Bush reported on his recent trip to Africa to members of the diplomatic corps, NGOs, and development policymakers at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. at an event hosted by the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. President Bush relayed the details of what he called his “most exciting, exhilarating and uplifting trip” since becoming president and showed slides from his visits to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. He argued Americans should be “mighty proud” of the work the U.S. is doing in Africa and made a final plea for Congress to fully and promptly fund U.S. development programs and for presidential candidates of both parties to make engagement with Africa an enduring priority of the United States. (See full remarks and video)

As the president narrated the photos with anecdotes from his trip, there were mentions of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief PEPFAR), malaria initiative and the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) amidst commentary on the photos of the stuffed lion given to him by Tanzanian President Kikwete (Bush worried that his dog Barney might be “slightly intimidated”); the stylish dresses worn by several Tanzanian women (bearing images of George Bush); and how happy their audience in Accra was to see him (but, according to Bush, “even more excited to see [their] surprise guest, reigning American Idol Jordin Sparks”). All this made for an entertaining presentation but a major policy speech it was not.

When a U.S. president travels to Africa and then takes time to deliver a speech devoted entirely to U.S. relations with the continent, it somehow seems churlish to be critical. After all, this sort of prioritization of development issues is exactly what the development community would like to see.

Still, I suspect that, like me, many of the 400+ people who attended the speech left feeling ambivalent. On the one hand, it’s great that the president is talking about global development, the U.S. relationship with Africa and his signature assistance programs. No one doubts that these programs have significantly increased the flow of resources to Africa and provided opportunity for experiments with innovative delivery mechanisms. On the other hand, there was little if any new information or agenda and there was something vaguely unsettling about the broad brushstrokes and glossy pictures. Listening to the speech felt like looking over vacation photos with the president. I sensed that much of the audience, who were either from Africa or know the continent very well, appreciated the president’s attention but had been hoping for something more: a coherent vision of the reasons for U.S.engagement with Africa and the development process more broadly, and a clear sense of what should be done next.

Though few new announcements came out of the presentation, President Bush iterated his administration’s calls for Congress to:

Reauthorize PEPFAR and double the initial commitment to $30 billion over the next 5 years; Provide 5.2 million new insecticide-treated bednets to prevent malaria; Offer $100 million for “African nations willing to step forward and serve the cause of peace in Darfur”; Spend $350 million to target neglected tropical diseases like river blindness and hookworm; and Ensure full and prompt funding for U.S. development programs (in the FY09 budget).

President Bush also said that it is in the U.S. interest to “open up trade and deal with subsidies and trade-distorting tariffs” and that he is “firmly dedicated to coming up with a successful Doha Round to make trade freer and fairer.” He noted that Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had come to the U.S. for some of her schooling and that “the more people who come to get educated in the United States from abroad, the better off our country will be.” Again, while I am thrilled to see U.S. trade and migration policies raised as policies affecting global development, I was disappointed that there seemed to be an assumption that all our aid, trade, migration and other policies related to Africa automatically add up to one big good. In reality, the U.S. gives some assistance with one hand, takes some back with some trade policies, and does a little of both with migration policies. I left wanting a little more vision of how to make U.S. foreign assistance, trade, migration and other policies compliment each other and add up to a real development strategy.

For me it comes down to a question of how much expertise, nuance and leadership it is reasonable for an audience of development policymakers and practitioners to expect from a presidential speech. President Bush deserves credit for his work on Africa, the new programs created during his administration, and for raising other rich world policies like trade and migration that affect developing countries. But just as President Bush urged presidential candidates of both parties to make engagement with Africa an enduring priority of the United States, I urge them to take advantage of an audience that is eager for more substantive leadership on the complex and competing development policy issues, and for a more comprehensive approach to U.S. foreign assistance.

Clearly there are readers out there who are from, have lived in, or have worked with the African countries President Bush visited. You are doing the real work beyond the red carpets and greetings that accompany a presidential trip. How would you like to see the next American president make engagement with Africa and global development an enduring priority of the United States?

Check out these compelling videos from one of our partners. Care seeks to reduce global poverty through community-based outreach focusing on women.

You can learn more about Care and the rest of our partners on our How Can I Help? page.

Are you a Super Power giving development assistance? Geography lesson required!
Check out this video from The Onion that’s just a bit too close to the truth:

Nation Of Andorra Not In Africa, Shocked U.S. State Dept. Reports

This post appeared yesterday in the Center for Global Development’s blog, Views from the Center.

On the eve of U.S. President Bush’s second trip to Africa, CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet reviews the administration’s record on a continent that some are calling a rare bright spot for American foreign policy. In an interview with Bernard Gwertzman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Radelet discusses the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, the Millennium Challenge Account, and Darfur.

Radelet says that he hopes that the president’s trip will help to strengthen bipartisan support for U.S. initiatives in Africa, while also shedding light on areas where the U.S. could do better. His bottom line: “I would give them a B on their stuff on Africa.”

Who are the Hunger Justice Leaders? People like you (as long as you’re 18-35!)–outstanding citizens committed to stamping out domestic and global poverty. By joining with the Hunger Justice Leaders, you can attend an all-expense-paid training in DC, which readies you for your advocacy leadership out in the field.

Check out this video—just released today:

This program is brought to you by Bread for the World, a Christian-oriented group whose mission is to alleviate hunger and poverty both at home and abroad—by inspiring U.S. policy-makers. This is a powerful way to help bring it home to our leaders that Global Development Matters to us.

Learn more about the Hunger Justice Leaders program here. Applications are due March 15, so don’t wait if you’re interested.