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.

The CEO of the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC),Ambassdaor Danilovich, spoke at a press conference marking its fourth anniversary. The MCC was created by congress in order to further “smart aid,” which is development assistance that is based on the performance of the partner countries. The idea is to produce tangible results in the fight against global poverty. Danilovich also said that it’s the best way to sustain the positive impacts after the aid has ended. He outlined the three main principles of MCC: 1) Partner countries go through a significant review process and only countries with good polices will receive aid. 2) Partner countries must develop and implement their own path out of poverty. 3) Partner countries must identify from the outset what goals the aid will bring about.

You can read the full text here on the U.S. Department of State’s website.

The Millenium Challenge Corporation is in charge of the Millenium Challenge Account (MCA), which receives funds assigned annually by Congress.

Learn more about the MCC and the MCA on the Center for Global Development’s MCA Monitor Blog or on the MCC’s website.

This post originally appeared in the Center for Global Development’s blog, Views from the Center on January 28, 2008.

*This post was co-authored by Nancy Birdsall and Steve Radelet

The extraordinary challenges and opportunities of today require a new vision of American global leadership based on the strength of our core values, ideas and ingenuity. They call for an integrated foreign policy that promotes our values, enhances our security, helps create economic and political opportunities for people around the world, and restores America’s faltering image abroad. We cannot rely exclusively or even primarily on military might to meet these goals. Instead, we must make greater use of all the tools of statecraft through “smart power,” including diplomacy, trade, investment, intelligence, and a strong and effective foreign assistance strategy.

In today’s world, foreign assistance is a vital tool for strengthening U.S. foreign policy and restoring American global leadership. Foreign policy experts on both sides of the political aisle now recognize the importance of strong foreign assistance programs. But they also recognize that our foreign assistance programs are out of date and badly in need of overhaul to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

In 2004, as members of the CGD-sponsored Commission on Weak States and US National Security, we recognized the need for rebuilding the mission, mandate and organizational structure of our outdated foreign assistance apparatus to meet today’s foreign policy challenges, particularly our institutions and policies focusing on global development. We called for it then, welcome the more recent calls, and say again: It’s time for the United States to establish a new Cabinet-level Department of Global Development.

We hope that our next President will believe, as we do, that investing in global development is an investment in America’s future — strengthening its security, its economic opportunities, and its moral values. And that establishing a Department of Global Development to manage our foreign assistance — both bilateral and multilateral — and other development policy instruments would streamline the currently fragmented bureaucracy, reduce duplication, strengthen our ability to align major programs with our key objectives, and leverage U.S. dollars and influence to get results. It would establish development as the primary mission of US foreign assistance, elevating development to equal standing with diplomacy and defense as the three key pillars of U.S. foreign policy.

Because development is about more than development assistance, the new Department would have a mandate for policy coherence on the full range of US policies affecting poor countries, such as trade, environment, migration, and debt. It would facilitate the professionalization of a core of development expertise within the U.S. government on issues of public health, climate change, agriculture, institutional development, education, infrastructure, clean water, and other development issues. It would allow for the independence necessary to ensure that short-term political goals do not crowd out long-term development objectives.

Creating a new Department will be a heavy lift politically, and will take significant efforts on the part of both the new administration and Congress. But it would create a powerful new instrument for U.S. global leadership. We hope that momentum continues to build and that these ideas feature prominently in the 2008 presidential campaigns. It’s time for the U.S. to take a smarter and stronger approach to building a better, safer world.

Tonight is Michigan’s turn to cast its votes—and the big issue is the economy. The Republicans have more at stake, since several democratic candidates aren’t on the ballot. According to NPR.org, Michigan may matter the most to Romney and McCain–you can find their stands on global development on our candidates page.

Tune in this evening for the results at CNN online.

How is a primary different than a caucus? You can find out more here.

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

*This is a joint post with Sheila Herrling

The announcement Wednesday that House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA) will not seek reelection in 2008 following a diagnosis of esophageal cancer is another loss for what is becoming a slim group of congressional champions for development and responsible U.S. global engagement. In a press release from his office, Lantos said:

It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.

Throughout my adult life I have sought to be a voice for human rights, civil liberties and social justice, both at home and around the world. My wife, Annette, and I look forward to continuing this vital work with purpose and verve every day for the remainder of my term.

Our community is grateful for the tireless work and attention Chairman Lantos and his dedicated staff have brought to global development during his nearly 28 years of service in the House. A patriot, internationalist and multilateralist, Lantos cared deeply about America’s credibility and stature in the world. He has been a leader in raising awareness and promoting an active U.S. response to global warming, and is the author of the international portions of the Energy Independence and Security Act. He has pushed for accountable U.S. foreign assistance that reduces poverty and provides opportunities for the world’s poor. At times, he has been an outspoken critic of the administration’s foreign assistance reform efforts for not adequately informing Congress (see We Are Not A Potted Plant: Congress Responds to U.S. Foreign Aid Reform). Lantos also worked across the partisan divide with the late Congressman Henry Hyde (R-IL), then chairman of the House International Relations Committee, to craft the Millennium Challenge Account legislation, with support from his staff members Paul Oostburg Sanz and later Robin Roizman. He continues to play a key role in authorizing (and reauthorizing) legislation for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with support from staff member Pearl-Alice Marsh. And he is well known for his work on human rights for all.

Congressman Lantos, much like Congressman Kolbe who stepped down in 2006 (see Kolbe’s Decision to Leave Congress a Loss for Development) seemed to understand that America’s prosperity and security have become inextricably linked to the prosperity and security of other nations and their people. And that America had a special responsibility to be a moral and economic leader in ensuring that our policies help us while also helping responsible states around the world.

Our warmest thoughts and thanks go out to Chairman Lantos, his family, and staff. And as we look towards the next elections, here’s hoping that a new generation of congressmen and women will fill the void left by Lantos, Kolbe and others to become the new congressional champions for global development.

Over the next 10 years, competition for jobs in developing countries will be tough—it is estimated that a billion young people in developing countries will be competing for 300 million jobs. In this recent interview in Motley Fool, Mercy Corps’s President Nancy Lindborg talks about their Silent Disasters program, which addresses the crises that fall through the cracks of public attention. One of the ways Silent Disasters seeks to improve youth unemployment is through job training kits. These kits fund training programs specific to different regions, such as Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon. Kids learn to participate in the global economy, thrive in a steady job, and become financially literate. Teaching young people about finance can benefit their entire community.

The Global Development Matters Blog is your window to the impact of global development issues on the 2008 Presidential Election. Where do the candidates stand on global development issues?  How can we further engage the candidates on these issues, and persuade them to make global development a priority item on their agenda?  Subscribe via RSS or email, stay tuned, and learn why Global Development Matters.