Ronald Reagan Building, home of USAID

In an interesting twist, a White House document outlining a new paradigm for development policy has been leaked this week.  The document is a draft of the White House review of U.S. development policy, known as the PSD-7 (Presidential Study Directive).  We were not expecting to see anything from the White House until after the release of the State Department’s review, the QDDR (the Quadrennial Diplomacy & Development Review).

Real development policy change may be on the horizon.  According to this document, the “United States will pursue a new approach to global development that focuses our government on the critical task of helping to create a world with more prosperous and democratic states…”  This approach will be built on three pillars:

1)      “A deliberate development policy that places a premium on economic growth and democratic governance, game-changing innovations, and sustainable systems for meeting basic human needs;

2)      A new business model that positions the United States to be a more  effective partner and to leverage our leadership and;

3)      A modern architecture that elevates development as a key pillar of U.S. foreign policy and harnesses the development expertise now spread across government in support of common objectives.”

Overview of Proposed Changes:

• Implement a national development strategy, to provide explicit policy guidelines on competing objectives (such as the trade-off between real-time national security challenges and creating the conditions for long-term economic growth).
• Increase investments and engagement in development-focused innovation.
• Tailor development strategies to the unique challenges of the individual situation: no one-size fits all approach to similar problems in different countries.
• Hold long-time recipients of assistance accountable for achieving development results, even in countries where efforts have been driven largely by national security or foreign policy imperatives.
• Include the USAID Administrator in National Security Council (NSC) meetings as appropriate, though he/she will still report to the Secretary of State.
• Assess the development impact of other major policies affecting developing countries, such as trade policy, intellectual property, immigration, etc.
• Seek greater flexibility from Congress: fewer earmarks, and the ability to reallocate funding from less to more effective programs.

All of Global Washington’s Four Principles of Aid Effectiveness are accounted for in this document, with the exception of any explicit reference to local ownership.  It is somewhat strange that there is no mention of local ownership, at least as a preference over supply-side solutions.  Our three other Principles, including targeting the poor, consolidation & coordination, and transparency & accountability, are  at least in some way addressed in this document.  Click here for more information on Global Washington’s Four Principles of Aid Effectiveness.

One important fact to keep in mind is that this is a draft document that was written a few weeks ago- it is possible that changes have been made already, and that the final study may reach different conclusions.

compiled by Eugenia Ho, Global Washington Volunteer

Heated Debate over the Proposed Cut to International Affairs Budget

Thursday, Bloody Thursday: Bono calls out senator over aid cuts

While receiving his Atlantic Council Humanitarian Leadership Award, lead singer of U2 and co-founder of ONE Campaign Bono pleaded for Washington to resist Senator Conrad’s proposed cuts of $4 billion from the $58.8 billion President Obama is requesting for FY11 budget in foreign aid funding.  He said that defense and development, while they are very different, are linked – both are “essential if we really want to build a world that’s more secure, more prosperous, and more just.”  Read full article by Josh Rogin in The Cable. 

8 out of 8 former Secretaries of State agree (with President Obama’s FY11 $58.5 billion International Affairs Budget Request)

In the ONE Campaign blog, Chris Scott reported that USGLC has posted a letter signed by all eight former Secretaries of State in support of President Obama’s FY11 $58.8 billion International Affairs Budget request.  The letter to Congress emphasizes that “programs funded by the International Affairs Budget provide critical investments in global development, diplomacy and democracy.”  Although the International Affairs budget has had modest increases over the last decade, it still represents less than 1.5 percent of all federal spending.  Therefore, all 8 Secretaries of State stressed that the requested $58.8 billion is essential to achieving the goals of protecting national security, building economic prosperity, and providing humanitarian assistance.

Letter Sent by 8 Former Secretaries of State to Congress:

Check out a copy of the letter here.

Other Development Policy News

The Initiative for Global Development summarizes a few updates on Global Development Policy 

1.  QDDR Interim Report

The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) interim report was discussed at the National Security Council Deputies’ Committee meeting last week, but the date for publication is yet to be confirmed.

2.    Chart by Lael Brainard Highlighting the Need for Reform of U.S. Development Policy. 

Lael Brainard, previously with the Brookings Institution and recently confirmed as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, designed a visual illustration of how the current U.S. Foreign Aid system, which was created in 1961 under the Foreign Assistance Act, is disorganized and creates confusion.

3.  USAID Administrator Raj Shah said:  This Year is a “Once-in-a-Lifetime” Opportunity for Foreign Assistance Reform.

USAID Administrator Raj Shah recently testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations on the FY 2011 budget request for USAID. Shah described this year as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for foreign assistance reform.

4.  MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes’s Three Top Priorities for Furthering the MCC’s Mission of Reducing Poverty Through Economic Growth

On April 14th, MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations on the FY 2011 budget request for the MCC. His three top priorities for furthering the MCC’s mission of reducing poverty through economic growth: “being innovative,” “leveraging partnerships” and “delivering results and showing impact.”

Please see this link for Administration update details.

Haiti on the road to recovery

Ally Pregulman shared the news in One Campaign blog that the Haiti Debt Relief and Earthquake Recovery Act of 2010 was signed into law on April 26, 2010.  This legislation encourages using U.S. influence to cancel Haiti’s remaining debt to international financial institutions, currently totaling $1 billion, and directs these institutions to offer grants rather than loan assistance to Haiti in order to end the debt-relief cycle.

Though we may wish to believe that the world has developed into a largely egalitarian society with equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender, this is a regrettably idealistic approach to the current global atmosphere. Studies have been conducted, goals have been presented, laws have been passed and conferences have been convened, all serving to raise awareness of gender equality around the world. But it has not been enough to solve the problem of the global suppression of women.

Nowhere is this inequity experienced more than in the developing world. Women and girls contribute to 60% of the world’s poorest people. Human traffickers target women and girls, forcing them into lives of prostitution and manual labor. Ill-equipped and under funded health care systems in the developing world lead to abysmal maternal and child survival rates.

The continuation of such practices and norms is even more unconscionable when taking into account that women are the backbone of society. Women are increasingly becoming the majority of the world’s farmers, health care providers, factory workers, and business entrepreneurs. While women have proven to be integral to the development and stability of society, they are continually left out of the development process and their power goes untapped. Thus, as Hilary Clinton would argue, providing equal opportunity to everyone, regardless of gender, is not only an issue of human rights and humanitarian values, it is a necessity to the progression of humanity and a prerequisite to sustainable development.

Secretary Clinton highlights the benefits investing in women brings to local societies and the world as a whole. “When women are free to vote and run for public office, governments are more effective and responsive to their people. When women are free to earn a living and start small businesses, they become drivers of economic growth. When women are afforded the opportunity of education and access to health care, their families and communities prosper. When women have equal rights, nations are more stable, peaceful and secure.”

Similarly, Nicholas Kristof noted in his keynote speech at the first annual Global Washington Conference that investing in women provides “so much bang for the buck.” Empowering women promotes smarter spending on education and health care, resulting in a more stable and secure environment.

In order to accomplish gender equality in the face of the global subjugation of women, the United States has embarked on a foreign policy strategy that aims to improve equality worldwide. By focusing on women in the three priorities of its global development policy, global health, food security, and climate change, the U.S. is working to improve the living conditions of women around the world. Senator John Kerry recently introduced the Enhancing Quality Assistance and Leadership and Improving Transparency (EQUALITY) Act that would create offices in the Department of State and USAID committed to elevating women’s empowerment and integrating gender equality into foreign assistance strategies.

Even with the actions taken by the United States and other international actors, we must change the way we view gender equality in global development in order to accomplish true gender equality. We must garner the vast array of benefits women can contribute to society. We must view gender equality as not only empowering women, but also empowering humanity as a whole.

Since 2002, foreign donors have allocated nearly $36 billion to Afghanistan in an effort to assist in reconstruction efforts. In that time, however, little has changed for the Afghan people, particularly in rural areas. Access to electricity is difficult to come by and is inconsistent in its operation. Clean water, though paramount to survival, is a struggle to find and often a luxury to keep. Roads are little more than dirt paths that are prone to flooding making them barely traversable. With such a large-scale international effort to rebuild Afghanistan, why has so little progress been achieved? According to Pino Arlacchi, a prominent EU parliamentarian, only 20 to 30 percent of the foreign assistance funding has reached the citizens of Afghanistan in the past eight years due to corruption and waste. Corruption in the Afghan government is coupled with a high level of corruption in international assistance projects, preventing aid from flowing freely to those who are most in need. International donors are also guilty of high levels of waste and unnecessarily high salaries for development workers. According to Matt Walden of Harvard University, 40 percent of aid money goes to the salaries of aid workers and contractors rather than directly to projects that would benefit the Afghan people. However, some of these facts and figures can be misleading. It is indisputable that the Afghan people do not receive some aid, but not all of the aid is meant to directly reach the hands of Afghan civilians. More than half of the funds appropriated by international donors are meant for security assistance, which does not have any direct development implications for the general population. Also, with decades of violence and political instability, the Afghan infrastructure has been severely weakened and many technically skilled workers have emigrated. As a result, foreign workers are necessary to work on development projects until enough Afghans are trained are ready to take over the projects. Nevertheless, significant reform is needed to curb corruption, cut waste, and reduce inflated wages in an effort to improve the quality of development projects. Much like the corruption seen in the construction of schools and hospitals in Herat province, development projects in all of Afghanistan suffer from a lack of regulation. With little oversight of public funds appropriated to these construction companies, the companies are able to use low quality materials and pocket the left over funds. Such a lack of oversight will only encourage corruption on a national scale. This phenomenon serves to show that more attention must be paid to strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems within the Afghan government and international donors. This lesson can also be applied to any development project, anywhere in the world. Such oversight will help to make development budgets and processes more transparent. As one of Global Washington’s four Principles of Aid Effectiveness, transparency serves to make donors more accountable for their actions, leading to more sustainable development projects. For more information on Global Washington’s four Principles of Aid Effectiveness, read our white paper.

Welcome to the April 2010 issue of the Global Washington newsletter. If you would like to contact us directly, please email us.

IN THIS ISSUE

• Note from our Executive Director
• Featured Organization: Bahia Street
• Book Review: Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an age of Plenty
• Changemaker: Mark Howard of Earthcorps
• Announcements
• Upcoming Events
• Featured Events

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Note from our Executive Director

Greetings,

Featured Organization: Bahia Street

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Book Review

Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty

by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman

Published by PublicAffairs, New York, with the support of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2009. Hardcover edition $27.95.

When Wall Street Journal reporters Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman appeared at Seattle’s Town Hall late last June to speak about their new book, they opened by explaining the triple meaning for their title Enough :  “There’s enough food for everyone; enough is enough ! (six million kids die yearly due to hunger); and enough people are now part of the worldwide movement to end hunger.”  They went on to say that they collaborated on this book to “stir people up to reverse the neglect of the hunger issue.” Their “mantra,” they said, is to “outrage and inspire” people to act. The book’s focus is largely on hunger in Africa, and as the authors put it, on why the Green Revolution bypassed Africa. The authors begin with an account of the Green Revolution precipitated more than a half-century ago by the research of the late Norman Borlaug, whose developments in wheat production resulted in significant upturns in agricultural output in Mexico, India, China and elsewhere. They trace the movement away from Borlaug’s successes with small farmers, and show how the failure to focus on small farmers, the failure to develop needed infrastructure and the failure to develop a reliable pricing and market economy, along with increasing involvement of Western government actions, deprived Africans of the means of providing for themselves. With regard to the involvement of Western nations beginning at the time of decolonization in the 1960s, the book  recounts many external causes of Africa’s poverty: ongoing debt to foreign lending institutions (the World Bank and the IMF) and governments, misuse of foreign aid funds by corrupt leaders, increasing subsidies to farmers in the United States and Europe while simultaneously denying local African governments the right to subsidize farmers for seed and fertilizer, and structural adjustment programs that focus on expanding the private sector, reducing local government expenditures and increasing exports of agricultural goods to earn money to pay off the cycles of debt.  The authors also focus on conditions within Africa:  the failure to develop a firm market economy in many African nations,  the lack of adequate roads and other forms of distribution, the fluctuations in agricultural commodity prices which cause farmers to overproduce in some years, then underproduce in subsequent years due to the depressed prices caused by overproduction. The authors stated at their Town Hall appearance that much of hunger is “bad policy, neglect, hypocrisy, ignorance …”  and the book deals extensively with the policies and in particular what the authors call the hypocrisy of  the Western nations in denying African governments the right to practice economic policies that have been successful and widely practiced in Europe and the U.S.

The book benefits greatly from extensive interviews (including photos) with several small farmers in Africa who eloquently articulate their own economic problems and the factors causing them, including Diamba Coulibaly, a cotton farmer in Mali who in 2002 protested the US Farm Bill’s provisions increasing subsidies to U.S. cotton producers (which provide a “safety net” to U.S. producers against international price fluctuations, a protection African farmers do not receive) ; and Chombe Seyoum, an Ethiopian farmer who in  2002 had produced a bumper crop of fruits and vegetables (which as a result fetched low prices, causing him to lose money and reduce his production the following year, even shutting down his irrigation system, when famine occurred in the country). In addition to the impoverished farmers, the authors also mention farmers who benefit from policies favorable to agricultural development, including an Egyptian farmer whose calves are well provided for with Nile River water that flows into Egypt from dehydrated regions in neighboring Ethiopia. After recounting the above factors in impoverishment of Africa, the authors return to the Green Revolution and its focus on the small farmer, explaining how the role of the small farmers had been abandoned in favor of developments in other sectors of the economy, in particular manufacturing. The authors emphasize the point that a return to helping small farmers with subsidies for seed and fertilizer, with devising a stable market economy with protections from downward price fluctuations, and assuring that markets are available and reachable by an adequate infrastructure are key points in preventing malnutrition and starvation. In the second half of the book, the authors move in the direction of identifying solutions to the problems outlined in the first section. Big actors such as Bono and Bill Gates open the discussion, but the authors are careful to name grassroots activists, such as two Alabama homemakers who drew the attention of their Congressman Spencer Bachus to the burdens of debt and the positive effects of debt cancellation. (Bachus, a conservative, responded by becoming a leading sponsor of the Jubilee Act for Responsible lending in 2007, which focused on debt relief for heavily indebted countries). Corporate responsibility in assisting Africans suffering from malnutrition is exemplified by the Dutch freight company TNT’s strong involvement in fighting hunger by airlifting food surpluses to people in areas of high malnutrition. The author’s point about the harmful effects of Western countries’ agricultural policies is repeated here, with an emphasis on the destructive effect of U.S. policies which enable heavily subsidized farmers to export their produce to countries which otherwise can and should be able to produce these products for themselves.  U.S. agricultural goods exporting becomes an extension of our foreign policy which damages local producers in poor nations.

Readers need to read to the end of the book for the best examples of how people at the grassroots level can take action.  The examples of support for the ongoing cancellation of debts owed to international institutions, and the inspiring example of how Ohio farmers assisted villagers in rural Kenya in the construction of a small dam that dramatically increased agricultural output for the local villagers, is especially motivating for those who want to act.  I personally did feel outraged (as the authors had intended), especially in learning that the U.S. agricultural policy was intentionally benefiting American producers while knowingly having a harmful effect on poor African farmers.  There’s good news in that area, too…  the authors explain at some length (in Chapter 12) the reforms that have been taking place since 2007 at the World Bank and other institutions.  The impetus for these changes ?  The decision by the government of Mali, in defiance of structural adjustment programs imposed on the country, to unilaterally decide to provide subsidies to their farmers in 2005, with the doubling of their output in corn the next year, and the export of surplus corn in the year that followed! Read this book, discuss it with everyone you know, and find the ways in which you will be inspired and outraged to act.

For more information about the RESULTS book club, contact Ellie Graham at gramgary@earthlink.net Get involved in social justice issues

Seattle photographer and global gender empowerment activist Phil Borges seeks feedback and participation by organizations in his motivational website http://stirringthefire.com/. His goal is to inspire individuals to get informed and involved in social justice issues through study abroad (and other conduits). Is your organization listed on his site? Should it be? Please direct comments to:

Phil Borges

(206)275- 2318

www.bridges2understanding.org Artvocacy: An IRC sponsored event featuring original artwork by Seattle’s refugee and immigrant community

In June 2010, the IRC in Seattle will hold its fifth annual arts event in honor of World Refugee Day. Titled Artvocacy 2010, this event provides area refugee artists and performers an occasion to share their art and gain exposure while raising awareness of refugee issues. We are asking you to help us spread the word to first and second generation refugee artists and craftspeople who might be interested in participating in this year’s show.

Artvocacy offers the public an opportunity to learn more about experiences that refugees face, while giving participating artists a chance to network with the wider arts community. As in past years, we expect over 350 guests to attend and enjoy the fine arts, traditional crafts, and modern artistic expressions reflecting the diversity and value of the cultural contributions that refugees make in our communities. Artvocacy has been a great channel through which we’ve raised awareness of refugees in the past and we hope to uphold and continue the trend this year. If you have any questions, or would like to attend this year’s event, please contact Maggi Little at +1 206 623 2105 or Maggi.Little@theIRC.org

Washington Global Health Alliance Discovery Series

Please join Ambassador Mark Dybul, MD, Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Co-Director of the Global Health Law Program at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 “for a lecture and networking reception on “PEPFAR: A Case Study on How to Save Lives by Breaking All the Rules”. Lecture at 6 p.m., with Networking Reception in Vista Café at 7 p.m. at the Foege Auditorium, Genome Sciences Building, 1705 NE Pacific St. Seattle, WA 98195

A public showing of the film Lumo

May 2^nd at Seattle University, in which Mama Muliri was featured.  Lumo is an intimate look into a woman’s tragedy and healing process, and, by extension, into the scourge of rape that marks the war-torn politics of central Africa. Lumo is also the story of a remarkable African hospital that works tirelessly to restore the physical and mental health of women suffering in an epidemic of fistula caused by rape.  For details about this showing, please visit http://exiledvoicesforjustice.org/films/congo

Sunday, May 2, 11am-3pm

Pigott Auditorium, Seattle University

901 Twelfth Ave.

Seattle, WA 98122

NBR Co-Presents ASEAN: CROSSROADS OF GLOBAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT

Luncheon and Seminar

SEATTLE On May 3, 2010, the US-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Business Council and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), in partnership with the Trade Development Alliance (TDA), The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) and the National Center for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (NCAPEC), will present the seminar “ASEAN: The Crossroads of Global Trade and Investment” and host a luncheon for invited guests. U.S. Trade Representative The Honorable Ron Kirk and ASEAN Secretary General H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan will be joined by trade ministers from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos and Brunei — five of the ten ASEAN member countries — to promote commercial development and trade opportunities for Washington State in Southeast Asia.

Why is ASEAN important for U.S. business?

• Southeast Asia’s markets are already leading the global economy. In the ASEAN region, made up of ten nations — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma/Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — 2010 growth estimates range between 3-8 percent.
• ASEAN has a collective GDP of nearly $1.5 trillion and a population of nearly 600 million.
• ASEAN is the fifth-largest trading partner and the fourth-largest export market for the U.S., with two-way ASEAN-U.S. goods and services trade reaching $203 billion in 2008.
• The average ASEAN consumer purchases TWICE as many American goods as the average Chinese consumer!

Who:

• U.S. The Honorable Ron Kirk, United States Trade Representative
• ASEAN H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary General of ASEAN
• Malaysia H.E. Dato’ Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of Trade and Industry
• Indonesia H.E. Dr. Mari Pangestu, Minister of TradeBrunei 
• H.E. Pehin Dato Lim Jock Seng, Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and TradeLaos 
• H.E. Dr. Nam Viyaketh, Minister of Industry and CommerceThailand 
• H.E. Dr. Porntiva Nakasai, Minister of Commerce

When:

Monday, May 3, 2010

11:00 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Seminar on ASEAN: The crossroads of trade and investment in Asia and the focal point of developing regional architecture

1:00-2:15 p.m. Luncheon: Keynote address by USTR Ambassador Ron Kirk

2:15-3:15 p.m. Networking session between U.S. Government export promotion agencies and small- and medium-sized business audience participants

Where:

Four Seasons Hotel

99 Union Street, Seattle, WA 98101

$40/person

Registration: http://www.seattletradealliance.com/blog/?p=2538

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For more information or to request a press pass, please call Ms. Neepaporn “A” Boungjaktha at (206) 389-7289 or email at neepapornb@seattlechamber.com.

Please submit your events to our calendar!

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Global Washington Events

April 21

A Dialogue on Human Trafficking

April 22

Communications for Busy Nonprofits

April 23 -25

War and Global Health: Transforming Our Professions, Changing Our World

April 29

Leadership Skills for New Executive Directors Series, Part 1

May 3

Voices from the Developing World Series: An Intimate Conversation with Mama Muliri of HEAL Africa

May 5

Voices from the Developing World Series: A Dialogue with Cecelia Appianim, Ghanaian Fair Trade Cocoa Farmer

May 6

Leadership Skills for New Executive Directors, Part 2

May 13

Utilizing Social Media with Eric Becker, Part 1

May 20

Utilizing Social Media with Eric Becker, Part 2

May 27

Leadership Skills for New Executive Directors, Part 3

June 10

Advocacy 101 with InterAction

June 24

Harnessing Commercial Strategies to Achieve Development Goals

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Other Upcoming Events

April 23

Service in Action Seminar Series 2009-2010: Working Within a Social Justice Framework

April 23

Global Thinking Conference: “The South in the Frame of the North, the North in the Frame of the South”

May 3

World Citizen and World Educator Awards Celebration with Keynote Address on Balancing Business Development and Intellectual Property Protection in China

May 21

Service in Action Seminar Series 2009-2010: Storytelling for Effective Advocacy

As reported in Foreign Policy’s blog “State Department Review? Not Until April,” the preliminary report on the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) will not be released until the beginning of April at the earliest. In an update email sent by the director of the QDDR, the State Department Director of Policy Planning reported that the preliminary report is in its final stages. Meetings will be held with all agencies involved in U.S. development programs to seek their opinion on this initial report and the QDDR will continue to work alongside the NSA as they conduct the Presidential Study Directive-7 process. The email also announced that briefings will be conducted with Congressional leaders and staff before this report is released publicly.

Modeled after the Quadrennial Defense Review overseen by the Department of Defense, the QDDR is a major step toward foreign aid reform that the development community has been anxiously awaiting since the review was first announced last year. However, there are some concerns about the QDDR process and what it means for the roles of USAID and State in global development planning.  By grouping diplomacy and development concerns together in one review and relying on the policy planning operation of the State Department rather than USAID, the QDDR may only serve to continue the subjugation of USAID in planning long-term U.S. global development policy. The State-centric process of the QDDR simultaneously strips USAID of any policy planning legitimacy of its own and undermines its effectiveness. This process sends an important message that has implications for what we can expect from the QDDR’s content: it appears that the State Department fails to realize that foreign assistance must be separated from the political motivations of diplomacy in order to meet global development goals. Along this logic, Global Washington has recommended that USAID be made a Cabinet-level department autonomous from the Departments of State and Defense to better coordinate the response to global development needs.

The QDDR seeks to establish a set of short, medium, and long-term strategies for how the U.S. conducts its diplomacy and development programs. The State Department Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter and Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew are directing and overseeing the process of the QDDR. This process calls for a comprehensive review of the diplomatic and development challenges faced by the U.S. both now, and in the future, as well as the responses to these challenges in the past as a means to realize and disseminate long-term U.S. foreign policy objectives. With these objectives in place, the QDDR will offer direction on how the State Department and USAID should organize the tools and resources necessary to meet the challenges of the 21^st century.

As a result of the delay in the QDDR process, the entire course of foreign aid reform has been slowed down. The Presidential Study Directive to review the U.S. global development strategy (PSD-7) is also underway and will most likely defer release until the QDDR is finalized and released. The Senate bill S. 1524– the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009- sponsored by Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar, is also reported to be delaying Senate consideration until more detailed information on the findings of the QDDR is released.

The Presidential Study Directive has the potential to elevate USAID and global development concerns to a higher level, as it is an initiative of the White House, a neutral third party in planning the direction of U.S. global development policy. It follows a whole-of-government approach to reviewing and reforming the U.S. foreign assistance strategy. The PSD will evaluate the actions of the more than two-dozen departments and agencies contributing to U.S. foreign assistance programming in an effort to develop a national global development strategy to increase coordination and transparency, which is one of the principle recommendations of Global Washington in order to make U.S. foreign assistance policy more effective.

But before the PSD-7 can be completed and released, the State Department must first finish the QDDR. Thus, hopefully the initial report of the QDDR will be released during the first week of April as promised, and a clear and effective global development strategy will be one step closer to fruition.

Foreign Aid Reform: In a recent Huffington Post article, Carol Peasley writes about the “what next” of foreign aid reform, beyond giving development a stronger voice in the larger policy discussions.  She asks: how can we make aid more effective through greater local ownership- what would that look like, in terms of process and funding?  She also says that much of the discussion about USAID reform has become “contractor bashing,” which is not constructive.

House Foreign Relations Committee Hearing, Combating Climate Change in Africa, next Thursday, April 15^th.  See the live webcast on the House website.

The collapse of aid? Owen Barder, author of the insightful and sometimes controversial blog Owen Abroad, writes about the “coming collapse of the development system.”   In sum, he writes that aid has become more and more complex, and based on the literature, complex systems are bound to fail when they are too rigid to change.

Global Jam: USAID held its first ever “jam” called Global Pulse last week, and the number of participants from around the world was impressive – 11,000 “jammers” from 150 countries, according to an article on the virtual event by Devex.

Blogger Chris Blattman remarks on the fact that there is a “market for everything,” even in pretty harsh conditions.  Like manicures in a Haitian tent camp.   See the feature presentation on PBS.

The Bad Old Days Were Better, in Zimbabwe: Kristof writes in the NY Times about how badly President Mugabe has destroyed Zimbabwe: people are nostalgic for the good old days of living under the rule of a nasty, oppressive regime run by a tiny white elite.

No matter what your specific area of work, if you’re in the global development field, at some point you will probably need to find data on foreign aid.  Maybe you work for a small NGO considering a new venture, in say, Cambodia, and you want to know what other similar types of projects are happening there.  Maybe you are looking for funding for a project in Namibia, and you want to know which donors currently fund the most work there.  Or maybe you are writing an article about aid effectiveness and you want to see which country attracts the majority of U.S. foreign aid, compared with other large donors.

Here is a quick breakdown of the data sources out there, what kinds of information they have, and how to use them.  You can find all of these sources and more listed on our website, under the “Resources” tab, and “Policy” under “Issue Areas.”

The OECD DAC Statistics

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) collects aid data from OECD members and non-members, and is considered the most reliable source of aid data.  Other databases rely on OECD data.  The DAC includes grants and concessional loans, but does not include payments made to individuals, military aid, or loans that must be repaid within one year.  For more general information about DAC statistics see this factsheet.

How does it work?  I recommend using the QWIDS interface, or Query Wizard for International Development Statistics.  When you open the link to this interface, you can choose donors, recipients, types of aid flows, sectors, and time period (2008 is the most recent year available).  You can get really specific and only look at disbursements of grants for technical cooperation projects in a certain sector, like teacher-training.  Once you hit “display the data” you’ll see a chart with some of the data choices you selected- the rest will be visible by toggling the options at the top of the chart.  You can also change the layout of the chart.  You can see a breakdown of aid by project, by clicking on the dollar amount in the results.  This gives the name of the agency funding the project, along with a short description of the project which usually gives at least an idea of what sector the project is in.

AidData

AidData is a new source for development finance information.  It is based mainly on OECD data, but it includes more detail and cross-references the data with information from other sources.  It is a more graphical and somewhat more user-friendly interface.  According to their website, AidData plans to include aid flows from non-governmental sources, such as NGOs, in the near future.  So far there is no compilation of such data anywhere, so this would be useful.

The nice thing about AidData is the way the results are presented- it is much more intuitive and very easy to find whatever specific information is available.  AidData still runs into the same problem as the OECD though, a lot of information just isn’t available, probably because it’s not reported.

Foreign Assistance Congressional Budget Justification (FY 2011)

What if you need more current data for U.S. foreign assistance to a particular country?  What if you want to compare congressional appropriations with actual disbursements?  And what if you are interested in military aid, and other types of aid not considered by the OECD?  Then you might turn to the Congressional Budget Justification, or the CBJ as it is called.  There is no database, and no fancy online query to fill out, just lots of paper to wade through.  However, the State Department puts the most useful tables on foreign assistance together in one document, the Foreign Assistance tables, found here.  For comparison of U.S. assistance to recipient countries, tables 2a through 4 are the most useful.  Before you dive right into the material, you should at least look at the acronyms on page vii, which lists all of the different accounts used by Congress.  These accounts are known by their acronyms, like ‘DA’ for development assistance and ‘ESF’ for economic support fund.  To make matters more confusing, these accounts are not really used by the State Department and USAID except to request money from Congress- some programs use funding from multiple accounts, if necessary.  There is a different chart for each year, starting with actual funds committed in 2009, estimated commitments in 2010, and the Presidential request for the international affairs budget in FY 2011.  There are also special charts that track funding in areas of special interest to Congress, such as Basic Education and Microenterprise.

If you are looking for more detailed information than can be found in these handy charts, you may want to wade through Volume II of the Foreign Operations CBJ, where you will find lots of detailed information about various U.S. foreign assistance programs.

I wish you good luck on your quest for foreign aid data.  If you know of any other good sources, or if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.

A makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince

Haiti:

United States Will Take a New Approach to Aid in Haiti
Secretary Clinton is expected to outline plans for an additional $1 billion in aid to Haiti at the upcoming UN donor conference.  U.S. assistance to Haiti will have one dramatic difference over past aid: this time, U.S. officials plan to work through the Haitian government, rather than around it.  They have plans to implement major aid projects through the government while building its capacity, instead of working mainly through local NGOs and other groups.  This new approach may increase local ownership and government accountability in Haiti.

Donor Countries Will Meet at the UN in New York to discuss decentralization as a Key to Haiti’s Recovery
World leaders at Wednesday’s UN conference on Haiti will be looking at a new focus on decentralizing Port-au-Prince in hopes of fulfilling long-terms needs after immediate needs are met.  They plan to look beyond basic relief and discuss not just how to rebuild, but how to build a better functioning Haiti.  The idea of decentralizating power in Port-au-Prince is a strategy that will be considered for a more stable Haiti.

Foreign Aid Reform:

Where is the QDDR?
The State Department was supposed to release the initial findings from its strategic review on development, known as the quadrennial diplomacy and development review (QDDR), sometime in March.  But now the release is set for “early April,” though there won’t be a public release until after a round of congressional briefings.  This is not the first time the QDDR’s release of initial findings has been set back, and there is no guarantee that we will see anything from the State Department in the month of April.  Unfortunately, this slows down the whole foreign aid reform process, as other reform efforts underway, such as the White House review (the PSD-7) and legislation in Congress (the Kerry/Lugar bill) are on hold until the QDDR findings are out.

New Online Tool Aims to Comprehensively Track Global Aid
A new online information portal on aid aims to improve transparency and prevent misuse of billions of dollars in international aid.  The tool, AidData, pulls together facts and figures from existing databases, donors’ documents, and other online resources.  About 837,000 projects are currently listed on the database, which reports official development aid as well as loans.  The tool gives more details about each project and provides information on new sectors such as funds provided by 36 under-reported bilateral and multilateral donors.  The goal for the project is to give donor and recipient governments, civil society organizations, beneficiaries, aid experts and the general public a fuller picture on who is funding what globally.  Founders of AidData include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

New Study on the Costs and Benefits of Duty-Free, Quota-Free Market Access for Poor Countries
The Center for Global Development released a new study on the costs and benefits of providing full market access for least-developed countries.  The study finds that Malawi and Cambodia would benefit the most under most scenarios, and most African LDCs would make small gains.  The only African country to suffer from preference erosion would be Madagascar- surprisingly, Mauritius, South Africa, and Central America show small gains even though they would not directly benefit from this market access.

USAID Announces New Global TB Strategy
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah declares a new strategy to fight tuberculosis on a worldwide scale. In accordance with the President’s Global Health Initiative, USAID is accelerating their programs to control TB. Their goal is to halve the number of TB cases and deaths by 2015.  In support of these global targets, USAID released the U.S. Government’s Global TB Strategy that describes their blueprint for expanded treatment and control over the next five years.

The International Monetary Fund Has Traded its Dogmatism for Pragmatism
After six decades of zealously promoting free market economic policies, the International Monetary Fund has changed its view on international trade and development.  For years, governments that dared to challenge the IMF model found themselves out of favor in Washington and other Western capitals. But the financial crisis that swept the planet in 2008 prompted a new debate over free market policies and IMF ideology.  Now, in a notable turnaround, the IMF has acknowledged that in some instances, developing countries might benefit from controlling how much foreign capital enters their economies — and how it’s used. The new IMF view is summarized in an official paper published last month, “Capital Inflows: The Role of Controls.”

Africa:

A New Strategy to Stimulate Africa’s Development
Many investors are afraid of doing business in Africa because of high political risks. This is where the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) comes into play with a unique strategy to stimulate development through trade and investment by reducing political and credit risk..  The ATI is Africa’s only multilateral political risk and credit risk insurance agency.  To join, African countries must sign a participation agreement and subscribe for at least 75 shares, each valued at $100,000. Member states are on the hook for any action or inaction that results in ATI paying claims.  Since 2004, ATIhas managed to secure $1.9 billion in investments across its member states, which includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and others. For more details on ATI please click here.

Tunisian Authorities Try to Gag Human Rights Watch’s Report
Human Rights Watch accused Tunisian authorities of using police to prevent journalists from attending the organization’s launch event for a report that criticizes the government’s human rights record.  A HRW employee said police had surrounded the lawyer’s office where the group was trying to brief reporters about its new report, which accuses Tunisia of adopting repressive measures toward former prisoners.  Tunisia, which attracts large sums in investment from EU countries, wants the European Union to grant it “advanced status,” which could give it preferential trade terms. However, diplomats say concerns about Tunisian’s human rights record risk complicating the application.

Foreign Aid Reform:

Bill Clinton and Bill Gates come together in foreign aid request
Former president Bill Clinton and Bill Gates called on US lawmakers to boost foreign aid to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria in the world’s poorest nations. They went to Capitol Hill to boost support for the so-called Global Health Initiative (GHI) and promote a crucial health aid budget bill proposed in 2009 by President Barack Obama’s administration. Taking into account the current economic situation, Clinton said the proposed US contribution was carefully developed for maximum impact and followed logically from existing US contributions to the PEPFAR program — the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS relief.

IGD proposal recommends integrating trade and aid to promote African development
IGD joined with a number of business associations, development organizations, think tanks and companies to endorse a recent white paper on trade and development in Africa. This paper is being broadly distributed to policymakers and was submitted as written testimony for a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing to review U.S. trade preference programs.
The white paper outlines four proposals: make critical improvements to trade policies to encourage trade with and within sub-Saharan Africa, establish a mechanism for coordinating trade and development policies, use targeted capacity building and development assistance to increase Africa’s capacity to trade, and use a “Whole of Government” approach that integrates trade, foreign aid and investment policies.

World Water Day:

Yesterday was World Water Day.  Quick facts:  “World Water Day is celebrated each year on March 22. The annual commemoration of international activities dedicated to addressing global water challenges builds on a series of recommendations made by delegates to the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, held in Brazil. Following the conference, the UN General Assembly declared March 22 to be the World Day for Water. In 1993, the United Nations began inviting countries to organize annual activities to raise the profile of work focused on the implementation of UN recommendations and the achievement of internationally agreed goals regarding water.” 10 percent of the global burden of disease can be credited to water.

Senate Committee to Vote on Clean Drinking Water Bill
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was scheduled to vote on the Paul Simon Water for the World Act today, March 23rd. However, according to the committee’s website today’s business meeting has been postponed.  Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell are both cosponsors of this bill, which would bring safe drinking water to 100 million people. You can find links to more information about this bill on the Global Washington legislative index, Global Health section.   Other Senate Foreign Relations Committee business of interest on today’s schedule included the Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act, and the nominations of Elizabeth Littlefield for Overseas Private Investment Corporation President and Carolyn Radelet for Peace Corps Deputy Director.

New charity to aid Haiti recovery efforts by providing drinking water
“Unshaken” is a NY-based fundraising campaign to help Haiti recover from the earthquake by providing people with access to clean, safe drinking water. Their goal is to raise at least $1.3 million, funding 11 large-scale water projects which will serve more than 40,000 people in need. 100% of all donations will directly fund water projects in Haiti.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war”
Since 2005, the United Nations and other multilateral groups have prioritized water as an important focus for development assistance.  In keeping with this priority, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other internationally-agreed upon goals include water-related issues.   A United Nations Water Program 2010 report, “Clearing the Waters: A focus on Water Quality Solutions” calls attention to the importance of clean water as an international development goal. The Secretary-General reiterated the importance of water conservation and sanitization when he said, “day after day, we pour millions of tons of untreated sewage and industrial and agricultural waste into the world’s water systems. Clean water has become scarce and will become even scarcer with the onset of climate change…”

The Story of Bottled Water
The US advocacy group Corporate Accountability International used World Water day to tell people to stop buying bottled water. They stress: bottled water isn’t better than tap water, and the plastic bottles often aren’t recycled.

Ship made From Reclaimed Plastic Bottles Sets Sail
On March 20th the Plastiki, a unique 60ft catamaran engineered from approximately 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and srPET, set sail on a journey of more than 11,000 nautical miles. The Plastiki crew want to draw attention to the health of our oceans, in particular the colossal amounts of plastic debris, by showcasing waste as a resource and demonstrating real world solutions through the design and construction of the Plastiki.

Other Development News:

“Quiet Corruption” – African Development Indicators 2010
This year’s Africa Development Indicators essay sheds light on a different type of corruption—what the authors call “quiet corruption”—when public servants fail to deliver services or inputs that have been paid for by the government. The most prominent examples are absentee teachers in public schools and absentee doctors in primary clinics. Others include drugs being stolen from public clinics and sold in the private market as well as subsidized fertilizer being diluted before it reaches farmers.

A leaked UN report says that up to half of Somalia food aid is stolen
The UN report says that up to half of food aid – valued at approximately $485 million in 2009 – is being diverted through a corrupt web of partners, contractors, World Food Program (WFP) staff and local armed groups. The coverage expresses outrage at government and charity monies being wasted, or even worse, the use of food aid to fuel conflict and terrorism. The recent information from the report has has sparked heated debate on how aid reaches people in Somalia.

Argentina coin shortage leaving less change for panhandlers
Argentina has had a coin shortage for more than three years. The crisis has turned normally mundane tasks – like buying a newspaper or a snack – into a big hassle. The situation is also leaving the homeless short-changed. Alita Casal, a postgraduate student, says, “People sometimes hesitate handing coins to street musicians and beggars because they are afraid to run out.”

North Korea on the verge of a new famine
Many North Koreans are braving the fences and armed guards in search of food and medical care. The flow of refugees from North Korea has slowed in recent years as Pyongyang has issued shoot-to-kill orders to guards, and China is losing patience with the influx of refugees. Nevertheless, China, nervous about instability across its border, continues to heavily aid North Korea with food and oil. The few who have made it across live in constant fear of discovery. They risked the crossing to survive the famine they believe is now imminent. The crisis they face now is the barren period around April which is believed as the most dangerous period when the risk of starvation becomes high.