Blog
Contributor Guidelines
Submitting guest blogs is open to Global Washington’s members of the Atlas level and above. We value a diversity of opinions on a broad range of subjects of interest to the global health and development community.
Blog article submissions should be 500-1500 words. Photos, graphs, videos, and other art that supports the main themes are strongly encouraged.
You may not be the best writer, and that’s okay. We can help you shape and edit your contribution. The most important thing is that it furthers an important conversation in your field, and that it is relatively jargon-free. Anyone without a background in global development should still be able to engage with your ideas.
If you include statistics or reference current research, please hyperlink your sources in the text, wherever possible.
Have an idea of what you’d like to write about? Let’s continue the conversation! Email comms@globalWA.org and put “Blog Idea” in the subject line.
Posted on December 15, 2010
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the release of the long-awaited Quadrennial Diplomacy & Development Review (QDDR) final report today. The QDDR is a sweeping assessment of how the Department of State and USAID can become more efficient, accountable, and effective- it aims to be a blueprint for elevating American “civilian power” to better advance our national interests. One of the four key areas of the QDDR is to “elevate and modernize development,” which includes focusing investments on areas of comparative advantage, and building the capacity of USAID to be the world’s premier development organization.
This review has been ongoing for over a year, and its release has been postponed many times since last spring. The development community has been waiting, sometimes impatiently, for the QDDR’s release, because it could spell important changes for the way development assistance is carried out by the U.S. government. There were concerns about a power struggle between USAID and the State Department, and that the QDDR findings would be in conflict with the concurrently developed PSD (Presidential Study Directive) on development, now known as the PPD (Presidential Policy Directive) on Global Development (read in our blog about the PPD here).
We have only had a short time in which to digest this 200+ page document and the summary materials, but it seems that some of the worst fears about the QDDR have not been realized. It puts forward some important support for USAID, and makes positive statements about the direction of development policy in general. USAID is named as the leader of the White House’s Feed the Future initiative, and the Global Health Initiative. It also supports the “USAID Forward” program, with specific objectives for strengthening USAID. For the most part the QDDR seems to support the PPD. There are however some important areas of concern, namely that short-term political objectives may override longer-term development goals. As InterAction puts it, “With State Department officials having ultimate oversight of development strategies and budget proposals, it is unclear how short-term political objectives will not harm the delivery of longer-term development outcomes, namely poverty reduction and local ownership by key stakeholders.”
Quick Links for the QDDR
Download the QDDR in its full 240 page glory from the State Department’s website here.
View Secretary Clinton’s town hall event releasing the QDDR here.
Download the official QDDR fact sheet here.
Download the QDDR executive summary here.
Read Secretary Clinton’s prepared remarks at the town hall here.
News and Views about the QDDR
InterAction analyzes the QDDR, breaking down the positive elements and areas of concern.
See InterAction’s QDDR page here.
MFAN Statement on the QDDR.
Oxfam’s Press Release: “State’s QDDR vision is compelling yet incomplete”
The Cable (Foreign Policy blog) reports on the QDDR release
Posted on December 10, 2010
As a hub of diverse and active international development players, the state of Washington is creating a model for collaboration in the global development sector, providing innovative strategies and cross-sector, cross-issue partnerships to build a better world. On November 15th and 16th, 2010, 430 members of the global development sector convened on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington for Bridges to Breakthroughs: How partnerships and innovation are changing the world, a two-day conference hosted by Global Washington.
Bridges to Breakthroughs, Global Washington’s 2nd Annual Conference, brought a wide array of actors in the sector together to network and to learn from dynamic speakers, including representatives from USAID, Global Impact, Interaction, The Grameen Foundation, PATH, World Vision, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The United Nations Millennium Campaign, and many other innovative companies and organizations. Over the two days of the conference, these leaders discussed strategic approaches for strengthening cross-sector partnerships; promoting scientific and technological breakthroughs; and harnessing the collective leadership of the region’s scholars, entrepreneurs, business leaders, scientists, philanthropists, and advocates.
The two days of the conference were packed with great information about the most relevant issues facing the global development sector; attendees and speakers also explored how Global Washington can best achieve its mission to promote, support, and advocate on behalf of the development community in the state and beyond. The organization has put together a recap report summarizing each conference session, as well as overall trends and future steps for Global Washington and the development community. This conference will help put Washington State on the map as an example in partnerships and innovations that will hopefully be followed by other states in the near future.
To find out more about the conference, please explore the links below:
Read the conference recap report.
Watch the videos submitted for our Conference Showcase here.
Click here to see a video of the keynote delivered by Ambassador Verveer.
Click here for a Flickr photo collection from the conference.
Click here to read bios of dynamic Conference 2010 speakers.
Click here to read the blogs about the event discussions and speakers.
Click here to Read a recap of the News coverage of the event.
Posted on November 16, 2010
Susan Jeffords and Bill Clapp wrapped up the conference with a discussion of next steps and reflections for future Global Washington Conferences.
Jeffords voiced some key lessons for Global Washington, “people have different investments and priorities they bring to partnerships…[Global Washington] has an opportunity to construct places for these people to share these different stakes and articulate them.” She added that Global Washington can take a stronger role in facilitating these interactions and is also committed to helping small organizations have a voice in Washington DC among larger organizations while gaining access to larger types of partnerships. Also, Jeffords commented on the repeated theme of improving conditions for global women and girls. She asked, “that everyone should walk out of this room and think of how to incorporate a focus on women and girls in everything we do to really build up a better world.”
Clapp concluded, the “quality of the dialogue has been a step up from last year” and “this has been an extraordinary two days.”
Submitted by Nina Carduner
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the release of the long-awaited Quadrennial Diplomacy & Development Review (QDDR) final report today. The QDDR is a sweeping assessment of how the Department of State and USAID can become more efficient, accountable, and effective- it aims to be a blueprint for elevating American “civilian power” to better advance our national interests. One of the four key areas of the QDDR is to “elevate and modernize development,” which includes focusing investments on areas of comparative advantage, and building the capacity of USAID to be the world’s premier development organization.