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Policy News Roundup – Proposed Cut to Foreign Affairs Budget

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.

Women’s Empowerment is Human Empowerment

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.

Appropriated Aid Not Reaching Afghans

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.