Another step forward by USAID on the road to aid transparency

By: Sally Paxton
July 6, 2015

On July 1st, Publish What You Fund released its 2015 U.S. Aid Transparency Review, which assesses the progress of six U.S. donors on their efforts to publish high quality aid information.  The Busan deadline – December 2015 – is when the U.S. has committed to fully implementing the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).  And important … Continue reading Another step forward by USAID on the road to aid transparency

Country Ownership Metrics: An Underdeveloped Field in Development

By: Rodney Bent, Tessie San Martin
June 4, 2015

The annual funding of U.S. bilateral economic assistance is generally a lengthy process, from the President’s request at the beginning of the year to Congressional action over the summer and early fall.  These budget resources are precious and scarce, which is why Congress spends considerable time reviewing the request.  According to the State Department, the … Continue reading Country Ownership Metrics: An Underdeveloped Field in Development

Success is in the Eye of the Beholder

By: Diana Ohlbaum
May 21, 2015

A good evaluation will tell you whether a program achieved its intended results. A better evaluation will tell you why. But the best evaluation will tell you whether those were the right results — for the people they were intended to help. As the global development community has begun to get serious about conducting evaluations, … Continue reading Success is in the Eye of the Beholder

Round-up: Community Welcomes News of the Nomination of Gayle Smith as Next USAID Administrator

By: Staff Person
May 1, 2015

President Obama announced this week that Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Development and Democracy at the National Security Council, has been nominated as the next USAID Administrator. We are pleased to see the White House nominate a strong and experienced leader to take the helm at USAID. See below … Continue reading Round-up: Community Welcomes News of the Nomination of Gayle Smith as Next USAID Administrator

U.S.-based NGOs Oppose Costly Changes to Cargo Preference That Cut U.S. International Food Aid Programs

By: Community Letter
May 1, 2015

The organizations listed below are extremely concerned about the potential negative impacts of Section 303 of H.R. 1987, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2015, which would provide the Secretary of Transportation the exclusive authority to unilaterally apply cargo preference rules on programs run by other departments and agencies, and ignore the outcomes … Continue reading U.S.-based NGOs Oppose Costly Changes to Cargo Preference That Cut U.S. International Food Aid Programs

Want to Know What We Got for Our Money? MCC’s Telling Us.

By: Diana Ohlbaum
April 24, 2015

In this space back in February, I suggested a list of ways for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to advance its thought leadership and boost its development effectiveness.  One of those ideas was to conduct “after-action reviews” to provide an honest look at what did (or didn’t) happen during a compact, why (or why not), … Continue reading Want to Know What We Got for Our Money? MCC’s Telling Us.

Building the Foundation for Self Sufficiency

By: Andrew Wainer
April 16, 2015

This week, thousands of policymakers are meeting in Washington for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings. This year’s Spring Meetings include discussions on a vast range of issues: Recovering from the recent Ebola outbreak, global infrastructure development, and migration and remittances are just some of the topics that will be discussed. … Continue reading Building the Foundation for Self Sufficiency

Broad Coalition Calls for Urgent Food Aid Reforms for Efficiency, Effectiveness

By: Staff Person
April 13, 2015

As a diverse coalition from the nonprofit sector, we are strongly in favor of U.S. food assistance that delivers results faster, more effectively, and more efficiently. We applaud the leadership of the Chair and Ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senators Bob Corker and Ben Cardin, for elevating the importance of the life-saving … Continue reading Broad Coalition Calls for Urgent Food Aid Reforms for Efficiency, Effectiveness

Lessons From The Road To Transparency: Four Tips For Publishing To IATI

By: Laia Grino
March 19, 2015

In honor of Sunshine Week – a weeklong celebration of open government – we’d like to share four lessons InterAction has learned in our own journey towards openness. Today, we join the more than 300 organizations that have published data on their activities according to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard (view our data on the IATI Registry or a … Continue reading Lessons From The Road To Transparency: Four Tips For Publishing To IATI

MFAN, Devex Launch New Series on Aid Effectiveness: Reform for Results

By: Staff Person
March 19, 2015

Today, Devex and the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network are launching a new series on U.S. foreign assistance reform, Reform for Results. Last Spring, we released our policy paper, The Way Forward: A Reform Agenda for 2014 and Beyond, which laid out concrete goals the U.S. government could take to make U.S. aid work harder and … Continue reading MFAN, Devex Launch New Series on Aid Effectiveness: Reform for Results