Wartime Interagency Collaboration: A Tale of Two Articles

By: Staff Person
November 11, 2010

“This lack of cooperation and coordination is especially prominent in DC, which I observed while serving as a consultant on Iraq policy at the State Department (2005-6) and then with DOD (2008-9). It occurs at all levels and is endemic to the point of being cancerous. Petty political and bureaucratic concerns preclude the sharing of information or resources, limit effective decision making by senior leaders and, in turn, prohibit the creation of sound policy and strategy. In some cases, this can prohibit decision making altogether.”

2010 Commitment to Development Index

By: Staff Person
November 11, 2010

MFAN partner the Center for Global Development has just released its 2010 Commitment to Development Index (CDI). Each year, the CDI rates 22 rich-country governments on how much they are helping poor countries via seven key policy linkages: aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology. Read further to find out what this year’s index deduces.

MFAN Partner on the Tea Party and the President’s Global Development Policy

By: Staff Person
November 10, 2010

“Of course, aid is about more than money; how rich countries design their aid programs is as important as how much they give. In this sense, the pressure on the budget could help drive aid reforms and force the administration and Congress to make tough choices about where and how we spend our aid dollars and push for stronger evidence on what works in development. The push to be more selective with our development assistance, focus on economic growth, and do a better job of measuring impact and results (and share it publicly) is already lined up in the presidential policy directive on U.S. global development policy and seems like a reform mantle that both parties could get behind.”

Lives in the Balance: Improving Accountability for Public Spending in Developing Nations

By: Staff Person
November 9, 2010

The Brookings Institution hosted a discussion of Lives in the Balance: Improving Accountability for Public Spending in Developing Nations with authors Charles Griffin, Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings and Senior Advisor at the World Bank; and Courtney Tolmie, Senior Program Officer with the Results for Development Institute. Their conversation was focused around the best ways to ensure the effectiveness of public spending. Following their presentations was a panel discussion on the future steps and challenges to strengthening the demand for better governance.

MFAN Partner Sees Aid Transparency as an Emerging Bipartisan Issue

By: Staff Person
November 8, 2010

A major focus on aid transparency is emerging within U.S. foreign assistance, with the launch of the U.S. “aid transparency initiative” and an “aid dashboard” as part of the new framework on aid effectiveness. These steps demonstrate the political will for accountability and aid transparency, yet real value for money is still not being delivered. What is needed to ensure that aid money is used to best effect is comparability. For more effective foreign assistance, U.S. efforts should complement those of other donors.

UNDP Roundtable Discussion: Iraq’s Development Challenges

By: Staff Person
November 4, 2010

On November 2, panelists at the UNDP Washington Roundtable on “Iraq’s Development Challenges” discussed the achievements that have been made as well as the significant challenges still faced in the development of Iraq. Frederick Tipson, Director of UNDP Washington, moderated the discussion between two panelists: Christine McNab, the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq; John Desrocher, Director of US Department of State Office of Iraq Affairs; and Leslie Campbell, Regional Director for the Middle East & North Africa at the National Democratic Institute.

Cast Your Vote about the QDDR’s Release

By: Staff Person
November 2, 2010

Voting in your state may not be the only ballot you cast today, after all. The Stimson Center’s The Will and the Wallet blog features a poll asking when you think the State Department’s inaugural Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) will be released.

MFAN Principal J. Brian Atwood Elected Chair of OECD’s Development Assistance Committee

By: Staff Person
November 1, 2010

November 1, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs David Beckmann and George Ingram: We offer heartfelt congratulations to our fellow MFAN Principal and friend J. Brian Atwood for his unanimous election as Chair of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for … Continue reading MFAN Principal J. Brian Atwood Elected Chair of OECD’s Development Assistance Committee

MFAN Members Respond to the QDDR Preview

By: Staff Person
October 28, 2010

“The overall frame that elevates “civilian power” is positive, but many in the development community will be troubled by the implied fusing of development resources so closely with short-term political interests. While the Secretary asserts that “the State Department and USAID have distinct roles and missions,” her article fails to ensure the leadership space necessary for development expertise and effectiveness to flourish. Instead, Clinton declares that “the two Ds (development and diplomacy) reflect the world as the State Department sees it today and as it envisions it in the future.” What about other development partners? Where do they fit in?”

Clinton Gives Preview of QDDR

By: Staff Person
October 27, 2010

In an article titled “Leading Through Civilian Power—Redefining American Diplomacy and Development” that will be published in the Nov/Dec edition of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lays out the contours of the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), which was launched by the State Department in the summer of 2009 and is set to be finalized and made public by the end of the year.