Once given these facts, people quickly moved from being skeptical to supportive and even glad to hear that their tax dollars were helping to bring about such positive change.
President Banda went on to describe her own compelling personal story of the vital link between education for girls and economic empowerment for women, against a backdrop of violence against women. “I had three children, in an abusive marriage. And then finally I said, no. I have to walk out. For the sake of my children… So for me when I talk about the importance of economic empowerment of women, it’s because I tried it.”
Just before the holidays, the White House announced nominations for nine of the twelve seats on the President’s Global Development Council. As you recall, the Council—established by executive order last February—was originally called for in the 2010 Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development (PPD-6).
Moreover, the GPA is essential to codifying the foreign assistance reforms already underway within the U.S. government and seeks to ensure a continued effort in making foreign assistance more effective. The bill mandates: transparency and evaluation to learn from mistakes and inform future programs; better coordination within our own government, with the private sector, and with other donors to make programs more efficient; and long term-strategic planning to focus resources where they are most needed.
For more information about each event and to RSVP, click on the links below.
The introduction of the Global Partnerships Act provides an opportunity for Members of Congress, including new Members, to work together in a bipartisan fashion to strengthen accountability and effectiveness in U.S. development programs. As the 113th Congress approaches, we encourage policymakers to consider this comprehensive, long-overdue proposal that would bring our foreign assistance into the 21st century and allow us to more effectively address new and pending global challenges.
For more information about each event and to RSVP, click on the links below.
The ongoing efforts of the UN Development Program (UNDP) to enhance the transparency of its global operations took a major step forward last week with the launch of a new online portal—www.open.undp.org. The portal enables the public to track comprehensive data on more than 6,000 projects budgeted through 2011 in 177 countries and territories worldwide, along with more than 8,000 outputs or results.
Today USAID will unveil a new resilience strategy to support chronically risk-prone communities in between, before and after the repeat cycles of disaster. Furthermore, the agency will begin to broadly apply instruments, such as the “crisis modifier”, to quicken the pace of disaster response in the Horn of Africa and in other regions.
For more information about each event and to RSVP, click on the links below.
