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Last week Sarah Margon, MFAN partner and associate director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative at the Center for American Progress (CAP), published a report titled “Unintended Roadblocks: How U.S. Terrorism Restrictions make it harder to Save Lives.” The report found that over the past decade the work of a number of foreign aid groups has been restricted by U.S. counterterrorism processes. Margon argues these humanitarian groups are in no way trying to support terrorism, but with the ambiguously defined laws they are subjected to under U.S. regulations, it makes it extremely difficult to provide assistance to areas such as Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This week, five former Secretaries of State, representing both Democrats and Republican administrations, sent a letter to Congress raising concerns about additional cuts to diplomacy and development programs in the FY12 appropriations. Former Secretaries Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz wrote they “have seen first‐hand how the International Affairs Budget is a strategic investment to advance America’s interests throughout the world” and urge members of Congress to oppose devastating cuts to these vital programs.

MFAN Partner Publish What You Fund, an organization focused on tracking transparency in foreign aid, released the 2011 Aid Transparency Index today. The report – the first of its kind – evaluates the transparency of 58 donor countries and international organizations, showing that donors of international aid are not publishing enough information on the money they give towards development. Publish What You Fund believes that this lack of transparency undermines the effectiveness of development spending and ultimately damages public trust.