The Brookings Institution and Publish What You Fund today hosted a discussion focused on what the U.S. government is doing to pursue greater transparency and its role in shaping international aid transparency standards.
In a new policy brief called “Consultation & Participation for Local Ownership: What? Why? How?,” MFAN Partner Save the Children examines how to make the Obama Administration’s emphasis on “country ownership” a successful model for stakeholder participation in development programs.
In a new report called “U.S. Foreign Aid Reform Meets the New Congress,” MFAN Principal and Executive Director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative at the Center for American Progress John Norris explores how foreign assistance reform can succeed in the new-look 112th Congress.
However, supporters of a foreign aid overhaul in the development community remain hopeful that with the completion of the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review in the coming weeks, the administration will step up its engagement with Capitol Hill.
The different gaps in USAID’s leadership have different consequences for the Agency’s clout in Washington and for offices in the field. Within our own conversations, we’ve heard reasons for why certain AA positions are more critical to fill than others; the health community, for example, has a valid point when it says that the missing AA for Global Health means that the Agency lacks the ability to coordinate strategy with the President’s new Global Health Initiative. But does that make it the most important AA position to fill? Or should the priority be on a particular regional bureau, on Legislative and Public Affairs or on something else?
“For the emerging economies, development is about more than just aid. It’s a package of policies connected to trade, finance, and investment – not charity. China, Brazil, and India view development through the lens of partnerships (South-South cooperation) and investment opportunities. These perspectives are shaping the G20 agenda. The current communiqué draft states that the level of aid is important, but economic growth is the primary driver of poverty reduction. The G20 “Seoul consensus for shared growth” agreement under consideration consists of a broad set of pillars: infrastructure, private investment, financial inclusion, social protection, good governance, and food security.”
“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.”
“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.”
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.
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.
