General Stanley McChrystal’s candid disrespect for civilian leadership is being treated as an issue of bad judgment and personality. But this episode reveals a much deeper dilemma for American statecraft, one that has long roots but has reached near crisis proportions over the past ten years: the gradual erosion of civilian leadership and the militarization of our foreign and security policy.
InterAction is a coalition of U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) advocating greater coherence of U.S. foreign aid and development programs. InterAction has called for development to be elevated as a national priority, emphasizing its significance if our nation seeks greater engagement with the rest of the world.
One partner, Oxfam America has developed an Aid Reform program dedicated to bringing the voices and priorities of people living in poverty to the center of policy and practice. Oxfam believes that improving poverty-focused aid, rather than aid for security or strategic purposes, is the only way to make the U.S. a truly effective provider of foreign aid, by saving lives and helping nearly half of the world’s population to overcome poverty.
St. Louis talked about the lack of political will and misconceptions about foreign aid spending that have slowed progress on commitments. With the G8 and G20 summits in Canada this weekend, the report is a great resource to measure what still needs to be done.
Today, MFAN Partner Save the Children released a brief four-page paper on principles to support country ownership, “Supporting Local Ownership and Building National Capacity: Applying a flexible and country-based approach to aid instruments.”
MFAN Partner Oxfam America co-hosted an auxiliary session yesterday with Management Sciences for Health (MSH) on “Can Country Ownership Work? Field Perspectives on Health Systems Strengthening.”
“Africa is approaching an economic, political, and social tipping point, and smart donor support that leads to the empowerment of ordinary people is needed at this moment of risk and opportunity,” said Githongo, who runs the NGO Inuka Kenya Trust. “Ownership is ni sisi. It is up to us. It is us who own our problems. And it is us who will come up with the solutions.”
Oxfam sees improving information about aid programs as the first step for donor countries, like the U.S., to be supportive and more responsive to country priorities.
“I believe the next 12 to 18 months is a unique point in time. I don’t think the window will last much longer than that. And I think we have to do this in this moment.”
The bigger question is how to craft what the strategy calls a ‘whole of government approach’ that can coordinate planning and policymaking and create ‘a deliberate and inclusive interagency process’ to ‘balance and integrate all elements of American power and update our national security capacity for the 21st century.’
