Strength through Development

By: Staff Person
May 29, 2014

See below for a guest post from MFAN Executive Committee Member and Accountability Working Group Co-Chair Diana Ohlbaum. *** In his graduation speech at West Point on Wednesday, President Obama laid out a national security doctrine based on partnership, multilateralism, international law, diplomacy and development.  Explaining how democracy, free markets, and respect for human rights … Continue reading Strength through Development

At Global Forum, Feed the Future Reflects on Progress after Four Years

By: Staff Person
May 22, 2014

This week USAID hosted the first-ever Feed the Future Global Forum, a 3-day event bringing together stakeholders and partners from around the world to discuss progress made and challenges faced in the fight to end global poverty and hunger. To coincide with the kickoff of the forum, USAID released the 2014 Feed the Future Progress Report on Monday, which looks at what the initiative has achieved in the four years since it was launched.

A Framework for the Future – putting an end to extreme poverty for good

By: Staff Person
April 29, 2014

See below for a guest post from MFAN partner Save the Children. *** 2015 could be a momentous year in human history. It could be the year that governments across the world put a deadline on their longstanding commitment to end extreme poverty, agreeing on a new global development framework to ensure that no child … Continue reading A Framework for the Future – putting an end to extreme poverty for good

Local Voices and Resources Are the Ultimate Answer in the Fight Against Poverty

By: Staff Person
April 18, 2014

See below for a guest post from Carolyn Miles, President and CEO of Save the Children and MFAN Co-Chair. *** This week, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) released a policy paper – The Way Forward: A Reform Agenda for 2014 and Beyond – urging the U.S. Government to work more closely than ever before … Continue reading Local Voices and Resources Are the Ultimate Answer in the Fight Against Poverty

Charting A Way Forward on U.S. Development Policy

By: Staff Person
April 16, 2014

These next two years are an important window of opportunity for U.S. aid reform. The midterm elections in 2014 are certain to shake up the membership of Congress. In 2015, the Millennium Development Goals will expire and a new global development agenda will take its place. And 2016 will bring a new administration and further changes in Congress. We urge the Administration and Congress to work together to institutionalize the important reforms that have already been introduced and continue to push forward on strengthening country ownership and accountability.

5 things the US government is doing to make foreign assistance more effective

By: Staff Person
April 2, 2014

President Barack Obama issued the US government’s first ever US Global Development Policy in September 2010. The policy clarifies that the primary purpose of US development aid is to pursue broad-based economic growth as the means to fight global poverty. The US Global Development Policy also offers a clear mandate for country ownership—that is, leadership by citizens and responsible governments in poor countries—is how the US government will support development. The US has been moving in this direction since the George W. Bush administration.

Something Rotten in the State of Denmark

By: Staff Person
January 14, 2014

Just how inefficient is the U.S. system, which was created decades ago to help find a way to dispose of government-held stocks of agricultural commodities? More than half of every dollar spent on U.S. food programs currently goes to shipping and transportation costs, rather than to lifesaving food, which means that a great deal of that money is ending up in coffers of companies like Maersk.

Open the books on foreign aid

By: Staff Person
November 19, 2013

“Civil society in recipient countries must fight for accountability and transparency of poverty reducing aid in their respective countries, but we can’t do that without timely and comprehensive data on where U.S. aid dollars are going in their country.”