Pressroom & Posts

Each year, the Department of Defense (DoD) spends roughly $9 billion in taxpayer funds on engagements with foreign countries, much of it in the form of efforts to build the capacity of their militaries to provide effective, accountable security to their citizens.  These efforts – collectively called security cooperation – are not altruistic; rather, they … Continue reading Pentagon unveils major policy to evaluate security cooperation programs

As 2016 comes to a close, the Obama Administration enters its final days, and Congress prepares for a new session, we are taking some time to reflect on all that we as a network have accomplished this year to move the needle on U.S. aid reform. Thanks to the continued energy and support of the MFAN … Continue reading Year in Review: A Look Back at Aid Reform in 2016

With the votes counted and the election results now in, MFAN is looking toward the next administration and Congress for opportunities to enhance U.S. development cooperation in 2017 and beyond. Recently, MFAN called for the continuation of strong, bipartisan support for robust and effective foreign assistance and outlined practical recommendations for how the next president … Continue reading Blog Series to Highlight MFAN’s Aid Effectiveness Recommendations for the New President and Congress

In a town that thrives on sound bites and photo ops, it’s rare to find an accomplishment that goes unheralded by its authors. Yet last month, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) quietly released a major overhaul of its operational guidelines with little more than a tweet. Known as the Automated Directives System (ADS), … Continue reading From Policy to Practice: Institutionalizing Evaluations at USAID

Download a formatted version of the letter here. *** October 21, 2016 Mary Beth Goodman Senior Director for Development & Democracy National Security Council White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear Ms. Goodman: On behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), we are writing to thank you for the recent public announcement of the U.S. baseline … Continue reading Thank You Letter to White House on the Addis Tax Initiative Baseline

Over the past decade aid transparency has moved from being a little-known concept to the norm. The value of making timely and accurate aid data publicly available is now widely accepted as essential to good decision-making. Good data is the foundation of rigorous monitoring and real-time feedback, and is at the heart of transparency and … Continue reading U.S. aid transparency: Looking back but pressing forward

In a return to best practices, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s new policy and strategy guidance (ADS) tells the Missions to operationalize sustainability through local ownership in all parts of the program cycle. This is great news for many USAID career staff whose experience has shown that development programs cannot be effectively … Continue reading Sustainability Through Local Ownership: Coming Soon to More USAID Missions