The real game-changer was the U.S. signing up to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) in Busan last November. By joining IATI, the administration has agreed with the global consensus that if aid is to ever truly be effective, it must also be transparent.
The same day the PPD was released, the President, during his speech to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit, hammered home the importance of emphasizing economic growth, calling it “the most powerful force the world has ever known for eradicating poverty and creating opportunity….” As USAID’s response to MFAN displays, it appears that the process of converting the President’s priority into the USAID business model remains a work in progress. Four “Partnership for Growth” countries have been designated; a new economic growth strategy paper has been promised; and the USAID Policy Framework mentions economic growth as the fourth of its seven “Core Development Objectives.” Given PPD-6’s powerful endorsement of economic growth, these steps seem modest at best.
“Increased transparency, particularly on the part of the Obama administration, will go a long way toward ensuring that we come out of this budget round with the resources and momentum it will take to capitalize on progress toward development outcomes and reform.”
USAID’s effort to reduce its reliance on contractors and invest more directly in local government and civil society is referred to as implementation and procurement reform (IPR) and it is part of the broader USAID Forward agenda. Specifically, the agency plans to spend 30 percent of its funds through local actors by 2015 (up from 11 percent in 2011).
This week we’re kicking off a new blog series—the first connected to information on our microsite—that takes a critical eye to the specific agency efforts designed to make our foreign assistance more transparent and effective and attempts to assess the pace of progress in key areas of reform.
The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and the United States Agency for International Development invite you to… Implementation and Procurement Reform: The Liberian Perspective Featuring: Minister Amara Mohamed Konneh, Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Steve Radelet, USAID Chief Economist Introductory remarks by: George Ingram, MFAN Co-Chair Tuesday, April 24th 2:00 – 3:00 pm National … Continue reading MFAN and USAID Co-Host Event on Procurement Reform
The policy’s overarching goals are to shrink the gaping disparities between women and men, reduce violence against women and girls, and increase their capacity of women and girls make their own life decisions and pursue their own potential.
This blog post is part of a continuing series exploring how U.S. agencies are promoting economic growth in their development work. The Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, released in September 2010, set broad-based economic growth as a pillar of sustainable, effective development policy. In the first post, we take a look at USAID’s Development … Continue reading USAID’s Development Credit Authority “Puts Local Wealth to Work”
Last week, USAID Administrator Raj Shah released his second annual letter describing the ways in which the agency has elevated development over the past year, with a nod to USAID’s 50th anniversary. The letter focuses on three areas that have framed the agency’s work including seizing pivotal opportunities, embracing challenging roles, and building capacity, not independence.
Yesterday, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah delivered a major speech before the Council on Foreign Relations on how the administration is elevating development and transforming foreign assistance. Shah framed the speech by saying the decision by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to elevate development was not a “show of gratitude…It was a challenge.” To accept the challenge, and embrace the new world order, Shah said USAID changed its approach in three key ways: focusing on delivering value for money by making critical tradeoffs and shutting down missions and programs; prioritizing innovation through the Grand Challenges for Development; and instituting a new model for partnership that relies more heavily on “local entrepreneurs, civil society organizations and partner country governments.”
