Nevertheless, the tool is only as useful as the information it stores, and currently, it stores very little. Sure it includes both State and USAID foreign assistance request and appropriations data, but this information was made available at the original release of the Dashboard nearly a year ago, and both agencies have yet to publish data for obligations and spent resources.
These manmade problems are multiple. Some relate to the traditional challenges of reducing poverty and building sustainable solutions. Some also relate to how we do development assistance. Certainly, President Kennedy’s words resonated with me as I moved on from USAID’s inspirational video and from my personal celebration of USAID’s anniversary to read some harder edged reporting on the state of U.S. foreign assistance – and the manmade problems that it faces.
Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched USAID FWD Day – a massive push to spread awareness and ensure the Horn of Africa tragedy no longer goes overlooked. There are currently 13.3 million in crisis suffering from the worst drought in 60 years, the worst famine in 20, and non-stop violence.
As the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) celebrates its 50th anniversary this Thursday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted a panel last week featuring a host of USAID administrators discussing past achievements, present challenges, and future hopes for U.S. foreign assistance. The panel included Peter McPherson, USAID administrator from 1981-1987; … Continue reading Former and Current Administrators Celebrate USAID’s 50th Anniversary at CSIS
Today, on the 50th anniversary of the creation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), we celebrate the work done by thousands of committed and selfless public servants – both U.S. citizens and foreign service nationals – in helping to alleviate poverty, fight diseases, and create economic opportunity for struggling people in the world’s poorest countries. These efforts, which have resulted in tens of millions of lives saved or improved, have been as important to our security and prosperity over the last five decades as any defense or diplomatic program.
Nandini Oomman, the Center for Global Development’s director of the HIV/AIDS monitor, co-wrote a blog piece with Rachel Silverman raising several important questions about the Global Health Initiative (GHI). The State Department-led Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) – which next month will be one year into its implementation – stipulates that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) assume leadership of GHI in September 2012, contingent upon fulfilling a set of 10 benchmarks. But what the QDDR does not make clear is exactly what leadership of GHI means.
Yesterday, the U.S. Agency for International Development, in partnership with the Ad Council, launched a national public awareness campaign to help spread the word about the current crisis in the Horn of Africa.
See below for a guest post from MFAN Principal Noam Unger, fellow and director of the Foreign Assistance Project, and Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Global Economy and Development, Development Assistance and Governance Initiative, both of Brookings Institution. They react to Secretary Clinton’s announcement that she would be attending the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Korea and what it signals for U.S. leadership in development. This post originally appeared on the Brookings Up Front blog.
MFAN Principal Noam Unger’s recent paper for the Brookings Institution, “The Shape of U.S. Global Development Reforms,” offers a number of recommendations to the Obama administration on the eve of the first anniversary of the President’s global development policy, also known as the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development (PPD).
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Administrator Don Steinberg spoke at MFAN partner InterAction’s Forum 2011 yesterday, offering insight into the “new development landscape.” He assessed the OECD Development Assistance Committee’s recent review of U.S. development efforts, highlighting some of their recommendations: “We’ve moved forward on aid effectiveness principles, including accountability, transparency and sustainability … Continue reading Deputy Administrator Steinberg Addresses Reform at InterAction Forum
