USAID Administrator Should be Given Seat on NSC

By: Staff Person
February 5, 2013

Because we are living in times that require a fully integrated national security approach, the USAID administrator should become the president’s principal advisor for development and assistance (akin to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff role and associated linkage to the secretary of defense, but concomitant to the secretary of state) and a permanent member on the National Security Council.

Public, Private, and Civil Society Partnerships in Action

By: Staff Person
January 14, 2013

The alliance between USAID, Save the Children, and GMCR is intended to maximize the use of resources and help identify new solutions to challenges affecting these communities. Sometimes the alliance organizations face challenges of their own—coordinating work plans, reporting on technical outcomes, and carrying out their separate missions.

MFAN Statement: Dr. Eric Goosby’s Appointment as Global Health Ambassador

By: Staff Person
December 18, 2012

We are concerned, however, that the continued consolidation of power over health and development programs in the State Department threatens to undermine our overall efforts to achieve greater impact in alleviating poverty, eradicating disease, and fostering inclusive economic growth. MFAN’s position has been, and remains, that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) should be the lead agency on global health policy and implementation in the field when the programs being implemented have a significant development impact.

Community Supports Introduction of the Global Partnerships Act of 2012

By: Staff Person
December 13, 2012

Moreover, the GPA is essential to codifying the foreign assistance reforms already underway within the U.S. government and seeks to ensure a continued effort in making foreign assistance more effective. The bill mandates: transparency and evaluation to learn from mistakes and inform future programs; better coordination within our own government, with the private sector, and with other donors to make programs more efficient; and long term-strategic planning to focus resources where they are most needed.

Building resilience in the Horn of Africa

By: Staff Person
December 3, 2012

Today USAID will unveil a new resilience strategy to support chronically risk-prone communities in between, before and after the repeat cycles of disaster. Furthermore, the agency will begin to broadly apply instruments, such as the “crisis modifier”, to quicken the pace of disaster response in the Horn of Africa and in other regions.

USAID’s New Youth Policy Is Timely and Urgent: Here’s Why

By: Staff Person
November 5, 2012

In a piece in The Huffington Post, Bill Reese, MFAN Principal and CEO of the International Youth Foundation, applauds USAID’s new youth policy, Policy on Youth in Development. Reese highlights the policy’s efforts to elevate youth as partners and not just beneficiaries in their communities’ development process. Reese writes:  “I frequently advocate that ensuring young … Continue reading USAID’s New Youth Policy Is Timely and Urgent: Here’s Why

We ask too much of the military

By: Staff Person
November 1, 2012

“We have a foreign assistance force; it is called the U.S. Agency for International Development, which operates with the assistance of the State Department. But over the past ten years or so, we have larded up our military with missions that USAID and State should be doing — development, governance support, social support, training for ministries, public diplomacy.”