Oxfam America Releases New Paper on Capacity Building

By: Staff Person
September 10, 2010

See the guest post below from Oxfam America’s Porter McConnell, Policy Advisor of the Aid Effectiveness team, as she discusses Oxfam’s new paper on effective capacity building for development.  Read about Oxfam’s previous paper on Information here, or read the full Ownership report. Want to fight poverty? Help countries build their own capacity. A new … Continue reading Oxfam America Releases New Paper on Capacity Building

Guest Post: Mapping for Results Initiative

By: Staff Person
August 26, 2010

The following is a guest post from AidData researchers Alena Stern and Josh Powell. This post, which first appears on AidData’s First Tranche blog, looks at the Mapping for Results Initiative – a partnership between AidData and the World Bank that explores coordination between donors and recipients of aid. The post specifically analyzes data from Kenya and Mozambique

Secretary Clinton Speaks about GHI at SAIS

By: Staff Person
August 17, 2010

“So therefore, we must be strategic and make evidence-based decisions in targeting the most dangerous threats, to ensure that our investments that, after all, come from the American taxpayer, deliver results. And we must also must stay focused on the long-term picture – not only addressing the urgent needs that people have today but building the foundation for better health tomorrow and for the next generation.”

CGD Defends Untied Aid

By: Staff Person
August 12, 2010

Staats reminds us that tying development assistance to U.S. companies is not only bad development, but it goes against the principle of ownership of aid that has popped up in the Obama Administration’s initiatives like Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative.

MFAN Co-Chair Beckmann: “Rhetorical Rubber Meets the Road” on Aid Reform

By: Staff Person
August 6, 2010

At stake is America’s ability to effectively address the global challenges of the 21st century. And the timing is important. In just two months, the eyes of the world will be on the Millennium Development Goals Summit, where committed nations must pledge new energy and resolve in the fight against global poverty. By showing leadership on foreign assistance reform, President Obama will attach actions to his words on development — and hopefully lead others to commit to more effectively empowering the world’s poorest people to realize a brighter future.

MFAN-GHTC Event Highlights Research and Innovation

By: Staff Person
August 3, 2010

“Even the way we change is changing,” Thomas Kalil, Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), told attendees at the July 28 congressional briefing co-hosted by MFAN and the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC). Nearly 90 individuals from congressional offices, US government agencies, and the development and global health communities participated in a discussion about how research and innovation can be leveraged to advance the nation’s foreign assistance goals.

MFAN Member Responds to President Obama’s MDG Plan

By: Staff Person
July 30, 2010

A plan to fight the MDGs is a great stepping stone in fighting global poverty, but it’s not the whole story. If the US is committed to fighting global poverty, President Obama needs to deliver a global development strategy at the upcoming MDG Summit.

MFAN Co-Chair Ingram’s New Op-Ed Praises Berman’s Draft Legislation

By: Staff Person
July 26, 2010

“This is a major step toward building a 21st-century approach and apparatus for promoting development, which President Obama’s first National Security Strategy (NSS) called a “moral, strategic, and economic imperative” for the U.S. It is also a long overdue step, as U.S. foreign assistance legislation has not been overhauled since President Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.”

New GMF Paper Creates a Model for a Global Development Strategy

By: Staff Person
July 23, 2010

MFAN Partner the German Marshall Fund of the United States this week hosted a discussion on a new paper that offers a model for a U.S. Global Development Strategy. The paper was written by MFAN Principal and GMF Senior Resident Fellow Jim Kunder and MFAN member Jonathan White, senior program officer at GMF. The paper, titled “The Roadmap for a Grand Bargain: Comments on a U.S. Global Development Strategy,” draws from existing foreign assistance approaches and recent support from the Obama Administration and Congress for the notion of formulating the United States’ first-ever global development strategy for the 21st century.

Aid Effectiveness in Afghanistan and Pakistan

By: Staff Person
July 20, 2010

The Kabul Conference highlights several reform principles: ownership, accountability, and effectiveness. Country ownership – though loosely defined – is the cornerstone of the Obama Administration’s new approach to foreign assistance. In Afghanistan, this means reducing corruption in government, transferring capacity, and empowering civil society.