MFAN Partner the Center for Global Development (CGD) reported last week on two USAID nominees who were confirmed by the Senate. Mark Feierstein is the new assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean and Nisha Desai Biswal is the new assistant administrator for Asia. Two more assistant administrator nominees are set to have confirmation … Continue reading CGD: USAID Staff Tracker Update
Yesterday, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released three papers offering policy recommendations for the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) team as the State Department and other agencies gear up to rollout the findings. The first paper in the series, “Planning Diplomacy and Development: Force Planning Applications for the State Department,” looks … Continue reading CNAS Releases Three Papers on QDDR
On August 13th, nearly 500 people gathered at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, WA to hear USAID Administrator Shah discuss the role of technology and innovation in development with a panel of leaders from the local development community. In Administrator Shah’s opening remarks he emphasized USAID’s commitment to evidence-based development strategies and the need for … Continue reading USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah Speaks at a Global Washington Event
Last week, we gave a recap of our recent event with the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) on leveraging innovative research for development. Now, GHTC has posted a series of clips from the event on their YouTube channel. See below for MFAN Principal and President and CEO of the Global Health Council Jeff Sturchio’s opening … Continue reading Watch Highlights from the MFAN-GHTC Event
“USAID cannot be the premier development agency everyone envisions without appointed and confirmed leaders at the helm of its regional and functional bureaus. Nor can it elevate development across the U.S. government — as Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have called for — without a full cadre of assistant administrators to inform major development policy reviews taking place right now and congressional efforts to rewrite foreign assistance
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.
With the deadline fast approaching, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) is happy to report that over 130 organizations and individuals have endorsed the Open Letter to the President on the U.S. Commitment to Global Development. We look forward to sharing the Open Letter with the community in the coming days. Just to name a few … Continue reading 130+ Businesses, NGOs, Think Tanks, and Individuals Sign MFAN’s Open Letter
“More concerning is that State and USAID have had little interaction to date with staff writing the new bill. This doesn’t bode well for striking a grand bargain between the administration and Congress on either a new development direction (which will likely require some legislation) or passing a new global partnership act (which will require support from the administration, including State and USAID).”
“Absent direct, personal intervention by President Obama to define his own vision of aid reform and to take the actions needed to enforce the reforms, the stalemate will continue, and plans to strengthen the third D will suffer.”
Congress is driving the reassessment of development policy already under way with a series of legislative initiatives from Berman and the two leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Chairman John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and top Republican Richard G. Lugar of Indiana. But before progressing further, these lawmakers and development officials are waiting for the White House to deliver its vision for development…
