How Would You Reform US Foreign Aid?

Published October 09, 2009 @ 12:26PM PT

On August 31st, President Obama signed a Presidential Study Directive (PSD) authorizing a whole-of-government review of US development policy. Recently, the PSD team has sent out two questions to various NGO-folk, requesting feedback to help inform the process.

The two questions are:

1. What is the vision / agenda for US development policy for the next 10-15 years? If the agenda of the last decade was increasing resources for social programs, what for the next decade:

2. Where should the USG invest its resources? What is the US niche -- alternative visions? Where can the US be catalytic, have the highest impact? Acknowledging that the US is one player amongst many and cannot solve the world's problems alone, what is the discrete role for the US government? How do we leverage US leadership?

A "whole-of-government approach" seems to imply -- if nothing else -- that the recent trend to align US development policy more closely with broader strategic interests will only continue. And I don't think that's such a bad thing.

Development policy is certainly no island, entire of itself. Whether we like it or not, closer coordination with State and the Department of Defense is probably inevitable. Especially as the current review is being co-chaired by National Security Advisor Jim Jones and Chairman of the National Economic Council Larry Summers.

(Such coordination is actually something of the holy grail of the foreign aid debate, going all the way back to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. This took on new urgency after September 11th, leading to the 2006 launch of the F-Process -- President Bush's efforts to bring USAID undermore direct control of the State Department.)

Of course, expecting any government to be motivated by humanitarian or idealistic concerns alone seems to me at best willfully naive.

All aid is political, whether we like to admit this or not, insofar as it affects the calculation of various actors on the ground, be they recipients, national governments, or insurgents.

Which brings us to the wonderful irony of it all, that one of the great strengths and weaknesses of NGOs is to insist on a neutrality -- or better an ideal of neutrality -- in which almost no one else believes.

[Photo from the US Army's photostream on flickr]

Share this Post

Comments (2)

Our Government is really saying,"which country will give us a return on our investment?"You did notice the countries we've chosen to go to war against, all have the potential to become an economic threat. So, if they won't,"join us," we'll "beat them."

"Aid,"yes in all ways is political, but it's the policy behind it that makes it,"humanitarian,"or "idealistic." I can barely utter the word "aid," when speaking of the situation in the Middle East. I feel that this is more like blackmail. "We're going to destroy your countries, but we'll do our best to feed you and try not to kill your children; all in the name of "democracy." If you oppose democracy, we're still going to destroy your countries, but we won't worry about the food or killing."

Aligning aid, with the Department of Defence is not a good idea. If a countries majority doesn't want our help, then we shouldn't demand they take it! Furthermore, why in the hell are they calling it, "Development Policy?" It is not our job to develop the rest of the world. We have a continent with our name on it,(and it doesn't say,"Afghanistan.") Bush, Obama...all the same liar. I have never been so ashamed of my country.

Posted by L.S. hope on 10/28/2009 @ 08:45PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by L.S.
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
We should stop sending any type of war materials to any country, essentials only, especially to Israel and any country that uses weapons against their neighbors.

Posted by Ina Ayliffe on 11/05/2009 @ 09:03PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Ina
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.

Author

Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.